July 3, 2019—The recent Women in Automotive (WIA) conference in Orlando focused on the importance of diversity in the automotive industry. Dan Flynn, president of CDK America, served as a keynote speaker and shared goals and strategies that repair facilities can use to increase workplace diversity based on proprietary 2019 research results.
Flynn shared the reason repair businesses should be more inclusive of women and what strategies can be used to attract more.
Why, in your opinion, is there a lack of diversity?
It’s been a male dominated industry for a number of years and we’re not making any progress. Data points in the research say that stores that have women in leadership roles perform better and that women that work for leaders report higher levels of respect.
How can women be attracted to the industry?
We interviewed women that were successful in the industry to find out what was driving their success. Here’s what we found:
- They want a job that enabled the selling process
- They want to have a predictable schedule
- They want to help improve the experience of customers
- They want to exceed expectations and improve the auto experience
There are four factors that motivate and draw them in. [Businesses] should take note of that.
