Car dealerships find new ways to recruit and retain porters

In even the best of hiring times, finding porters and dealership hospitality staff can be a daunting task. And often, a dealership is more consumed with finding technicians and service advisers, so the search for porters takes a back seat.

Once porters are hired, they need to be retained — not an easy feat. Employment agency Zippia.com estimates that 38 percent of porters stay at their job for less than one year.

Rather than take the time to post porter jobs, interview candidates and manage the staff, more dealership service departments are turning those responsibilities over to outside companies such as Citrin and DealerFlex.

Mark Bailey, service director at Austin Infiniti in Texas, was one of those who used to scramble to recruit porters until he realized it wasn't the best use of his time. Administrative tasks and supervision of the porters took time away from his core duties. And then there was the scheduling.

"If someone was sick, on vacation, left or was let go, the workload was handled by fewer people, which caused 'level of service' and overtime issues," Bailey said.

After crunching some numbers, Bailey decided in 2019 to turn over the hiring and managing of the store's porters to Citrin. He says "outsourcing is much more cost-effective, with a higher level of service offered to both our clients and us."

Citrin, based in Columbus, Ohio, is doing business in nine markets nationwide.

"We specialize in valets, porters, car washers and even vehicle delivery services," said Cody Blair, Citrin's director of marketing and recruiting.

In many ways, dealership service departments rely on porters to help things run smoothly, on time and in an orderly fashion. They are typically the first person a customer encounters when dropping off a vehicle for service and the last they see when picking up their vehicle. While Citrin or DealerFlex employees, the porters still wear the dealership uniforms.

Having an interest in cars is a plus; porters sometimes do minor jobs such as oil and fluid fill-ups, interior cleaning, organizational tasks and more. Neatness counts. So does knowing how to drive a stick shift.

Companies such as Citrin and DealerFlex, of Philadelphia, do the hiring, perform background checks, conduct training and handle payroll for porters, valets, auto lot technicians, shuttle drivers and more.

"Hiring is tough," Blair says. "Getting applications, interviewing candidates, performing background and drug tests. We cover all of that."

DealerFlex CEO Daniel Bell says his company offers options for dealerships of varying sizes.

For larger dealerships, "we would handle everything from interviewing, onboarding and payroll, treating it as a managed service," he says. "In a smaller-volume dealer, with only one valet or porter, we use our recruitment infrastructure, but the dealer would be responsible for interviewing and hiring the employee. We will pre-screen for you and deliver candidates to extend the offers directly."

Some human resources departments "just aren't designed for this type of labor," Bell says.

Citrin says it takes a scientific approach to its operations, watching trends in the market, following frequent search terms and taking note of the perks that candidates want. The key takeaway is that people are looking for continued growth opportunities.

Bailey says one of the dealership's valets hired by Citrin is now a Loyalty Program consultant in the sales department, and a Citrin account manager is now a service adviser.

Francisco Mora, service manager at Esserman International Volkswagen in Doral, Fla., employs 15 porters and knows firsthand the benefits of grooming service staff for bigger jobs. He started at Esserman in 2008 as a cashier. One of his former porters is now a six-figure VW master technician.

"We definitely encourage upward movement and hire from within," he says. Being a porter "is a steppingstone for many of our employees. We have many success stories here, and we are very proud of them."

Hiring, training and retaining are the three most challenging parts for companies such as Citrin and DealerFlex. The "job flight" because of the pandemic isn't helping matters.

"It's a challenging hiring climate," Blair says, "and I think that won't change for the next few years."