Engagement is everything when it comes to employee performance

It’s important to ensure your dealership’s technology is up to date, processes are efficient, and your stores and facilities are well-maintained. However, the most valuable investment you can make is in your people.

Without engaged, high-performing employees, your business can’t be its best. Investing in the career development, growth and retention of your people creates a better customer experience and, ultimately, a stronger bottom line.

Retention is vital for any company. High-quality employees not only perform better, but it’s also simply very expensive to hire and train new employees. Believe it or not, onboarding can cost about $10,000 per new hire for auto dealerships.¹ Dealerships have a high annual turnover rate, estimated at over 46% by NADA², and needing to hire new employees more frequently can negatively impact your financial success.

While good compensation and benefits can attract top talent to your dealership, that’s often not enough to keep them there. Employed adults spend about half their waking lives working,³ so naturally most want to feel engaged in their careers and find satisfaction in their work. And there are many benefits beyond retention in helping employees achieve that goal.

Companies with engaged workforces enjoy: ⁴

• 23% higher profitability
• 18% greater productivity
• 81% reduction in absenteeism
• 64% fewer employee accidents
• 10% higher customer loyalty

Growing employee skills increases their engagement

A big part of improving employee satisfaction is ensuring people have the skills needed to excel in their role. This not only helps them perform their jobs more efficiently, but also supports their career growth. One recent survey showed that less than half of workers think their employer provides enough opportunity to learn skills that could help them advance their careers.⁵

“One of the biggest shifts over the last decade is how people not only want, but expect their employer to be investing in their growth,” said Tracy Lampert, Head of Employee Experience and Culture at Zurich North America. “Career development offers a sense of purpose and motivation, which can lead to stronger engagement and commitment. In particular, employees are looking for meaningful ways that their employer supports their individual career paths — it creates a sense of connection and wellbeing.”

“At Zurich, we’ve found that it pays to help employees explore their career goals and build their skills,” explained Lampert. “While we encourage people to consider themselves ‘CEOs of their own career,’ we know that can be daunting. We provide tools and learning to support career exploration and development. In addition, our managers have ongoing conversations with their team members about their career goals and interests to help shape their path.”

Without a strong culture grounded in individual growth and development, your dealership could lose recruiting and retention battles in a competitive job market.

Investing in people today shapes your leaders for tomorrow

Successful dealership owners think about the long-term future of their business. They ask themselves: Who are the employees ready to move into upper management and sales leadership? And who will succeed my top people in those roles when they retire or move on to different opportunities?

Strong people-development programs prepare the next generation of your workforce to advance to roles with increased or new responsibilities. Here’s an example of a year-round schedule for this kind of program:

• Q1: Set objectives with each employee and determine skill-building needs.
• Q2: Schedule a career development conversation and quarterly reviews on progress on objectives.
• Q3: Provide structured feedback with the employee on progress toward meeting objectives and identify areas that need extra attention.
• Q4: Deliver a performance assessment using qualitative and quantitative metrics (e.g., customer feedback, sales goals, etc.).

Engage employees and you’ll engage customers

Participants in development programs are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs, invested in the company, and overall have a more positive view of their workplace. Customers interacting with more satisfied employees are likely to have a better experience. This, in turn, leads to higher customer engagement.

“People want to feel like they are making a difference to the organization,” said Lampert. “The biggest return on investment from people development is that you grow more productive contributors, and that results in happier customers, which leads to a healthier bottom line.”

Customize your training

Once you’ve established performance and skill objectives for each employee’s development plan, there should be a training component to meet these goals. The right choice of training will depend on content, schedule, and budget.

• In-house training

One of the simplest and most economical approaches to training is to have your employees coach each other. Who better to instruct new employees or those moving into new roles than someone who knows your company, processes and customers? In-house training can take the form of brown-bag lunches, a mentorship program, or one-on-one training to explain a new process or program. An added benefit is the trainer’s development of leadership skills.

• Online training

Online training can be an effective method to access knowledge across a wide range of subjects, including management and technology. Online training is also flexible, allowing people to schedule it around other commitments. Our online learning and development platform, Zurich University, provides dealership employees interactive training on a variety of topics, including F&I sales presentations, objection handling, compliance, harassment and discrimination, and more.

• Live virtual training

Live virtual training platforms are cost-effective and the multi-user, interactive format holds attendees’ attention. Zurich’s Fixed Operations Training is an example of this. It offers both topic-specific training as well as certification programs, helping fixed operations team members at all levels develop knowledge and proficiency in important job skills.

• Industry associations

Many industry associations provide training for members, online or through seminars, conferences or other events. One advantage of this option is that content is specialized and targeted to your business and customer needs. It’s also an excellent way to stay current with industry trends.

• External training programs

Professional training organizations offer events open to employees from different companies. The cost per employee may be less than individual training programs and the events present a unique opportunity for networking. Make sure the content is directly applicable to the employee’s learning objectives. Zurich offers regional F&I Training seminars and workshops designed for dealership management and their F&I teams throughout the year across the country. Attendees build stronger sales presentation skills, discover ways to integrate technology into the sales process, broaden their knowledge of compliance and regulatory requirements, and strengthen their ability to deliver improved results and an optimal customer experience.

• On-site training

Investing in a high-quality half-day or full-day on-site training session demonstrates to your people how much value you place on developing their knowledge and skills.

Regardless of the employee’s job title or which training approach is implemented, people development always needs to be grounded in your dealership’s vision. When your people understand the vision, they can see more clearly the contribution they can make to achieve it.

1. Hireology. “The True Cost of Employee Onboarding at Dealerships.” April 2018.
2. Toussi, Sean. “From Turnover to Retention Strategies to Combat Understaffing in Car Dealerships.” Digital Dealer. 22 October 2024.
3. Adams, Jerome M. “The Value of Worker Well-Being.” Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. 2019.
4. Gallup. “The Benefits of Employee Engagement.” 7 January 2023.
5. PwC. “Workers are ready for change. Are leaders ready to engage them?” 24 June 2024.