We all want to retain our best employees. Focusing on preventing turnover is smart, and I certainly encourage it. When it comes to your parts department you should spend as much, or more time, preparing for turnover.
Let’s look at prevention first. The Millennial generation is the largest in our workforce today. Most of your new hires are coming from this generation or the next one — Generation Z. Over the last 15 years there has been solid research done to understand these newer generations. Fortunately, when it comes to attracting and retaining employees, these two generations have a lot in common. Here are a few practical things we can do as dealers to retain these generations:
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Credible Position Titles – When I started my career, I was content with the title of “Parts Gopher”. I wasn’t necessarily proud of the name, but I knew if worked hard and applied myself I would soon be promoted to a “Counterman” role. That is not going to work today. No one wants a title named after a burrowing rodent. Even the term “Counterman” is outdated. Some of the better titles dealers are using today are “Parts Advisor” or “Parts Specialist”.
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Position Tiers – Employees may leave if there is little opportunity for advancement. The reality is that they start their career with you as a “Parts Person” and maybe, just maybe, someday they get a shot at being the “Parts Manager.” Adding tiers may feel like you are adding complication, but it could help with turnover. I have seen some dealers add entry level roles called “Parts Associate”, then progress to more responsibility and earn a promotion to “Parts Specialist”. When they are ready, you can promote them to a “Parts Advisor” role. The “Sr. Parts Advisor" or “Assistant Manager” roles can be added before getting to the “Parts Manager” position.
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Making the World a Better Place – It might sound like a fluffy altruistic goal, but the research consistently points to this as a priority. The good news is that you have a great advantage with this priority. You are not just supporting great machines with more horsepower and better reliability – you are doing something more important. Ag equipment dealers are feeding the world. Construction equipment dealers are helping build roads, bridges, houses and hospitals. Power equipment dealers are helping others make property beautiful and safe. You probably played this card when you recruited them to join your dealership. Now you need to remind them that is why we are here.
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Stay Interviews – These are not interviews where you try to talk someone out of leaving. Don’t waste your time, it rarely works. A Stay Interview facilitates open communication with your best employees to find out what keeps them here and what would tempt them to leave. You can find great advice and examples online. Don’t start this process until you have educated yourself. The most important thing is to be very clear with the employee about why you want to have the discussion. This could backfire if you are not prepared and you let the employee’s imagination run wild.
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Entrepreneurial Tasks – Back to the research. A large percentage of the Gen Z employees said they would like to start their own business someday. They may change their mind later, but right now it is like a little voice in their head. If you can give them some form of responsibility it may help. Let them take over something in your parts department, it may even be something you have not yet started. For example, they could own the e-commerce process, or ask them to find a solution for your slow moving inventory. They could be tasked with maintaining your parts merchandising area or maybe you ask them to implement cycle counting of your inventory. The smart ones are not going to start a new business before they are ready, but they still have the vision. If you do not give them opportunities to grow in responsibility, they may go look for it.
Preventing Turnover may seem like an elusive goal, but we must try. If you only have 10 hours a month to spend on the topic, I would spend 2 hours on prevention and 8 hours preparing for turnover. In Part 2 we will look at the reason why and what you can do about it.
