Strategies to Reduce Turnover at Your Dealership

Strategies to Reduce

BUILD A BLUEPRINT | PROMOTE YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND | ONBOARD FOR THE LONG HAUL

MAKE ORIENTATION MATTER | TRAIN & INVEST IN THE FUTURE

Turnover at Your Dealership

CONTENTS

03INTRODUCTION

Take a look at a snapshot of how the

turnover crisis is impacting the auto

industry.

06BUILD A BLUEPRINT

Discover the "soft skills" recruiters

should look for based on research by two

Havard's Business Review authors.

10PROMOTE YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND

Establish your company as an employer of

choice to your target prospects.

12AUTOMATE EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING

Set employees on the road to success

from day one with a streamlined

onboarding process.

14MAKE ORIENTATION MATTER

Establish your company as an employer of

choice to your target prospects.

15TRAIN & INVEST IN THE FUTURE

Build the foundation for a career vs. a job.

Give employees a place to grow.

Simply put - bad hires are affecting everything from the customer experience to the bottom line for

today’s auto dealers. And the question the industry finds itself grappling with repeatedly is why?

Despite dealers paying employees nearly 8 percent more and upping head count an average of 4.3

percent, the turnover within the auto industry continues to accelerate at alarming rates.

Employee turnover is a multi-billion dollars a year

problem for the auto industry

3 | S T R A T E G I E S T O R E D U C E T U R N O V E R A T Y O U R D E A L E R S H I P • A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D • © N E T C H E X 2 0 1 7

INTRODUCTION

In large part, the problem with dealership turnover

comes down to hiring practices. Most dealerships lack

the time to develop a proper hiring strategy and often

find themselves hiring out of necessity to quick fill an

open position.

"Most dealerships have a better process for buying

office supplies than they do for hiring people," said

Adam Robinson, CEO of Hireology, recently told

Automotive News. "It's already hard enough to be a

dealer. Dealers can't control cheap private-equity

dollars consolidating stores. They can't control interest

rates, recalls, regulators. They can't control ride-

sharing or nondealer models. The only thing they have

100 percent control of anymore is who they put on their

payroll.”

While some reasons for turnover may be out of

dealers control, this publication will explore some

steps you can take to recruit, hire and retain top

talent.

4 | S T R A T E G I E S T O R E D U C E T U R N O V E R A T Y O U R D E A L E R S H I P •

A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D • © N E T C H E X 2 0 1 7

STRATEGIES TO REDUCETURNOVER AT YOUR DEALERSHIP

BUILD A BLUEPRINT

Developing an understanding of the specific

talents and “soft skills” job candidates need

is an essential part of successful recruitment

and reducing dealer employee turnover. Soft

skills, also known as people skills, are

defined as attributes that enable someone to

interact effectively and harmoniously with

other people. However, most recruiters can

tell you it can be difficult to measure these

skills during the interview phase.

Researchers, David Mayer and Herbert M.

Greenberg, spent seven years observing sales

performance in the retail automotive, insurance,

and mutual funds industries to determine the

characteristics that can predict sales success.

Their findings were published in the Harvard

Business Review article "What Makes a Good

Salesman."

Their basic theory states that a good salesperson

must have two basic qualities for success:

empathy and ego drive.

6 | S T R A T E G I E S T O R E D U C E T U R N O V E R A T Y O U R

D E A L E R S H I P • A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D • © N E T C H E X 2 0 1 7

"Empathy, the important central ability to feel as the other fellow does in order

to be able to sell [them] a product or service, must be possessed in large

measure. Having empathy does not necessarily mean being sympathetic. One

can know what the other fellow feels without agreeing with that feeling. But a

sales[person] simply cannot sell well without the invaluable and irreplaceable

ability to get a powerful feedback from the client through empathy."


"The second of the basic qualities absolutely needed by a good sales[person] is a

particular kind of ego drive that makes them want and need to make the sale in a

personal or ego way, not merely for the money to be gained. [Their] feelings must be

that they have to make the sale; the customer is there to help them fulfill their personal

needs. In effect, to the top salesperson, the sale—the conquest—provides a powerful

means of enhancing their ego. Their self-picture improves dramatically by virtue of

conquest and diminishes with failure."


FIND CANDIDATES WITH THE RIGHT

Interview guides let your

team ask the right questions

to gauge each candidate's

potential

powered by:

Hireology

Objectively measure candidate

potential to help you select the

right candidate to join your

team.

Quickly and easily test

potential applicants to see

how their skills would

translate on the job

SKILLS

Learn more:

Call (877) 729-2661 or visit us online www.netchexonline.com

What is an Employer Brand?

People tend to think of branding in terms of a company’s logo or brand name, like Coca- Cola. But branding extends far beyond these common conventions. Today’s HR professionals have had to branch into something called employer branding to engage top talent.

The Society for Human Resource Management describes an "Employer Brand" as an important part of the employee value proposition. It is essentially what the organization communicates as its identity to both potential and current employees. It incorporates a company’s mission, values, culture, and personality.

Building and promoting your employer brand can have a positive impact on employee engagement and turnover.

Promote Your Employer Brand

19

Steps to Promote Your Employer Brand

1 0 | S T R A T E G I E S T O R E D U C E T U R N O V E R A T Y O U R D E A L E R S H I P • A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D • © N E T C H E X 2 0 1 7

An employer brand communicates that

your organization is an employer of

choice.

Develop your Employee Value Proposition - define the key benefits offered by the company as an employerDefine your brand identity - determine what sets your brand apart from other employers, specify the text, imagery, etc. that represent your brand and "bring it to life"Be consistent - utilize branded career portals and onboarding tactics that appeal to job candidates that fit your overall company culture/identityBe social - incorporate social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn to engage candidates. Incorporate images and posting that depict your company culture and candid "Day in the life" activities at your orgainization

BRANDEDRECURITING

Custom employment website

that lets top candidates

quickly learn about your

business and team.

Highlight key employee benefits

to excite applicants to apply

and join your team.

Describe your career path for

job seekers and stand out as a

company with a plan for

employee advancement.

Learn more:


powered by:

Hireology

In order to effectively manage a structured onboarding, dealers should consider automating their onboarding process with integrated Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions. Automation allows dealers and their HR managers to reduce the time needed to begin onboarding a new hire and save money by going paperless.

19

When onboarding is automated through a HCM, new hires only have to enter pertinent information like their name, address, and social security number once. The data is automatically populated for payroll, benefits, and direct deposit information. This reduces the time spent on paperwork on the first day, and in some cases, allows the new hire to already have necessary items such as badges, computer access, and more available upon arrival.

There are numerous additional benefits to automating your employee onboarding.

Top benefits include: 1. Time and cost savings - Automating the onboardingprocess allows companies to save both time and money by reducing the number of hours HR departments have to devote to onboarding a new hire.

2. File storage - Employers are typically required to keep new hire paperwork a minimum of two years. For a growing company, this can mean mountains of paperwork. An automated onboarding solution allows employers to securely store employee information in an online location.

3. Data analytics - With growing government compliance issues like the EEOC’s pay data reporting, having insight into onboarding analytics is valuable to today’s HR teams.

Automate Employee Onboarding


AUTOMATEDONBOARDING

Learn more:


Foolproof to-do list with task

countdown clocks to keep

onboarding on track

User-friendly system that can

capture forms like I-9,

Federal and State tax forms

New hires can complete

their profile and tasks from

their phone or tablet

MAKEORIENTATION

MATTER

“WHY SHOULD I WORK FOR YOU?”

Doug Krey, Senior Vice President of

Human Resources Systems and

Services for Hilton Worldwide

recommends the following in an

effective orientation:

• Resell the company. The applicant

was sold on the property when he or

she said “yes” to your job offer, but

how long ago was that? Even if the

interview was the previous day, a lot

can happen in the life of an applicant.

He may have seen another newspaper

ad that looked interesting. (The

innocent applicant doesn’t know that

if it sounds too good to be true, it

probably is.) Or she may have

received a call back from another

interview offering a comparable job.

The orientation is your renewed

opportunity to answer the often heard

question, “Why should I work for

you?”

• Explain and quantify the benefits.

Here’s your chance to communicate

how much your hotel invests in all

those employee benefits. Most new

employees-most all employees for

that matter-haven’t a clue what the

real costs are. Health and major

medical insurance benefits are too

often taken for granted. You’re likely

to be paying more than employees

think you are. What does the 401(k)

cost the company every year? What

are those stock options really worth?

• Give employees something of value. Give

employees something of value to them during

the orientation-something that makes them feel

like they invested their time well. Sure, you

should pay them for their time, but help them to

feel that they actually learned something.

Perhaps it’s something about goal setting or time

management or stress reduction or software.

Whatever you choose, make sure it has a high

perceived value for the new employees.

Otherwise, you’re wasting your time and the

company’s money, and what’s worse, you’re

distancing the new employees you want to

connect with.

• Clarify expectations. Let employees know

what the company will do for each of them and

what will be expected from them as well. Clear

expectations make better relationships.

Unrealistic expectations that subsequently go

unfulfilled are a recipe for high turnover.

• Tell your success stories. Present

people who have risen through the

ranks so your new employees can see

that advancement is possible. People

identify with success stories. They say

to themselves, “If she can do it, so can

I!” Give your new employees an

understanding of the various career

paths that are open to them if they

meet or exceed company

expectations. They should sense,

“This [place] helps people grow, and

since I want to grow, this is a good

place for me right now”. Please take

notice of the “right now”. Understand

that today’s employees feel they must

maintain control of their own careers.

They’ve seen friends, relatives,

and acquaintances get laid off from

long-term jobs, so to them, corporate

loyalty to employees is virtually dead.

They know that they must be

responsible for continuing to be

marketable, which leads us to our

next point.

• Provide a mentor or coach. Be sure

your orientation covers the fact that

new employees will receive a mentor

or coach. These very important

people will help new employees

develop the career plans they want

and need. Sometimes, the mentor is

the person’s supervisor or manager. It

doesn’t matter who-just make sure

those counselors are taught how to

effectively mentor or coach.


TRAIN & INVEST IN THE FUTURE

•Training adds flexibility and efficiency. You can cross-train

employees to be capable in more than one aspect of the

business. Teach them to be competent in sales, customer

service, administration, and operations. This will help keep

them interested and will be enormously helpful to you when

setting schedules or filling in for absences. Cross- training

also fosters team spirit, as employees appreciate the

challenges faced by co- workers.

•Training is essential for knowledge transfer. It’s very

important to share knowledge among your staff. If only one

person has special skills, you’ll have a tough time recouping

their knowledge if they suddenly leave the company. Spread

knowledge around — it’s like diversifying your investments.

Companies like Chrysler are expanding the training mantra

and offering employees opportunities to earn an associate,

bachelor's, or master's degree at Strayer University. "The

new benefit is geared twoard attracting and retaining the

right kind of talent," says AL Gardner, Vice President of

Dealer Network Development and President and CEO of the

Chrysler Brand.

Some of the reasons to take on development initiatives:

•Training helps your business run better. Trained

employees will be better equipped to handle customer

inquiries, make a sale or use computer systems.

•Training is a recruiting tool. Today’s young workers

want more than a paycheck. They are geared toward

seeking employment that allows them to learn new

skills. You are more likely to attract and keep good

employees if you can offer development opportunities.

•Training promotes job satisfaction. Nurturing

employees to develop more rounded skill sets will help

them contribute to the company. The more engaged

and involved they are in working for your success, the

better your rewards.

•Training is a retention tool, instilling loyalty and

commitment from good workers. Staff looking for the

next challenge will be more likely to stay if you offer

ways for them to learn and grow while at your company.

Don’t give them a reason to move on by letting them

stagnate once they’ve mastered initial tasks.

A strong contributor to employee

retention is development opportunities

which give staff opportunities to

expand their skills. Supporting

employee development sends the

message that they are valued team

members and the company is

committed to their success and career

growth.


Strategies to Reduce Turnover at Your Dealership

Automotive

Transcript of Strategies to Reduce Turnover at Your Dealership