MotorOne Autobody
MotorOne is establishing itself across the Eastern Seaboard and has created its own culture.
MotorOne Autobody nominated its Knox site in Victoria as an example of its working practices and ethos. We got the grand tour from the CEO himself, Nick Gillies, who started off talking about the great work his team does – and it’s a big team now with over 600 people. Nick told us that MotorOne has been working on improving processes and ensuring they were uniform at the 20 or so sites in the network.
It’s an impressive site, very simply laid out. The customer areas are modelled on Qantas lounges and have a bright, uncluttered Scandinavian feel. “It’s all about customers feeling safe and comfortable and not feeling like they are in a traditional collision repair facility,” he said.
In the business end there’s a long production room which looks out into the workshop where the estimators, parts and production staff work so they can all work together.
There’s a large car park and the spacious, well-lit workshop has 360 degree access. The prep bays and two drive-through Lowbakes are in the centre of the shop and the workflow is well planned out.
MotorOne aims to be strategically located in all major cities and regional towns and prioritises a diversity of insurers at all sites.
Gillies says they are continually looking ahead to ensure the business is keeping up with the latest trends and standards in repair. This extends to best-in-class cybersecurity and systems, recruitment of international staff from the UK and other countries, development of internship and apprenticeships programs and focusing on ESG and initiatives around reducing its footprint for a sustainable future.
“All of this is to ensure we keep our staff safe, engaged and delivering the best outcomes for our customers,” Nick said.
The whole business is focused with communication and working together as a team. At a site level, all leaders of the different departments cooperate each day to plan the workflow of the site. All staff are involved in planning and decisions which gives them ownership of their day and the site’s flow.
“We prioritise safety in our workplace and hold regular toolbox meetings to discuss risk, and what we can do to help each other remain safe.”
Gillies says customer satisfaction is the centre of everything they do. “Going that extra mile for a customer is what we live for at MotorOne and quality is the key to ensuring a great customer experience as well as prompt and clear communication. Key to key is a metric we value as well as satisfaction of our customers. Not all insurers prioritise sustainability of repairers from a profitability perspective, hence we don’t work with all insurers, only partnering with those who value our partnership.”
MotorOne offers a full employee assistance program which includes counselling, assistance with mental health, stress, anxiety, depression, parenting, relationships and workplace issues as well as financial, legal and nutritional counselling.