JOB sharing may become more common in workshops in order to facilitate longer opening hours, especially thein franchised workshops open seven days, according to a specialist recruitment firm.

Job Co-operative says that one of the key complaints that it hears from people who already work within the industry and are looking for new jobs is that they are being forced into working long and unsocial hours.

Brenda Webb, operations director, said: "Dealerships have had no choice but to follow the trend towards longer opening hours seen in other retail and service environments. Seven day sales opening is now expected and there are also moves in some franchises towards extending workshop hours further into evenings and weekends."

She added that HR managers should structure their rotas so that the same staff don't always get the worst hours: "Certainly, almost every day we come across dealerships that are losing good staff that they want to retain because people are fed up of the hours they are being asked to work. We are seeing more and more dealership staff with skills that can be transferred to other sectors, particularly sales people, attempting to switch into industries that offer more sociable working hours" she concluded.