Best Dealerships To Work For in Canada 2019

Location: Pincourt, Que. 

Dealer principal: André Gingras

Dealership group: Groupe AutoForce

Number of employees: 47

2018 new-vehicle sales: 542, down 5%

2018 used-vehicle sales: 628, up 5% 

Co-owner and General Manager François Gaumont on how dramatic technological change has affected the dealership workplace: Recruiting younger human resources requires creating an atmosphere of employee engagement, skills development and flexible workplace policies. The work environment has to be fulfilling and developmental if we are to recruit and retain talent. Most young prospective employees keep looking elsewhere or are creating secondary sideline businesses on their own time. 

Gaumont on steps taken to address the shortage of skilled workers: We place an emphasis on training, personal planning skills, technical skills, software utilization skills. We also promote from within and have regular one-on-one personal feedback sessions. 

Marketing Director Daniel Farmer on lessons learned from a hiring/employment mistake: We pride ourselves in having great employees and not making many mistakes. One thing we have learned is that no matter how long you leave someone  in a role, if they are not able to fully assimilate the role after six months, they won’t be able to do so in the long term. We had one employee that we worked very hard to train, but in vain. We ended up moving her after 15 months. The lesson here is find the right people for the right job at the right time.