Julie Becker-Myers, director of dealer training and financial reporting at Ally Auto Financial, and Josh Johnson, CEO of Don Johnson Auto Group in Rice Lake, Wisc., joined NADA’s Catherine York for a Live Stage session on Saturday to discuss the critical issue of employee retention in the automotive retail industry.
The conversation started with the crucial question: Why should dealers and managers focus on employee retention? Becker-Myers emphasized the importance of developing careers rather than jobs. She reminded me that a lack of employee growth leads to a shortage of up-and-coming leaders. Johnson highlighted the costly nature of turnover, which affects employee and customer morale.
Johnson recommends that dealers focus more on the why than the what to attract new talent — “less on the practice and more on the purpose.”
Becker-Myers stressed the need to “show and imbue passion for what we do.” She encouraged employers to be creative with incentives and understand what motivates employees.
Johnson emphasized the importance of the day-one experience for new employees. Johnson and Becker-Myers shared examples —that require little to no financial investment — for helping employees see a career path from day one, including creating organizational charts, job shadowing and team mentorship programs.
The discussion delved into the flexible hours and culture prevalent in auto retail, with suggestions to break the traditional “bell-to-bell” lifestyle. Creative approaches like team sales and shift-sharing provide employees with more flexibility.
Johnson and Becker-Myers also addressed recruitment tactics, with recommendations to make job postings more exciting, using NADA job descriptions and emphasizing the benefits of employee referrals.
Top Takeaways:
- Craft exciting job postings.
- Make each employee’s Day One intentional and exciting.
- Create a career path for each employee, showing the next steps.
- Implement job shadowing and mentorship programs.
- Continually gauge employee satisfaction.
The article above mentioned sourced from Nada.org. The views and opinions expressed in this story are those of the NADA Show 2024. For more stories, visit Nada Used Car Value. We provide updated news and trends regularly.
