Not a place to work for mature educated goal driven individuals
Job was fantastic until center manager changed.
Young know-it all with a habit to be untruthful to regional management
for personal gain.
Under the new management both regional and center level, felt used to train others, promised opportunity to advance not followed through, under-utilized, disrepected as an older person and an experienced, educated female by center manager.
Prior to the Center manager change, I was soaring towards the goals set under previous manager & the new regional manager.
I trully had pride in my job, going over and beyond every single day for my team/customers. Caliber was my second home.
It all began to change the last 2 weeks of my employment.
The maturity level of certain teammates who joined or transfered to the shop wasn't the greatest in the end, dealing with drama of who slept with who and who is stoned or drunk on the job was the weekly gossip.
The satisfaction and pride once felt began to become a distant feeling.
Manager was constantly demanding I was to step away from core values, asking to deliver vehicles to customers not paid was made clear the day he arrived. His way of doing things interupted the flow of the shops perfect or near AR I maintained under the previous manager as well as many other tasks. Clearly, change is always expected when there is a change in management however after a week it was clear we are expected to step away from the mission of Caliber for the numbers.
It wasn't a team any
Proswith the right managment it is a pleasant rewarding place to work
Consmanagers not being held accountable and no internal review offered when wrongfully terminated
Greedy, unappreciative, overachieving, lying, manipulative management with terribly expensive benefits
This is an auto body and paint company that is run mostly by people who have not put in a single days work at being an autobody technician or painter so they could not possibly appreciate or understand the hard work and dedication that is given by its blue collar employees. As a commission paid employee with this company I can tell you that it is the finest example of corporate greed mixed with a slave owner mentality.It matters no more if you have been with this company 8 years or 1 year. The only thing that matters here at Caliber Collision is making the company the most money as possible each and every week. The fact that they say there pupose is to "restore the rythem of your life" is complete and total garbage,they will lie and maipulate each and every customer about the stage and process of their vehicle and purposely leave out details of the proceess and lie until the end to cover their butts.They say the vision of the company is"to improve the vision of the collision industry" ,but they are doing this by manipulating its customers and insurance clients.Calibers mission is "to be the collision repair provider of choice in every community" which is done by buying up every repair facility that has any kind of reputation in every communtiy,and manipulating every insurance provider from around the country.
A company that does not value or appreciate the lower level and commission employees who has absolutely no care for the boots on the ground workhorse employees wh
1) Manage staff of 24: Service advisors, Technicians, Body Men, Painters, Detailers, Shop Helpers.
2) Accounts payable of 44 monthly Accounts and reports associated with.
3) Accounts receivable over 275 different transactions a month, which related to Insurance companies, Dealerships , Customer Pays and reports associated with.
4) Weekly CSI Surveys Calls
5) Calls to clientele to set appointments for estimates and auto body repair.
6) Customer Service: Checking in and Checking out of Clientele.
7) Responsible for all Communications with government agencies; Fire Marshall, and EPA Regulators.
8) Conducted weekly staff safety meetings.
9) Responsible for Safety equipment: Eye wash sinks, Fire extinguishers, Fire exist, 3m Respirators, Safety goggles and gloves .10) Office Supplies
11) Alarm system through Protection One: Staff Codes and keys.
12) Over Head Repair Order entering into CCC1 System..
13) Load Level Repair Order entering into CCC1 System.
14) Gas Meter Monitoring for EPA: Parts Per Million put into the atmosphere.
15) Daily reconciliation of Amegy Company Visa P-card.
16) Daily payroll time keeping and reporting for all staff: Hourly, Commission and Salaried employees
17) Roll out of Workday Program for staff.
18) Daily Computer Programs Used: CCC1, C.A.R.E (CRM), Excel, Word.
19) Daily communications with Regional's and VP's regarding reports and meetings.
20) Filing of Closed Repair orders , other certificates and financials.
21) Monitoring
Starting out as an Entry Level D.R.T, first couple months were great, pay was decent, Everyone I worked with in the shop (Other Body Techs) (Mostly everyone) Were very friendly, knowledgeable, always willing to help out, given you are respectful to others in the same manner, there is a lot to learn and it takes years and financial sacrifice (If you have the time and space fiscally to do it), Management seemed motivated, professional, ensuring and promising work, health benefits are one of the best perks working in this type of business, that is where the good ends and the other side begins.
If anyone reading this, must have interest or knows how this business works or has a general idea, to wrap it up, particular location I work for, poorly managed, poor communication, insurance claims and labor hours need to have more incentive for the Tech involved, the work and money is obviously favorable to the techs with more experience, the parts department, which was poorly organized, whom working directly with the Insurance Advisors/Estimators, favor the most cost-effective repair, (aftermarket parts) in my experiences with this in mind, created unrealistic expectations in all aspects, (quality of repair, time of delivery)
I was working, however feeling like a drone, hoping for work, and if I wasn't working hard enough, or not fast enough, work was given away to other techs, effortlessly by the Estimators/Advisors, Hardest thing about the job, after experiencing all that, was t
ProsHealth benefits, always someone with great knowledge to help out/ to learn from
ConsUnrealistic expectations from management, poor communication, pay compensation
The company has gotten to large in my opinion. Center level employees are so overwhelmingly and unknowingly controlled by upper management - regionals managers and up.
The payscale is in my opinion unlawful. As a service advisor unless you turn more than $20,000 weekly profit in sales, your 4.5% commission just gets you to a break even point. If you don’t manage that 20k+ you then are in a “deficit” and the following week you have to pay back your “guaranteed draw salary $40,000” — basically 40k/52wks=$769 paycheck before taxes. (This is the amount caliber agrees to essentially loan you each week- you pay it back the following if you’re able too exceed that $20k mark or it turns into -$769 + another -$769, and you’re screwed if you have another “draw” check because then you owe caliber $2,300; before you can make any commission and it just goes on and on like that.)
If you don’t have and stay on great terms with the regional manager whom regulates how many vehicles you can take in a scheduled week, you’ll have a hard time making the $20k in sales to stay afloat and not basically be indebted to the company.
Seriously you’re paying Caliber to work 7am-6pm and at least one Saturday 8am-12pm if not more.
Yes the company offers good benefits, but the ability to utilize them for me anyways is a challenge. If you’re out for a doctors visit or dentist appointment for say half a day could resolute in the inability to purchase groceries the following week. Because simpl
ProsKeeps you on your toes, mentally exhausted but alert.
ConsYou can forget about job security, to my knowledge center level employees are “At-Will”
good place to work but high paced, stressful and no upper mobility
Most shops are open from 7 to 6pm. As a service Advisor, specially if you wan to do a good job, yo show up earlier than than and stay much later than 6pm. There is constant push for sales at the end of the month and you are looked down upon if you dont meet your sale goals. Those goals are based on the number of repair vehicles and their sales, but if you are not given a good account (Insurance carrier) to work with and there are not enough customers coming into the shop, how is that your fault. Once a customer walks thru the door is your responsibility to win them over, do an excellent job in monitoring the repairs, communicating with customers and delivering quality repairs, but they still have to walk thru that door. You dont set up your appointment, there is a department that handles that, but yet if you are not the lucky adviser that handles a high yield insurance account, you are constantly struggling to make numbers at the end of the month.
Work environment overall is good, fun and makes it less stressful. If you are lucky to have good coworkers, you dont mind spending most of your waking hours in a place like this. Management tried to have a good working place by paying for outings or paying for lunches, etc. but there is very little camaraderie.
Your hear horror stories about locations where managers were caught doing inappropriate or even illegal things, and I am not talking about hearsay, I am talking about multiple people accusing managers of doing
ProsBenefits, atmosphere, co workers
Consnot able to move up the ladder or find of openings until too late
Caliber only focuses on catering to the insurance company
Caliber has a core value of doing the right thing, but what they really mean is doing right by the insurance company and the insurance company only. Certain customers receive priority based on what insurance carrier they have; so don't get unlucky and have the wrong insurance company on your vehicles! Management will allow a vehicle to drop off and sit outside for weeks without touching it because vehicles that come in after receive top priority based on insurance. When its time to update customers, management pressures front staff to lie and make up excuses why their repairs are delayed which is unethical and wrong.
The body techs painters and detailers are expected to work long hours and weekends to produce numbers for the monthly sale goal so management across the board gets a bonus check from caliber.
Technicians are often forced to perform labor for free because caliber caters exclusively to the insurance company and bends to their will every time, often resulting in estimates being written for much less than what the car needs to be repaired safely and to pre accident condition.
Caliber loves to reinforce the idea that workers are a big "family" which is corporate slang for "we will abuse you daily weekly monthly and yearly while you're employed here"
The benefits packages are all terrible and result in high weekly deductions from pay and high costs at the doctor/dentist/optician.
Day in and day out caliber makes it clear that they're goals are to bow down to whatever
ProsPizza on your birthday
ConsNo breaks, awful benefits, poor management, unethical business practices, zero work home life balance
No job stability with poor upper management leadership
Caliber offers great Benefits, salary, bonus incentives & corporate training. However, the company needs better leadership training with Directors and above. Their business model is also one of the worst in the industry in that they buy out independent body shops and promise a person an upper level managent position as part of their contract. In the meantime they also have their recruiting department hiring outside candidates. Eventually they have more employees than positions available. You will be hired for a location but then they may offer another person the job you have so they will make an excuse to transfer you to another location that sometimes can be near where you were hired or far away. Then they will decide if they want to keep you and if not they will make you miserable so you leave or find a way to let you go is what I have seen happen to many people. It’s a shame that a corporate company this size can get away with this type of practice. I would be very careful in taking a management job. Especially if you are leaving a place to be offered something that has no job stability. A lot of promises are also made but not fulfilled. The leadership is hit or miss with hands on experience to provide you with the training you but their corporate training is great. The turn over rate is quite high as well. They don’t give you a chance to turn a facility around that was not doing good or give you some of the tools needed. They will also keep people that may not be t
This company is ran like a good 'ole' Caliber boy network. If you don't cow down to them, if you don't dance around with them, if you don't preach what they are preaching but not performing themselves, well, before long Adios good ole boy...Walk the Line and you will be fine, sell out and you will go far...be an individual and well look for a job....
The company bows down to insurers and their metric's/KPI's that have to be achieved, because if they don't they/managers are threatened with loss of accounts/volume of vehicles...God forbid anyone making 6 figures or more a year would lose "their" positions, because insurance KPI's weren't met or achieved...but it is okay for a center manager, Service advisors or worse yet technicians whom are mostly old and overworked to be at risk...
They are only concerned in the insurers staying happy...short on estimates, conceding in some instances on repairer methodologies and pushing each employee to the brink of sometimes a 70 hour week or more.
Upper management does not train, stay involved, or even show interest until their is a problem and then magically here comes the Pidgeon Management techniques in action...fly in *hit on everything a little more, (take no responsibility) and then fly back out until the next storm hits...
They do not practice (Culture) of Restoring people to the rhythm of their lives. They push the "volunteer" things on each property, they don't respond in timely manners to their employees concerns. I w
ProsNon-management employees, CSR, painters, Body Techs, etc
ConsUpper Management, company cultures, lack of training and responsibilities accepted
Management puts up a false sense of concern for the employees. It's all about numbers. Never seen any effort to better the shop for repairs and safety. It was all about making money for the company and bragging rights through out the company. If you need to take a few days there's no backup plan in your absence. So it is catch up when you get back. If you have experience in the past related to your position of employment don't plan on using it, Caliber will say how they want it done but really don't ask for your input and the sad thing is the employees are not the first priority, lack of professional management shows when the moral is always low but the front office thinks all is good because of the big numbers at the end of the month. If management put as much effort towards the employees than they do trying to hide their lack of leadership within the shop they would be better off. I feel that there has been many of days management could had done better for the work environment. There are shop managers out there that just are in the position by default but really don't receive the proper training to manage but just to make money. As a retired veteran (22+ years) and former government employee I expected much more and would honestly say there are some Caliber Shops need a lot of training on the true meaning of TEAM WORK . The bottom line is I was very disappointed! The really good employees that work hard month in and out should be recognized better than what they do
ProsNone worth mentioning
ConsFar to many to list
Questions And Answers about Caliber Collision
If you were in charge, what would you do to make Caliber Collision a better place to work?
Asked May 28, 2017
Hire a lot of new people
Answered Oct 30, 2020
Treat every single employee with dignity and a fare pay check
Answered Oct 20, 2020
What is the work environment and culture like at Caliber Collision?
Asked Jul 21, 2016
Caliber’s highest purpose is Restoring the Rhythm of Your Life. It is how we deliver a unique, quality automotive experience for our customers in every community we serve.
It is also how we attract the best talent in the industry. We retain our teammates because we are driven to inspire every teammate to reach their full potential through personal and professional development. As a work family, our cultural foundation is our core values: We Do the Right Thing, We Are Inspired to Serve, We Are Courageous, We Are Proud and We Have Fun.
If you are looking for a career with leaders committed to creating exceptional experiences and for a culture where you are encouraged and supported to achieve your personal and professional goals, then consider joining our family and apply today.
Answered Jan 13, 2021
Picture yourself in a high school with every student thinking they know everything but are actually clueless. That’s what it’s like at Caliber
Answered Sep 17, 2019
What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at Caliber Collision?
Asked Jul 27, 2016
Been honest telling them what are your real skills
Answered Mar 6, 2020
Look for another collision center to work for.
Answered Dec 25, 2019
How are the working hours at Caliber Collision?
Asked Jul 21, 2016
Hours vary based on the Caliber location, however, centers are typically open M-F 7:30am – 5:30pm and closed Sat & Sun.
Answered Jan 5, 2021
Depends on the shop , some shops 40 or less others 50+
Answered Apr 24, 2019
What is the most stressful part about working at Caliber Collision?
Asked May 28, 2017
The month end.
Answered Jun 28, 2021
Overwhelmed paperwork and drivers delivering parts at the same time
