Bri Newman, Vice-President
Tackling hiring and retention
Bri Newman, Vice-President
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The issue of employee hiring and retention is nothing new to automotive retailers — it’s been flagged before. It was even on the minds of dealers at the 2018 NADA Show, but this year there appears to be more effort to improve the situation — both from industry associations, and from company’s like The Minery.
Canadian auto dealer connected with Bri Newman, Vice-President of The Minery, to better understand the hiring and retention issue to solve the problem. She said the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) launched their Auto Career Start initiative last year to promote automotive jobs and career in industry. “They’re launching job boards and awareness campaigns,” said Newman.
It’s one example of what industry associations are doing to curb the issue, but The Minery is going about it a bit differently.
“We know the industry spends a lot of time around the job candidate experience, and creating your employer brand, which is really, really important,” said Newman. “But our sweet spot is connecting that whole experience to post-hire. Creating really strong on-boarding plans, training, compliance, all of those pieces. So we’re really targeting the whole gamut when it comes to the employee lifecycle.”
This year was Newman’s second time attending the NADA event, and her first time exhibiting. Part of their focus was on targeting partnerships and creating a network where they can source talent somewhat differently then they have been doing, and then “put that talent into the hands of the dealers.”
Newman has also connected with Jason Dale, Director of the Automotive Business School of Canada (ABSC). “That’s also something we’re working on with our bigger groups specifically to create better pipelines between The Minery and automotive programs in dealerships.”
The company has spent the last six months focusing on creating relationships with businesses and other groups. They are also focusing on training and development programs, coaching, rewarding recognition, feedback, “all of those other critical aspects of what people are after in terms of what they look for in an employer, which is all so critical,” said Newman.
Return to NADA Show 2019
