The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Foundation is planning to launch a major workforce initiative in 2019 to help promote the importance of dealership jobs in the automotive retail industry.
“Local dealerships provide more than a million good-paying jobs in sales, management and service, which benefit communities everywhere,” said NADA Foundation Chairman Annette Sykora. She adds that “the future of our industry is the dealership workforce. Considering the shortages that dealerships now face, especially in recruiting, training and retaining technicians, the time is now for our Foundation to educate America on the value of these jobs to workers and local communities.”
Plans and funding for the initiative, which is expected to include a new NADA Foundation website, along with videos, digital and social media content, and “outreach to opinion leaders,” was approved by the foundation’s Board of Trustees. It will be developed this year and launched at the 2019 NADA Show in San Francisco.
The Foundation developed the framework for the initiative throughout 2017 after discovering a need to better coordinate efforts from automakers, training centres, and dealerships — and particular recruiting technicians.
“What we found are a lot of competing silos that don’t appear to be talking to each other, which makes getting into a technician career unduly burdensome on potential recruits,” said Jonathan Collegio, NADA’s senior vice president of Public Affairs. “It is incredibly difficult for someone interested in a technician career to find clear information about the benefits of a technician career, and how to gain the training and certifications necessary. We plan to provide compelling information on these good-paying careers at dealerships.”
The lack of targeted messaging and marketing to promote these careers is also an issue — something the NADA Foundation intends to address in its marketing efforts.
