EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth of six stories that take a look at what makes a dealership one of Automotive News Canada’s 25 Best Dealerships to Work For. You can read previous stories here.
Few stretches of time have thrown up as many hurdles or seen the yardsticks move as often as the previous 18 months. Automotive News Canada’s 25 Best Dealerships To Work For have been challenged by evolving health regulations, sales swings, vehicle shortages and a host of other disruptive obstacles that came in the wake of COVID-19.
- Click here to see profiles of all 25 Best Dealerships to Work For.
But through it all, a handful of key attributes have united the top 25 Canadian dealerships. And these same differentiators have helped carry them and their workforces through the pandemic. Above all else, retailers who showed they care about their employees and treated staff not as numbers but as people were the ones to earn their designation as one of the industry’s best places to work.
“The dealership that cares is a dealership that wins,” said Daniel Bloom, vice-president of market research at Best Companies Group, which implemented and managed the 2021 Best Dealerships survey for Automotive News Canada.
“I especially think you’re seeing it as an aftermath of COVID. ... Caring always was important, but we’re seeing it reinforced.”
To back up that sentiment, Bloom pointed to the survey results. Ninety-five per cent of staff at the 25 winning dealerships said the company’s leaders care about their employees’ well-being, compared with 86 per cent of staff at dealerships that did not make the list.
Similarly, 94 per cent of employees at the Best Dealerships To Work For said they are treated like people as opposed to numbers, versus 85 per cent at other Canadian dealers who enrolled in the program.
DISCUSS IT, THEN DO IT
Creating an open forum for discussion and showing a willingness to act on feedback also separated winners from the pack.
Hans Bigler, executive vice-president of the Policaro Group, said his company held regular check-ins with its team at Policaro Acura in Brampton, Ont. — which made the list of 25 Best Dealerships To Work For — throughout the pandemic. When the dealership was setting up its health and safety protocols for COVID-19, for instance, it turned to employees to identify areas or practices that could be made safer, Bigler said. The Bramptonheadquartered Policaro Group has four dealerships in the Greater Toronto Area.
Staff feedback also played a leading role in a major adjustment that Policaro made to its health benefits. With employees saying the benefits plan was too expensive for families, Policaro opted to foot a larger share of the bill and reduce employee contributions 50 per cent — a change the dealership group plans to continue regardless of the pandemic.
For winning dealerships, 94 per cent of employees said leaders were open to input from employees, compared with 84 per cent at nonwinners.
In other cases, Bigler said, it is a matter of explaining why a change needs to be made.
“If no one really understands why you’re doing it, people will get complacent, they get dismissive, they form their own judgment on what’s happening,” he said.
Bigler pointed to the dealership’s installation of digital kiosks in its service department as one example. Before its service advisers saw how customers could use the stations to speed up the process for everyone involved, management got some initial blowback. Once staff saw the kiosks in action, buy-in was a nonissue. Employees in the service department began going out of their way to promote the stations to customers.
CREATE A COMMUNITY
Along with showing concern for employees through the uncertain times, pay, effective communication and the flexibility to step off the job when needed were three other key areas that Best Companies’ Bloom highlighted as setting winning dealerships apart.
Creating an environment with this sense of community is often self-reinforcing as well, allowing the best employers to hang onto the best employees.
“Good people are what make a place a great place to work, for me or for them or for anybody that walks in,” said Adam Lally, vice-president of the Lally Auto Group with nine dealerships in ChathamKent and Essex County, east of Windsor, Ont.
Through the challenges, the team at Lally Ford in Tilbury, which also made the list, has worked to keep as many of its traditional social events going as possible. It has also launched new ones, such as Zoom bingo on Fridays, as a stopgap until it can revive more of the in-person events that underpin its culture.
Ultimately, Lally hopes his team’s shared experience over the past 18 months will help the organization emerge from the pandemic stronger.
