Trying to Improve Your Retention? Try These Ideas!

Are you actively trying to improve your employee retention? If you’re like lots of dealerships, that answer is probably a resounding “Yes!” Based on ESi-Q survey data, when we look at the dealerships who have excellent employee retention, we wanted to analyze what they were doing on their quest for retention so we could share their tactics for others to consider implementing. Here they are, in no particular order: 

• Innovative Approaches to Communication – Once Managers realize they need to communicate with employees differently and they start to use some innovative approaches to communication, they often start to see results. If a GM tells us they only communicate with their team via email, that’s a red flag that they might not be on top of things and their employees are not getting the message. We’ve heard of some other GMs using social media to communicate with employees, such as creating TikToks. We’re not saying you have to start making TikToks, but the dealers who are experimenting with different ways of communicating are seeing some great impact from their efforts. Listen to your team and gather feedback from them to see what communication methods might be most effective. Separately, we’ve also heard from GMs who have recorded their action plans to share with their team which also helps hold them accountable for what they said they were going to do.
  
  
• Increased Focus on Recruiting and Hiring a More Diverse Team of High Performers – Starting with the right people from the get-go will help on your quest for retention. If they’re already a great culture fit with your dealership, it will be easier to keep them happy. Likewise, a diverse group of staff will help provide different ideas and perspectives to strengthen your operations. Having employees who are representative of your customers, who understand different cultural needs, speak the same languages, etc., will help you deliver an even more tailored customer experience. For example, we recently visited a dealership that was in an area with a large Nepalese community. On their staff was one Nepalese salesperson who naturally became the go-to for these folks. They were so happy with his top-notch service (and the fact that they spoke the same language) that they would recommend all their neighbors and friends go to him as well. 

• Maintaining Optimal Staffing and Good Bench Strength – The concept of having good bench strength is less widely understood and more difficult to achieve. For example, if one of your service advisors is taking a day off or a vacation, how do you cover for them? Are the other service advisors expected to pitch in or have you trained some of your people to perform aspects of the service advisor’s job? Having a contingency plan in place so you have a backup quarterback is essential. Furthermore, letting the people who will be covering practice these new skills and giving them training beforehand will help ensure you have a smooth transition when someone is out. Also, do you bump their pay up for the time they are covering? This can help alleviate stress from the team as well as send a good message to newer employees who you are trying to develop. Having optimal staffing to begin with will help as well because if you’re always short-staffed, people will be overworked and stressed out on a daily basis. 
  
  
• Offering Flexible Scheduling and More PTO Options – From the survey data we collect, we can see that these things are having a huge impact. We surveyed a dealer group who was implementing a 4-day work week in their service department. We surveyed their employees before they started to roll out the 4-day schedule and we found that initially, people balked at the 4-day schedule but once they started to experience it, we saw a higher level of engagement and a lower number of employees who said they were looking for a new job. Doing what you can do to accommodate employees’ needs through better scheduling is definitely having an impact. Offering extra PTO (paid time off) in place of some other less motivating perks or rewards is something that also helps with retention. 
  
  
• Increased Focus on Non-Monetary Rewards and Recognition – Though cash is king and there’s a greater emphasis on more flexible and generous PTO, we know that people respond to personalized and non-monetary rewards and recognition. Think little thoughtful gifts, celebrations, a day off to volunteer, their birthday off, employee of the month, mentorship opportunities, and other out-of-the-box perks. These don’t have to be expensive but letting your employees know you care and recognizing them in unique ways goes a long way. Sometimes even just hearing a ‘thank you’ or ‘great job’ is more than enough. 
  
  
• Using Employee Action Teams or Continuous Improvement Teams – In its simplest form, this is a group of employees who spend a portion of their time improving their employer’s connection with employees through surveys, building trust, and developing a dialogue. We are hearing more and more about dealerships who are using employee action teams. This stems back to the Japanese production system of looking for continuous improvement by measuring and adjusting constantly. The emphasis here is to involve employees, make them feel included, and give them a voice in this process. 

Any combination of these things can do a lot to improve your employee retention. The large cap groups have been doing a lot to address these too-common retention issues but we’re starting to see more effort from the small to mid-sized dealerships. After 20-something years of dealership surveying, we’re really encouraged by what we’re seeing in the industry. Hopefully dealers stick with their efforts and dealerships in general continue to be a better place to work.