Best Dealerships To Work For in Canada 2019

Location: Vaughan, Ont. 

Dealer principal: Remo Ferri

Dealership group: R. Ferri Automotive

Number of employees: 113

2018 new-vehicle sales: 1,210, up 5%

2018 used-vehicle sales: 615, up 9% 

General Manager Newel DeSouza on flexible, more balanced work schedules: We don’t make it necessary for any employee to work more than a standard eight- or nine-hour shift [and] department schedules are monitored to ensure that. Employee feedback to a schedule is also used to ensure we provide a fair work-life balance. 

DeSouza on helping employees develop a career path: Through performance reviews and discussions with our management team, we identify employees that display the characteristics required of particular dealership roles, and then make suggestions about transfers and coaching them along the way. For certain roles, the dealership offers paid schooling. With practices that ensure employees don’t work overtime, and flexible shifts, we’ve been able to attract women to various roles including management. 

DeSouza on evolving staff requirements: The customer-experience demands of dealerships have greatly changed, influencing the addition of new roles and services. For example, the need to have a mobility team to handle the 50-plus vehicles the service department loans out each week to customers who leave their vehicles with us. Increasingly, we require technically inclined individuals who love working with new technology.