Dealership's commitment to staff means low turnover

Tim Boylan enjoys the best of both worlds.

As general manager of a small dealership — Acura Turnersville in Turnersville, N.J. — he is on a first-name basis with each of his 34 employees.

Yet his store also benefits from the expertise of its corporate owner, Penske Automotive Group.

With a state-of-the-art facility, motivated employees and little turnover, Acura Turnersville was the top small store on the 2022 Automotive News' list of the 100 Best Dealerships To Work For. Acura Turnersville also was the overall winner in 2018.

"We put our human capital above everything else," Boylan said. "I truly believe that if you treat employees well, the store will succeed and you will get more out of your employees."

The store's employee turnover rate tells the tale. This year, the store has lost only one worker — a porter who pursued career opportunities after getting a college degree. The store's managers have been there an average of 13 years. The sales associates average 10 years of tenure and the service technicians average 15 years.

In an industry where the average annual turnover rate was 34 percent in 2021, that's remarkable.

Boylan has been especially attentive to his staff's welfare since the COVID-19 pandemic that virtually shut down New Jersey's dealerships in 2020.

Boylan furloughed all of his sales associates and half of his service technicians. Boylan and three other managers stayed on the job, taking sales over the Internet, filling out paperwork and delivering cars to customers' homes.

To cope with sick and quarantined employees, Boylan shortened the store's hours. Acura Turnersville stayed open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. That's down from a 12-hour shift six days a week.

Unlike some competitors, Acura Turnersville maintains those same hours today. Managers work a five-day week, with one 10-hour shift and four eight-hour shifts. Sales associates work 42-hour weeks with two days off.

Those shorter hours make a big difference for Len Rizzo, a 73-year-old sales associate who joined the store in 2012. Now he can spend more time with his children and grandchildren — something he couldn't count on in his previous jobs.

"I get to see my whole family," Rizzo said. "It's never been like this in the business for me. I always missed out on everything."

Rizzo also appreciates Boylan's responsiveness to employee concerns.

"Any time I need to talk to him, his door is open," Rizzo said "If there is a problem, they fix it quickly."

Small stores sometimes struggle to attract top job candidates because they can't offer career opportunities available at larger dealerships.

But that's not a problem for Acura Turnersville. Every week, employees get an e-mail listing job opportunities at Penske stores around the country.

Last year, Boylan's service manager got a job at the Nissan store in the Turnersville mall — a step up to a larger dealership.

"If you ask me, that's good turnover," Boylan said. "They are still in the Penske organization, they're in a bigger store and they are bettering themselves."

Despite its small size, however, Acura Turnersville has encouraged employees to rise through the ranks. Jaseli Ramos, 30, started out as a cashier when she was 19 and still in college.

After she got her psychology degree, she became an Internet sales consultant and subsequently got promoted to Internet sales manager. Her most recent promotion came last year when she was named sales manager in charge of eight associates.

"I was in my groove as an Internet sales manager and I enjoyed what I was doing," she said. "I enjoy working in a small store so I jumped at the opportunity" to be sales manager.

Ramos said she prefers to build her career at Acura Turnersville.

"The next step would be general sales manager — hopefully at this store," she said. "It's been working out for me pretty well so far."

Located about 20 miles southeast of Philadelphia, Acura Turnersville shares a mall with eight other Penske stores. Since 2015, Penske has renovated each of the stores, said Tom Wujick, Acura Turnersville's service manager.

Wujick was at Acura Turnersville before Penske acquired it. He says the old mall was badly run down.

"Store by store, Penske tore everything down and rebuilt it from the dirt up," Wujick said. "When you see a corporation invest that kind of money in your work environment, that says a lot."

But it wasn't just Penske's deep pockets that transformed Acura Turnersville. When Boylan joined the store as a finance manager in 2013, he befriended employees and managers in other departments.

"He made a point of coming back and talking to all of the service technicians," Wujick said. "He knew us by name." By the time Boylan was named general manager in 2016, he had already built relationships with all of the employees.

If Wujick has a problem to fix, "I don't even have to make an effort to see him," he said of Boylan. "He checks in with me twice a day."

Like other dealerships around the country, Acura Turnersvile has struggled to secure a reliable supply of new and used cars.

Sales were strong until supply chain disruptions limited Acura production. In 2021, Acura Turnersville sold 764 new vehicles, up from 658 in the previous year. The store also sold 711 used vehicles last year, up from 640 in 2020.

Through August, Turnersville's sales were down roughly 50 percent — comparable to Acura's nationwide sales of new vehicles, which declined 43 percent.

Boylan tries not to lose sleep over it. Instead, he focuses on personnel policies that help his employees to succeed.

"That's one thing we can control," he said. "If you treat employees well, the store will succeed."