Amid an industry-wide technician shortage, DealerPro Training representatives shared strategies to recruit and retain service employees during RVDA Fixed Operations Day, Nov. 14.
DealerPro Director of Sales Ken Barnes and Marketing Director Peter Martin outlined recruitment and retention best practices. The pair presented various steps to maintain a solid service department, from the recruitment process to training programs to management strategies.
Recruitment
Martin said recruitment begins with a dealer’s brand. Social media posts and videos try to persuade their audience why a business is a great place to work. Media can attract talent. Companies can also create social media posts for job listings and link to their websites.
Barnes detailed various aspects job postings should contain. He recommended including:
- Work/life balance, which he said attracts younger workers.
- A clearly defined career path.
- A sign-on/relocation bonus.
Barnes emphasized the sign-on bonus. He said the bigger the bonus, the more attention the listing would receive. Barnes recalled a time when he helped a dealer craft a job posting with a maximum $20,000 sign-on bonus. The bonus was tiered by experience. In n time, the dealer’s inbox was flooded with applicants.
Apprentice Program
With endless ways to onboard new employees, Barnes shared a program benefitting the apprentice and mentor.
He outlined key steps to cultivating an apprentice program. The first step is to establish program objectives and ensure someone is prepared to manage the project. According to Barnes, program managers and mentors should be compensated. Barnes shared his own experience at his automotive dealership, where he would pay a senior technician a designated sum once his trainee reached a certain level. Barnes said the strategy was effective.
Recruitment and selection is the next phase. Once hired, apprentices are assigned to participating mentors. Martin said the program should require the mentor to supervise more and complete physical work less. By the time mentors are ready to retire, a younger technician team can continue the shop’s service.
According to Barnes, programs should constantly advance the apprentice’s career, providing training often. He said leaders should also be improving and refining the programs.
Retention Strategies
Martin suggested creating an employee counsel. The group comprises a general manager or owner and an employee from each department, acting as the department’s representative. The counsels would meet once a month to discuss updates, concerns and material needs.
Martin said having such conversations with upper leadership “gives (employees) a sense of empowerment.”
Ongoing Training and Career Development
According to Martin, employees may leave a company if they are not advancing their career knowledge. In addition to growing the technicians’ careers, continuous training keeps technicians up to speed with the latest technology and products.
Martin recommended taking advantage of supplier training.
Performance Management Strategies
To nurture and grow employees’ careers, managers can conduct regular performance reviews. Barnes said feedback given in the reviews should be tied to career development opportunities.
He also recommended including goal-setting in the reviews. Leaders can guide employees in creating goals and plans to achieve them. Barnes said to pursue BHAG—big, hairy and audacious goals. Leaders can also share goal accomplishments company-wide to honor employees and set an example for others.
Trust
Many facets of life center upon trust. Barnes said in a business, trust starts at the top and trickles down. He said consumers can sense whether a company is trustworthy.
As leaders, Barnes said employees “are listening to us. They are paying attention to how we act and react to certain things. It is important for us to set great examples for people. If we say we are going to do something, we have to do it.”
