Building culture and community is the key to keeping employees engaged.
With employee turnover as high as 30 per cent in Canadian dealerships, it’s more important than ever to build and nurture your dealership’s culture.
Is your dealership a fun place to work? Are you doing events and activities to engage your employees? Are you giving back to your community, and if so do your employees know about it?
“Culture has always been an important part of dealership success,” said Tim Reuss, President and CEO of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA). “But for younger employees, it’s a key part of how they evaluate their workplace. These generations want to do more than just go to work, they want to connect and feel like they matter, and are making a difference.”
To that end, the CADA 360 HR Automation platform rolled out a suite of new tools to help support and nurture the culture within your dealership. “Instead of just engaging with your employees when they are hired, fired or retired — you can keep in contact with them throughout their career,” said Michael Stassen, Regional Manager with DealerPILOT, the software that powers the CADA 360 HR Automation platform.
Stassen says the platform’s new Culture Module features allow for things like centralized posting of events, posting and sharing media and photos, commenting and suggestions, and even surveys of employees from within the platform.
“Instead of just engaging with your employees when they are hired, fired or retired — you can keep in contact with them throughout their career.” — Michael Stassen, Regional Manager with DealerPILOT
“It’s kind of like an internal social media platform for sharing content. it’s a great way to stay connected and engaged with existing and new staff,” said Laurie Maher, CADA 360 Program Manager. “We are excited to see how dealership teams start to use these new features built right into CADA 360 HR Automation.”
Michael Psotka, CADA’s CFO and Director of Member Services, said DealerPILOT is CADA’s exclusive partner for HR software, and he is pleased to see more innovation and customizing within the platform to meet the evolving needs of dealerships. “When employees are able to do things like build their own profile within the platform, and can connect to other employees it fosters a sense of team and being part of a work community. These are important tools that help retain people,” he said.
Psotka said the platform already checks all the boxes for what a dealership would require from a highly-automated HR software system such as: employee onboarding, training, vacation requests, inspections, health and safety, record keeping, bio-punching, and HR compliance needs — but these new culture tools will encourage employees to use the software more often to stay on top of their dealership’s activities. “This added visibility will allow people to see what’s happening throughout their organization, or for dealership groups, across their network,” he said.
Dealers also say they like using the platform and interacting with the team behind it. “In all my interactions with the CADA360 HR Automation team, responsiveness and helpfulness has truly set them apart,” said Nancy Little, Corporate Controller from the Boyer Auto Group in Ontario. “Whenever I’ve had a concern or question, the support team consistently goes above and beyond to provide me with the support I need. I strongly believe that it’s in a dealer’s best interest to consider CADA360 HR Automation.”
The best part for dealers, said Psotka, is that by supporting CADA 360 programs and services, the proceeds go to help fund CADA’s advocacy efforts on behalf of dealers across Canada. “You get best-of-breed software and tools, and in turn help fund activities that benefit and protect your business interests. That’s a win-win in my books,” said Psotka.
The platform is fully mobile-enabled, and employees can check for updates on their desktop computers, laptops or phone while at work or home. “This platform was built by dealers, for dealers, and is always evolving based on the feedback from CADA and their dealer members,” said Stassen. “The Culture Module is another example of how we adapt the platform to new business needs.”
