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Here are some key ways to tell if you’re on the right side of the road when it comes to work culture:
As you may know, culture is key. It’s especially important for dealerships, where employees work in close contact, as part of high-pressure sales environments. Co-workers don’t need to be best friends, but you want them to be friendly with each other, and to work well together. There are many signs that reflect a strong dealership work culture. Here are a few of them:
People stay.
Turnover is perhaps the most telling reflection of a company’s work culture. Of course, in the case of car dealerships, it’s important to remember that turnover is uncharacteristically high across the industry. But once you adjust your expectations for that trend, you’re going to learn a lot about the quality of your dealership’s work culture. If you’re doing better than the average dealership, in terms of turnover, you’re doing something right in establishing a positive, supportive, magnetic environment that people want to show up to every day.
People support each other’s success.
When your culture is at its strongest, when you’re truly embodying the definition of teamwork, you’ll see co-workers rooting for each other and making explicit efforts to help each other succeed. To be sure, it’s a high standard to reach, but when an organization gets there, it’s a beautiful thing. Make sure to emphasize this kind of support as an organizational value when you hire and onboard new people-by setting clear expectations, you’ll help set the right tone from the start.
Winners want to come onboard.
If you’ve got high-quality candidates and top performers from other dealerships knocking on your door and looking to join your team, you’ve got a special thing going. As is the case in almost any other industry, people talk. Especially salespeople. They’re natural born networkers and social savants. You can bet they’re trading stories about their work experiences, and if those stories about your dealership are positive ones, you won’t be looking for top candidatesÉ they’ll be finding you.
People smile.
While this may seem trite, it can’t be overlooked. If people are happy, motivated and cooperative, they can’t hide it! You will see it on their faces, see it in their body language and hear it in their voices. Watch your people for a day, observe their one-on-one and group interactions, see how people greet one another, or say goodbye-if smiles abound, you can bet you’re on the right track!
Sales are up!
What more can we say? Happy people do better work. And don’t think for a second that customers are oblivious to the culture at your auto dealership. They practically smell it in the air when they walk in. And if not, you can bet they’ll get a good read on it after spending a couple hours with one of your employees. Get customers in a buying mood by creating an environment that puts employees in a working mood!
Click on the link below to get free insight on how to build a workplace culture that sets your auto dealership up for success!
