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Dealership Turnover No Laughing Matter

As an automotive recruiter you’d think I’d be laughing all the way to the bank.

BY MICHAEL KENNEDY
Illustration courtesy of Hugh MacLeod of www.gapingvoid.com/corporate-culture
Car dealerships across the nation continue Ted Kraybill, president of ESI Trends, said Successful dealers stay ahead of this prob-
to face an epidemic. They’ve figured out in an Automotive News article, “Poor em- lem by knowing what motivates their asso-
how to sell a lot of cars and accessories, but ployee retention is a big money-wasting op- ciates and by creating an environment that
they just can’t seem to keep their employ- portunity when you consider the retention encourages dialogue, trust and idea shar-
ees. and training costs and lost productivity ing.
issues, and the link to poor customer satis-
Unfortunately, this is no laughing matter. faction and customer retention.” Peter B. Burke’s firm, Best Companies
Good, talented people are asking them- Group, measures employee engagement
selves, “Is this all there is?” And escaping ESI Trends (formerly known as Del- and satisfaction by surveying employees
any chance they get, taking with them their taTrends) is the leading provider of work- to discover what they think about their
knowledge and client lists. This doesn’t force metrics, best people practices, bench- employers. Those with the highest engage-
bode well for the dealership that just invest- marks and trends for the automotive retail ment levels made “Automotive News: Best
ed time and money in hiring and training industry. Dealerships To Work For” lists. http://www.
these individuals. And seldom, if ever, do bestdealershipstoworkfor.com
dealers perform adequate exit interviews to Sales staff turnover is “alarming enough
learn why their employees are abandoning that the OEMs are taking action,” Kraybill In the final analysis, doesn’t it just come
ship. Here’s a taste of just how bad things said. He’s working directly with OEMs on down to being respectful? Treating clients
really are. better ways to attract and retain employees. AND employees respectfully is grossly un-
dervalued in the automotive space. With
Proof is in the research. “Retention,” he added, “hurts profits.” the right environment, however, retention
troubles vanish and benches stay warm
The National Automobile Dealers Associ- In my opinion, this isn’t a recruiting prob- with interested and qualified candidates. n
ation’s 2015 Dealership Workforce Study lem (though I’ll happily help any dealer __________________________________
https://www.nada.org/workforcestudy/ with their staffing needs because that’s what Michael Kennedy is the founder of M•Pow-
found that car sales consultants had the I do); this is an environment problem at the er Automotive Recruiting and Business De-
highest turnover at 72 percent annually dealership level. velopment Manager, Automotive Remar-
(non-luxury turnover was 80 percent, luxu- keting at SiriusXM Automotive. He was a
ry turnover was 48 percent). More disturb- Until dealers fix their environment, auto- former recruiter at IQTalent Partners and
ing, nine out of ten female sales consultants motive recruiters like me will continue en- a graduate of Florida State University. You
move on within a year. joying a field day with an endless pipeline can visit his LinkedIn page here.
of worthy candidates.

56 | GIADA Independent Auto Dealer FEBRUARY 2017