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Recruiting

Setting Realistic Job Expectations

Contributing Author:
Amber Hash
Recruiting Manager
EFG Companies

Struggling with Employee Retention?

It could be due to the nature of the industry. It could be due to a labor shortage. It could be due to your recruitment practices. Or, it could be a combination of all three.

The U.S. unemployment rate continues to sink, hitting a 17-year low in November of last year at 4.1 percent. Job seekers are finding work more easily than any time since the mid-90s. Openings have now topped roughly 6 million for five months in a row, a record streak, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the second quarter GDP notched an impressive 4.1 percent, labor market analysts cautioned that an increasing labor shortage could impact growth going forward.

In addition, according to the 2017 NADA Dealership Workforce Study, the median workforce tenure in retail automotive is 2.5 years. However, it takes employees in key production positions, like F&I managers, an average of three years to reach full productivity.

Going in to 2018, dealers were already struggling with employee retention. Compound that with a labor shortage, and the typical high-turnover nature of the industry could turn from a nuisance to a serious problem.

In my previous blog, I discussed how hiring practices can impact employee retention – specifically the importance of vetting your candidates. While vetting is extremely important in making sure you’re filling open positions with the right people, it’s equally important to set realistic job expectations early on in the recruiting process. This helps your team make sure they are searching for the right talent, and it helps to set up new recruits for success.

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Dealership Recruiting Dealership Training EFG Companies The Transcend Group

EFG Companies Combats Dealership Turnover

A new Automotive News article, published June 6, 2011, says that sales staff turnover at dealerships is lower than ever. In the past two years, dealerships lost an average of 34 percent of their total sales force. Smaller dealerships in rural areas had even lower sales staff turnover of about 24 percent. Historical figures average closer to 45 percent turnaround.  There are a few reasons for this trend, the article claims, but Enterprise Financial Group, Inc. (EFG) has its own viewpoint.

According to the Auto News article, people are disinclined to quit their jobs during tough economic times. After General Motors and Chrysler went bankrupt, there became fewer places for job-hoppers to turn. Plus, the tumbling housing market is directly tied to salesmen sticking around as well.

Dealers are looking at this as a good thing. Lower turnover in any business is desirable, but there is another aspect that holds even greater importance. In order for the business to stay profitable, dealerships must ensure that their sales staff is comprised of people who are the most productive. The Recruitment and Workforce Solutions services provided by EFG Companies are incredibly important for retaining the right employees, in the right jobs, for the highest level of productivity.

Why you should look into EFG Companies:

  • For every Poor Hiring Decision (P.H.D.sm) your dealership makes, you experience a loss after the turnover. When advertising, interviewing, training, lost sales, and lost service revenue are factored in, your dealership could easily lose upward of $75,000 per employee that ends up not being the right match for the job.
  • A recent poll taken of dealership owners revealed that a majority of respondents (65 percent) said that recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining top-quality sales team members is the most difficult challenge they face.

Solutions offered by EFG’s Recruiting Services:

  • Top Performer Profiling – The behavior traits of salespeople across the country have been profiled so that future top performing sellers can be profiled and compared to currently successful ones. In this way, top performers can be identified before they’re ever hired.
  • Recruiting Process – Every part of the recruiting process is handled by EFG.  Specific areas include advertising, questionnaires, personality profiling, reference checks, interviews, and placement.
  • Tracking and Monitoring – EFG’s web-based recruiting platform tracks the entire recruiting process.  This allows thousands of jobs applicants to be screened every year.
  • Refined Process – Thanks to EFG’s 30-plus years in this business, the recruiting process has been completely refined.
  • Workforce Solutions – EFG offers everything from PDP Certification and Mentor Training to Effective Communications and Leadership Skills workshops. These solutions not only make sure you have the right people in the right roles, but that those people are accurately trained to the highest standards to ensure success for the whole company. Our training programs and workshops will teach people how to leverage their natural strengths and learn the strengths of their coworkers and teach them how to work together. We believe dealerships are a social organization run on people, and our workshops are developed to give those people all the tools they need to be successful.

All dealerships are unique, and your current recruiting and employee retention practices may be effective for you.  Therefore, EFG will perform a quick, complimentary analysis of your current methods. If you’re tired of lost revenue from high sales staff turnover, you have nothing to lose by getting in touch with EFG Companies today, where lower turnover and increased productivity occur with 96 percent of our clients.

For more information, http://www.efgcompanies.com.