Keep recruitment going beyond date of hire by prioritizing ongoing training

May 3, 2021
Successfully recruiting new talent has to extend beyond just the date of hire. Ongoing training is paramount. 

Rob Gagliano was kind enough to share with me – so I could share with you in some previous columns – some of the ways he’s attracted and hired the talent needed at the three Detroit area dealerships he and his siblings now operate. Rob had seen many of those techniques work successfully as he previously helped build Collex Collision Experts into a 16-shop chain that was acquired by The Boyd Group in 2014. 

But now with an even wider variety of dealership positions to fill at Genesis Automotive Group, Rob said successfully recruiting new talent has to extend beyond just the date of hire. Given that his company tries to focus primarily on filling entry-level positions within the company – and then moving those people up through the ranks – ongoing training is paramount.   

“At Collex, toward the end, we had a big training center with a dedicated trainer,” Rob told me. “We haven’t done it for all departments here yet, but today we have a trainer on our sales side of the operation, working with new hires from Day 1some classroom training and on-the-job, holding their hand for the first 30 days, getting them up to speed, being there to take their questionsThat’s been successful. We’ve been able to bring in people who haven’t really sold anything in their life – waiters and waitresses, or people working at electronics or furniture stores. 

A good compensation program is also essential, Rob said. A strictly commission or flat-rate pay plan isn’t going to work for someone learning a new job, whether it’s selling cars or fixing them. 

“At most dealerships, it’sHere’s a desk. Here’s a phone. Here’s our commission plan. If you make it, great. But there’s no paycheck until you sell a car,’” Rob said. “Some people working paycheck to paycheck can’t afford to take a risk on a new job like that.” 

Instead, Rob’s dealerships have created a “learn and earn” pay plan. 

That’s fancy term for saying we’re paying them an hourly wage plus a bonus on a per-car sale,” Rob said of the new salespeople he hires.  It lets them cut their teeth, have a paycheck coming in while they’re learning. It’s an investment on our end, of course. But it’s been successful. These entry-level people can’t go three or four weeks without a paycheck. 

Another key piece: measurement and feedback. Just as a body shop knows what a technician’s two stalls should generate, a dealership also needs to know what a desk in the sales department should generate. 

“Now let’s make that their goal, not our goal,” Rob said. “We recognize success and make a big deal about it, with awards tied to volume and meeting objectives.”  

The last piece to successfully hiring and building the team you need, Rob told me, is building the right culture. 

It’s wonderful to have vision and mission and values statements. But if you want to create that culture, everyone – including the managers and owners – better be living it, not just talking about it,” Rob said. “When we say 100 percent customer satisfaction, whatever it takes to make customers happy, we live that. They look at me like I’m crazy when they hear me say, That customer isn’t happy with that car? Buy it back. But they see that you put your money where your mouth is.  

Rob is very rightly proud that surveys of employees at businesses in his market have ranked Genesis Automotive Group as a “Top Workplace” in the Detroit Free Press for three straight years. 

His parting thought to me as we ended our conversation was that he hates it when he hears body shop people say no one wants to get into this trade. 

“That is bull, that is not true,” Rob said. “It’s the industry that doesn’t allow these guys in. You want someone you can throw out there to immediately do a heavy-duty frame rail replacement. Sure, we’d love to have those guys. But you have to grow them. To this day, there are very few companies allowing that to happen. You just look for a skilled guy because you have a ‘today problem’ to solve. But if you want a future, you better have at least one or two stalls with entry-level people you are growing and investing in.” 

About the Author

Steven Feltovich

Steve Feltovich of SJF Business Consulting, LLC, works with dealers, MSOs and independent collision repair businesses to make lasting improvements and achieve performance goals. He has more than three decades of automotive industry experience, including 17 years with Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes. Connect with Feltovich on LinkedIn. 

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