Best Dealerships To Work For Canada 2021

Location: Winnipeg

General manager: Darryl Tuck

Dealership group: Birchwood Automotive Group

Number of employees: 42

General Manager Darryl Tuck on lessons learned about being a better employer from managing the dealership through the pandemic: This time has...given us a better understanding of how to best look after our team members regarding anxiety, burnout, work-life balance, etc. ... We have evolved our digital retailing tools to allow our guests the ability to ‘buy from home.’

Chief Human Resources Officer MaryAnn Kempe on participation in community/charity fundraising events: Over the 25-plus years that Birchwood Automotive Group has acted as a dedicated supporter of the United Way, our team members have contributed over $7 million to the annual United Way of Winnipeg campaign. We also have been participating in the Learning Partnership’s Take Our Kids to Work Day annually since 2018. Our team members’ kids spend the morning learning about Birchwood in fun ways like Family Feud Game and a treasure-hunt game. They spend the afternoon with their parents in their workspace, finding more about the job responsibilities.

Kempe on how the pandemic has changed recruiting and training staff: Our centralized recruitment team now conducts all new-hire initial interviews through virtual platforms like Zoom. We trained our service technicians and essential-service team members on how to provide no-contact service and still provide quality customer service. We’ve also updated their job descriptions to reflect this change. We moved our learning and development programs to an online platform to ensure...professional development. We have expanded the physical safety modules of our team-member training to include modified processes that are necessary to keep our team members and customers safe. This includes more in-depth cleaning and sanitizing for our store and vehicles.