A diverse staff makes a stronger dealership ‘family’ that builds the business

Cultural diversity and gender equality are playing key roles in hiring practices among dealers who want their workforces to more accurately reflect their customer base.

“[The] strategy is constantly revised to build cultural capacity in our workplace and promote inclusion for all our team members and our customers,” said Darryl Tuck, general manager of Birchwood Lexus in Winnipeg.

The store provides employees training such as communication and cultural-competency workshops, and it offers opportunities to “celebrate and share our team members’ stories and backgrounds, offering a personal glimpse into our rich backgrounds of culture, language, celebrations and so on,” Tuck said.

“With Lexus and all our dealerships, we highlight various team members by video,” said MaryAnn Kempe, chief human resources officer for the 23-store Birchwood Automotive Group. “They share their cultures, language and heritage with all team members.

“This has had an amazing impact. We call them our ‘influencers,’ very powerful when shared in a story.”

The company also reaches out to Indigenous groups as part of its recruitment efforts, Kempe said.

INDIGENOUS IMMERSION

“As business leaders, we want to create a sense of community by forging partnerships with Indigenous organizations within Winnipeg,” she said. “Birchwood engages with the University of Manitoba Indigenous Commerce Students, a student group for those who identify with or have a common interest in enhancing Indigenous culture.

“We are members of a joint working consortium representing nine Winnipeg corporations . . . the focus is to employ Indigenous youth in a meaningful way by engaging in educational activities and experiences for mutual learning.”

Visible minorities — with eight languages represented — make up nearly half of the staff at Birchwood dealerships, Kempe said. The group has about 1,100 employees.

Aidan Thevenot, parts manager at Birchwood Kia on Regent in Winnipeg, said the dealership employs people from China, Italy, Poland and Venezuela.

“Our culture and work family have become stronger because of our differences.”

A WOMAN’S PLACE? EVERYWHERE

Volvo of Edmonton dealer principal Michael Norris makes it a priority to seek out female job candidates. The industry, he said, has to do a better job of recruiting women for key leadership roles, such as general manager, controller and finance manager.

“We think this is especially important in the automotive industry, which has traditionally been male-dominated.”

To achieve gender equity, managers ensure that both male and female candidates are interviewed for all positions, Norris said.

“We want our workforce to be reflective of our customer base...we feel having both male and female workers strengthens our team.”

At Birchwood Automotive Group, women make up nearly 30 per cent of employees, filling roles such as general manager, sales associate and technician.

In its search for female staff, the group attends Skills Manitoba events — trade-related competitions — that focus on young women in grades 7 to 12, Kempe said.

“Our female technicians, sales consultants and managers offer mentoring to young women to discuss automotive career opportunities.”

LISTENING AND INSPIRING

In 2019, the group launched a maternity/parental/adoption-leave program, which tops up team members’ wages by 45 per cent — to 100 per cent — for 15 weeks and offers the option to extend their leave to an unpaid leave of absence.

Birchwood also has an internal group named Women In Automotive Leadership, designed to “help develop, inspire and support the present and future women of Birchwood,” Kempe said.

“We offer seminars and sessions to highlight the fact that the automotive industry offers many opportunities. We also bring in keynote speakers and have developed a mentorship program.”

While Bruce Hyundai in New Minas, N.S., 100 kilometres northwest of Halifax, does not have a formal program to boost the number of women, it does take steps to recruit prospective female employees, said JP Martel, vice president of people and culture.

“In a situation where we had two equally qualified candidates, one male, one female, we would most likely select the female candidate as a way to counter the previously male-driven industry. In our experience, female employees have become some of the [highest performing employees] and loyal managers and leaders.”