Dealer: Dustin Walters

Dealership group: Friendship Family of Dealerships

Full-time employees: 51

Walters on lessons from the pandemic about being a better employer:
“We have learned to have a little more patience. During these unprecedented times, we never know what may be going on in a team member’s personal life that could greatly affect them and their job performance. Having a little bit more patience and grace has made us better at managing our dealership and being there for our team members. We’re all a family.”

Human Resources Manager Alana Wilson on changing hiring and training because of the pandemic:
“We have implemented social distancing as well as wearing masks and cleaning high-contact areas more frequently. We have also increased the use of Zoom meetings and conference calls to reduce face-to-face contact.”

Walters on how the accelerated shift to digital retail changed staffing strategy:
“We have trained more of our salespeople to handle more of the online traffic. The salesperson can perform a virtual walk-around of the vehicle live with the customer, or they can send the video to the customer. They are able to make a full sales transaction completely online without the customer having to come into the dealership.”

Walters on making work schedules more balanced or flexible:
“Family is very important to us. We offer a four-day workweek schedule to our team members. This option works out well for team members who have children that play sports or for anyone that has a hard time finding someone to watch their children. We have also encouraged team schedules [with only one team in the dealership at a time] during the pandemic.”