Several Hireology team members attended NADA Show 2020, which took place in Las Vegas from February 14 through 17. The annual show brings together automotive industry leaders, manufacturers, exhibitors and other key players to learn the latest tools, tactics and industry trends, see the hottest new automotive products and technologies, and make important connections with one another.
As a strategic hiring partner in retail automotive – powering hiring for one in five new car dealerships across the country – Hireology attends the NADA Show every year to learn more about challenges dealers face today – and how Hireology can address these challenges by helping them attract, hire and onboard their best teams. Below, we’ve pulled together an overview of some highlights we noticed and key takeaways from the show.
Dealers who embrace change are set up for long-term success
As the retail automotive industry continues to rapidly evolve, dealers who embrace shifting consumer sentiment, explore new ways of doing business and make investments in pursuit of long-term success are standing out from the competition. For example, larger, ten-plus rooftop groups are thinking strategically about how to drive economies of scale, and more functions are being centralized and consolidated. And dealers who recognize such challenges as decreasing new vehicle profit margins are figuring out new ways for their service operations and used car sales to power profits and drive success during tough times, whenever they might emerge.
No matter the economic conditions or changes across the industry, the most successful dealers understand the importance of having the right employees in place to create a competitive advantage. Now more than ever, car buyers are completing significant research before walking into a dealership, meaning your employees are customers and the final purchase. Additionally, the customer experience has a significant impact on whether or not customers choose to return to your dealership for service or future car purchases. Because of this, top dealers recognize the need to take a strategic approach to their recruitment marketing and hiring efforts to build the best teams possible.
There’s an opportunity to better manage retail automotive hiring
During the show, Hireology CEO and co-founder, Adam Robinson, led two workshops on “The Human Capital Advantage.” Adam walked attendees through the importance of hiring the right dealership employees and outlined best practices successful employers use to connect with top applicants. He also highlighted the opportunity dealers have to improve their hiring efforts in order to avoid missing out on top talent.
As part of his session, Adam highlighted recent research from Hireology and NADA on the state of retail automotive hiring. While dealers opened more jobs than ever before in 2019, they also lost about 2 million applicants because they were either never reviewed or reviewed too late – when applicants either lost interest or received other job opportunities.
As Adam shared during his session, “Last year, 2 million people tried to work for us and we did not get back to them in a timely fashion. The biggest thing we [dealers] can do to staff our dealerships is review applicants faster, respond quickly and have a consistent applicant process.”
See a full video of Adam’s session here, which also outlines how dealers can hire more efficiently, data on job applicants’ interest in automotive careers, the most effective marketing channels for reaching quality candidates and key metrics related to the tight labor market.
NADA’s Human Capital 20 Group is driving improved hiring and employee retention
At Hireology’s annual Elevate conference in 2018, Hireology announced a strategic relationship with NADA. As part of this relationship, Hireology and NADA commitment to jointly forming Human Capital 20 Groups.
Since NADA’s Human Capital 20 Group launched in partnership with Hireology, dealership human resources professionals now have a new opportunity to connect, and share best practices and resources to find, develop and retain talent.
During an NADA Live Stage session, Hireology co-founder and CEO, Adam Robinson, along with NADA’s Kelly Smith and Walser Automotive Group’s Ryan Moffitt discussed the importance and benefits of NADA’s Human Capital 20 Group. In fact, the first NADA HCM 2020 has seen such great results with helping dealers drive success on the people side of their businesses that a second group is launching in the near future.
Watch the full NADA Live Stage session here to learn more about NADA’s Human Capital 20 Group.
These are just a few of the many hot topics discussed at NADA Show 2020. For more information on how Hireology can help your dealership create a competitive advantage through your people, see a demo today.
