Lovering Auto Group aims to diversify workforce

When Lovering Auto Group updated its online career page in July, group President Vanessa Delegas borrowed an idea from a mentor in a peer group: Use video to tell the stories of female employees. With the video, Delegas aimed to attract more applicants from diverse backgrounds.

That same month, Lovering, a four-store group in New Hampshire, began closing its dealerships on Sundays to give employees a dedicated weekend day off and improve work-life balance. The practices are showing results: Since the video went live and the no-Sundays policy started, the group has attracted more applicants and has been better able to keep positions filled.

"We're just trying to put an emphasis on recruitment and having a diverse work force and what the needs are of our employees," said Delegas, daughter of dealer principals Rich and Linda Lovering. "The more we focus on them, the lower turnover that you have. And the happier staff you have, the happier customers you have."

Lovering has a bigger share of female employees than is typical in U.S. auto retail. Nearly a third of the Nashua, N.H., group's 107 employees are women, up from fewer than a quarter four years ago, Delegas said. That's better than the national average of just under 20 percent in 2018, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association 2019 Dealership Workforce Study.

Though Lovering came up with its video on its own, the retailer's strategy dovetails with an existing NADA effort. The dealer association is working to promote women in auto retail through a video series of its own — its Women Driving Auto Retail contest that encourages women in dealerships to share their experiences. Now in its third year, NADA plans to announce winning videos at its 2020 show in Las Vegas in February.

Lovering's nearly six-minute clip features Delegas and Linda Lovering, along with women who work as human resources administrators, customer service managers, general sales managers, service technicians — even the CFO.

Delegas said when she came up with the idea, she emailed women in leadership roles across the company for their input.

"We're really trying to advocate and promote [that] you can be a woman, you can work in a customer-facing role and you can have an organization behind you that supports you," Delegas said. "It just comes back to diversity and having different types of opinions and different types of perspectives. I think you become a stronger organization."

Delegas said when she joined her family's business nearly eight years ago, the group didn't employ any female sales managers or service technicians. Today, two of Lovering's three sales managers are women, she said, and a female service adviser joined in October from a competing Volvo store. Lovering Auto Group has three Volvo stores and a Mitsubishi dealership and sells, on average, 150 new and used cars each month.

For a few months after the video and Sunday policy went live, Lovering had no job openings for sales reps or service technicians, a sign that the retailer was keeping employees when there otherwise would be turnover, Delegas said. Closing on Sundays specifically helped retain sales consultants, she added. People also have expressed interest in meeting with Lovering about a sales job when one opens, she added.

Both practices also have led to more applications for sales and service positions, she said. A man recently hired as the finance manager in the group's Nashua store referenced the video during his job interview, Delegas said, sharing that he liked the idea of working for a woman-run organization.

Before the video, Lovering's recruitment efforts often were based on word-of-mouth. Delegas, who participates in many interviews with prospective employees, said "it's very eye-opening" for female candidates to see women in leadership roles — especially women who balance career with family. Delegas has a 2-year-old daughter and is to give birth to her second child in several weeks. "It makes, I think, other women want to come work for an organization where they see other women like them."