Hireology CEO Talks Dealership People Processes and Recruiting

In any industry your people are your brand. Those same people are often chosen after a process of interviews and a review of certain qualifications. However, that’s often not the case for retail automotive. As you likely know it’s more of a mass hire, mass attrition situation. In an interview with DrivingSales News, Adam Robinson, Co-Founder and CEO of Hireology, spoke about various aspects of employee recruiting, hiring and retention as it pertains to retail automotive.

Robinson began by talking about how dealer principles need to see people as their most valuable asset but that dealers typically don’t put enough time an effort into new employees. Robinson talked to a GM who was all about hiring volume. “It’s all about volume,” Robinson said referencing a GM who he spoke to. “I want to get as many through the door, put them on the floor and see who sticks. I said how many typically stick in your model? Well, if we bring in 100 people in any quarter, 5 or 6 will make it. What would that do for you if 10 people made it instead of five? He said, it would be hundreds of thousands of gross a quarter across the group. I said why don’t you focus on that? He looked at me and he said, I don’t know, that’s a good question.”

According to NADA data, in 2013 66% of all sales consultants who were hired to work at dealerships, quit by the end of the year. Robinson feels that far too often people are hired with little concern for long-term longevity; a process he feels is destined to fail. “Just hiring people and throwing them on the floor is not going to work,” Robinson explained. “Because the best run stores are going to figure out how to get the people side of their business right and they’re going to wield that like a weapon and they’re going to win in these markets because of it.”

Part of dealers having that weapon could mean changing how they measure management performance. Robinson feels that in order to be an ‘A’ manager, one has to know how to find and then keep excellent employees. “I think that it’s the manager’s number one differentiator from being an ‘A’ manager to being a ‘B’ or ‘C’ manager, the ability to find and recruit talent. What I’d like to see is more dealer groups measuring hiring success as a function of GM effectiveness. I think that if we start doing that we’re going in the right direction.”

Getting the people side of your store right can mean using a properly planned out, ethical approach. In an interview, David Amerland, renowned speaker and author who will be keynoting the DrivingSales Executive Summit in October said in a DSES sneak peek Google Hangout, “A dealership that manages to have the right approach from an ethos point of view internally will work well externally. It becomes one of these desirable places of employment and it tends to attract usually good talent.”

Attracting good talent using an ethos approach, what could that mean for your store? Robinson feels that many dealers don’t want to put the time into their people process and adds that whom you hire is the only thing that you have full control over. Robinson said, “The Only thing you have 100 percent control over is who put on your payroll. That is it. That is the last thing that you have full control over. I can’t control interest rates, government regulation, I can’t control unions, I can’t control what OEMs are gonna do. And I say that to any manager who challenges me. I just don’t have the time. I promise you you’re spending the time. I promise you you’re spending the time. Let me show you that if you focus on this I can give you half your week back.”

While dealership managers are spending the time on employees that turnover often, the question becomes: What is an acceptable turnover rate for a dealership? How can you tell whose fault the turnover likely is based on timeframes? Robinson weighed in saying, “Acceptable benchmark for turnover, if I was managing the store would be 25 percent. If someone turns over in the first six months, that’s generally a recruiting issue. After six months, that’s generally a management issue. So if I’m going to measure my mangers ability to be good at picking people I’m going to look at the amount of turnover that occurs within the first six months of someone’s relationship with my dealership.”

At 66 percent turnover, it’s clear that dealers could stand to benefit from putting more time into their people process. What about having some sort of professional accreditation system in variable ops? Robinson explained that many industries have career competencies accreditation that allows an employee to say, “you’ve achieved a level of competence in your procession. The variable side of the business just doesn’t have any of that stuff and I do believe there’s a need for it.”

How big is the turnover rate at your store and what do you think you can do to improve your people process? Has the time come for us as an industry to review our hiring processes and standards? Is there a need for an automotive retail accreditation system on the variable side of the business?