Rick Evans figures bad hires at his Toyota dealership in Fort Wayne, Ind., were costing his store at least $500,000 a year. Probably even north of $1 million.
"I was not happy," Evans told Automotive News. "I knew we weren't keeping as many people as we should. We weren't hiring all the right people, and we weren't selling as many cars as we should because we didn't have the right people here."
Evans' estimate totals up the wasted cost of hiring and training people who didn't work out, plus the sales potential lost in all the churn. Evans Toyota, a 90-person store selling 175 new and used vehicles per month, has gone through "an everyday constant battle" to fill positions, with five to 10 spots open at any one time, said Evans, who in 1991 took over management of the store founded by his father. And the problem was persistent.