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Welcome to the Tips & Tools to do it right. A project between Ally and Automotive News Content Studio. On this page, we'll highlight news and insights from around the automotive world. Research, Information & Insider Tips to help do it right at your dealership. We'll feature industry experts to address real life situations that arise in the retail automotive environment and recommend proven tools to lead your store and employees on the path to continued success

< PREV NEXT >
28 August 12, 2019

Do it right: Attract and keep the best people.

Attract and retain top talent.

Watch Automotive News' Leslie Allen and Ally's Amy Bouque discuss how to promote dealership success by attracting and retaining higher quality talent. For more tips and tools, visit: autonews.com/allydoitrigh

Do it right: Attract and keep the best people.

Because shoppers can find the same deal on a new vehicle in just a few clicks on the internet, your employees are critical to winning over new customers – and keeping them. Follow these suggestions to attracting and keeping your best employees.

In this tight labor market, dealerships face more pressure to recruit, hire and keep talented staffers. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, dealer Dave Wright says, “You’ve got to use every resource and tool you have to get the right people.” Adam Robinson, CEO of Hireology, a provider of talent technology for retail automotive dealers, says “Dealers are competing for the same talent that all other industries are looking for.” Robinson and others note that employee turnover is expensive. And in the digital era, staff is often a point of distinction with customers.

 

Experts list three keys to attracting and retaining a top-notch, engaged workforce:

1. a strong culture:

“The No. 1 thing we hear when we try to reach outside our industry to hire people is always about our culture,” says Wright, owner of Dave Wright Nissan Subaru. Fleming Ford, vice president of people analytics at ESI Trends, a Florida consulting firm, says “You can say you’re a great place to work, but former employees may post their stories online. Cultural behaviors — tolerating inappropriate or inconsistent behavior — that have been symptomatic of the industry turnover problem are creating issues with hiring.” Evelyn Rojas, talent development manager at Fox Motors in the Chicago area, says recruiting “starts from the top. You have to have the right culture in a dealership to entice the right people to join your team.” For Fox, Rojas says, that means leaders must build a culture “with a lot of intention, about how you speak to each other, how employees work with customers, how they talk about other departments.”

2. up-to-date job structure:

Wright says dealerships need to be more creative than ever in recruiting talent. “When recruiting technicians, for example, we used to say, ‘come work for us — you’ll get more business, sell more cars, work all the hours you want.’ But people don’t care about those things today. So now we say, ‘Tell us how many hours you want; tell us the working conditions you need.” That means flexible scheduling and less commission-based pay. “The labor market has an aversion to highly variable pay plans,” Robinson of Hireology says. “It just doesn’t matter what we think about how this business should be run. The rest of the world is paying people for their time, not their production.” Wright’s dealership offers every new hire the choice of a commission-based plan or one with base pay plus bonuses for unit sales and CSI scores. He also has cut store hours to help staff with work-life balance, closing at 4 p.m. on Saturdays and staying open only two nights a week. To recruit and keep the people they want, Rojas says, Fox uses a strong mentorship program, especially focusing on promoting people from within, and monthly performance reviews.

3. effective leadership:

Ford says ESI’s work with dealerships underscores the importance of top leaders in attracting and keeping good workers. “General managers have to get better at the people part — explaining the vision, inspiring the team,” she says. “They’ve got to get over the idea that they’re selling cars; their job is to manage the people who sell cars.” Ford suggests that 90% of a GM’s time should be spent on having the right people in place, then developing that team — for instance, a daily huddle with managers to reinforce different core values.

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      • Ally All Ears Podcast | How F&I is driving dealership profits
      • Ally All Ears Podcast | building customer loyalty during challenging times
      • Ally All Ears Podcast | reducing friction in the purchase process
      • Ally: All Ears Podcast | Building trust to attract and retain customers
      • Ally: All Ears Podcast | Staying competitive with vehicle acquisition
      • Ally: All Ears Podcast | Used Car Bubble
      • Ally: All Ears Podcast | practices you may incorporate into your F&I department
      • Amazon Ads: Marketing tips for electric cars and alternative-fuel auto advertisers
      • Big Ass Fans: Reducing risk and productivity loss with Big Ass Fans & evaporative coolers
      • CDK Global: Shoppers make clear the service features they want
      • Capgemini: Unlocking the next turn in the mobility roadmap
      • Capital One Auto: Auto dealers are here to stay. Here’s the next step in their evolution
      • Champ: The history of titling and the cost of human error
      • Cox: Automation and the future of automotive retail
      • Cox: Transformation toward eCommerce in automotive retailing
      • Cox: Transforming F&I for Automotive eCommerce
      • Deloitte: ACCELERATING DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
      • Easycare: Reinventing the service contract for EVs
      • Easycare: The importance of benchmarking your reinsurance performance
      • Effectv: Why “Customer Lifetime Value” Should Be the Auto Advertising Buzz Word for 2023
      • Experian, GroundfTruth and Spectrum Reach: Dealership marketing: Navigating automotive advertising in a post-pandemic world
      • Experian: Evolving identity beyond the “who” to enable the “how”
      • Experian: Three steps to adapting to constant change in automotive marketing
      • Haig Partners: Buy-Sell Q&A: Where the Automotive M&A Market is heading
      • Haig: Buy-Sell Q&A | Advisors add value to sales process
      • Haig: Buy-Sell Q&A | Navigating partial dealership sales
      • Haig: Buy-Sell Q&A: Future-proofing your dealership
      • Haig: Buy-Sell Q&A: What is the value of an M&A advisor?
      • JM&A Group, Easycare, Assurant: Unlocking new opportunities in F&I with digital retailing
      • Kerrigan Advisors: Interview with Baxter Auto Group
      • Kerrigan Advisors: Interview with Hitchcock Automotive
      • OEC: How to understand what customers are saying when they’re not saying it
      • PACE: Electrification Technology: Once the supply chain gets over the shock, EVs offer opportunities
      • Pace Program Navigating advanced driver-assistance systems
      • Phone Ninjas: 5 Reasons you need to use phone scripts for your dealership
      • REYNOLDS & REYNOLDS: Creating great retail customer experiences
      • REYNOLDS AND REYNOLDS: Are you ready for the FTC Safeguard Rule changes? Take this quiz to find out
      • Rey and Rey: Automation and the future of automotive retail
      • Siemens: The impact of vehicle electrification and connectivity on electrical system design
      • Spectrum Reach: Playing to win: How automotive dealers can capitalize on sports marketing
      • Swiss Re: Insurers and car manufacturers: how to unlock the potential of true collaboration
      • Text2Drive: Digital retailing meets the service department
      • Trimble: The future of autonomous vehicles speeds ahead
      • Truist: Capitalize on the changing structure of auto retailing
      • Truist: Prepare now for the next era of automotive retailing
      • Urban Science: Promoting dealer-consumer alignment across continued industry evolution
      • Walbridge: Video | Walbridge Chairman on how automotive companies are navigating the electrification boom
      • Western Digital: To Meet Consumer Demand, Automakers Must Double Down on Agile Development
      • Wipro: How to address safety and security for software-defined vehicles
      • Wipro: How today’s tech decisions drive tomorrow’s sales
      • Wipro: Software Helps Address the Affordability Challenge
      • Wipro: The Promise of Software-Defined Vehicles and the Cloud Car Ecosystem
      • Wipro: Video | Wipro CTO on how OEM's are leveraging software-defined vehicle technology
      • Notarize: What to expect for the future of auto sales
      • Seagate: Unlocking value from connected-car data
      • Amazon Web Services: AI-powered supply chain decision-making
      • Epic Games: Five ways in-car designs will change in the next five years
      • Haig Partners: How are dealerships being valued today?
      • Haig Partners: Dealership consolidation trends
      • Haig Partners: Dealership valuation trends
      • Haig Partners: Dealership succession planning
      • Ally: Navigating the future of automotive retailing
      • Google: How a century-old brand is transforming the auto industry
      • Car Wars: Is a Rise in Service Leading to Poor Customer Satisfaction?
      • Solera | DealerSocket: Four real-time integrations that can save your dealership time
      • Solera | DealerSocket: Time for a new pre-owned pricing tactic
      • Kerrigan Advisors: Blue Sky Update Q4 2021
      • Qualcomm: Trading multi-year design cycles for on-demand features and experiences
      • Twitter: EV adoption is happening...in an unexpected place
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