Notable Champions of Diversity

At JP Kovac’s pair of dealerships in Toronto’s East York neighbourhood, previous automotive experience is not the leg up it usually is.

The dealer principal at Gyro Hyundai and Gyro Mazda, along with the Gyro Group of Companies’ other partners, have built a workplace culture where merit takes precedence. The result has been more on-the-job learning, a long list of promotions from within, and a workforce representative of the community it is serving.

“Every single manager who is working within our organization has worked their way up to where they are today,” Kovac said. “We tend not to hire managers that are already made. Even salespeople, we don’t hire people with previous automotive experience. We have them learn our way and do things our way.”

Diversity has come naturally out of the approach, Kovac said, given the makeup of the local community and the opportunity to advance from entry-level positions. The dealership group employs a wide range of people from groups typically underrepresented in Canadian automotive, many in management roles.

“If they’re male, female, Black, white, brown, what their orientation is, it really has no impact whatsoever, everything is done based on merit.”

A second-generation dealer along with his business partner Paul Kmet, Kovac said the group began implementing the new approach about five years ago after he was introduced to business-management writer Patrick Lencioni’s The Ideal Team Player. The pivot did create some friction at first, he said, with some staff opting to move on or retire, but it has since created a positive dynamic at the pair of dealerships.

We’re looking to continue to move that culture up and be at the highest level possible to make this a great place to work, to really give people opportunities to advance, improve, grow, [and] earn requisite to their contributions to the success of the operation.”

Kovac recognizes the Gyro Group’s approach to diversity differs from some others within the Canadian automotive community, but given feedback from diverse staff, he’s confident in the company’s trajectory.

“I want everyone to have equal opportunity here. I hear a lot of conversation about giving minorities within the automotive business that extra assistance, or opportunity in order to get to a management level or move up in the company. I have a woman who’s Black who’s my service operations manager here, and we’ve had many discussions and she’s very aware of this as well.

“She said ‘I would never want anybody to view me, that I got this job because I’m a woman, because I’m Black. I want this job because I deserve this job.’”

As technology continues to push the auto sector in new directions, Kovac said it is also helping the company diversify its workforce. The dealership group recently moved to a new client-services process, migrating away from the traditional role of advisors. As part of this shift, the company has hired a range of staff new to automotive over the past six months, most of whom are women.