Farmington Hills, Mich.
* Dealer: Sam Slaughter
* Full-time employees: 137
* 2012 new-vehicle sales: 1,761, down 5%
* Benefit highlight: $250 quarterly bonuses for each employee if dealership hits a CSI and sales goal
* Cool perk: $1/day lunch credit at in-house Picasso Grill
* Slaughter on showing employees that they are valued: "Our management team keeps open lines of communication and we hold employee communication meetings quarterly. I also host a monthly lunch with a cross section of employees for more relaxed two-way communication. Each employee attends one lunch per year. We highly value the input and ideas of our team members.
"Every employee, full-time and part-time, is given an equal monetary bonus quarterly if the dealership achieves specified CSI and sales goals. Cash for these bonuses is handed directly to the employees at our quarterly team meetings. There's nothing quite like the smile on employees' faces when you hand them cash. I also do my best to walk through the entire dealership daily and say hello to every employee, and use their name. By the actions and attitudes of our management team, our employees seem to know we truly care."
* Slaughter on an employee who has taken advantage of advancement opportunities: "We have a young man who started working for us as a sales consultant. When we increased our Internet sales presence, he became Internet sales department manager. He then moved to one of our new locations as an interim sales manager at a dedicated used-car facility. Today he is general sales manager at our newly opened Subaru dealership."
