Automotive News Canada - October 2019 - v2 - 10

OPINION

10.19

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New hires: The Millennial gap
What makes Best
Dealerships the best?
JEFF MELNYCHUK

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

THE FIRST STEP TO MAKING THE AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA
list of Best Dealerships To Work For might be the toughest: The
staff has to like their workplace enough to nominate it. That's
where it begins. Being liked. Maybe
even loved.
From there, it's surveys, spreadsheets, tabulations and scores, and then
the coveted list of 25, a list that's six
months in the making. This is a big deal
for the winners and for more than bragging rights.
Dealerships are being shaped by the
same technology that's shaping other
businesses and industries. Perhaps it's
scheduling or accounting software, communications technology or artificial intelligence, diagnostic abilities, or
social-media marketing and web design.
Or all of the above.
Dealerships need staff with these skills - and of course a
go-getter work ethic and the right personalities - but the critical
part of the equation is do such people need the dealership when
they have a choice of employers? Not really, according to the stories we've written.
Being named a Best Dealership To Work For is a competitive
edge in the winning dealership's home town, certainly among dealerships. Such an accolade could also pull in fresh, malleable talent
from outside the automotive world, with a fresh perspective.
But what kind of workplace are we talking about, here? Fourhour days, free steak lunches and no-questions-asked "sick" days
after weekend bashes?
Make no mistake, the 25 Best Dealerships To Work For are serious businesses with top-performing
staff who are put into roles that take
The top 25 dealerships
advantage of their skills. They are
given every opportunity to succeed
have sometimes wildly
because management knows that if
varying solutions
the staff excels, so does the dealerto exactly the same
ship. Happy staff means happy customers, and happy staff means
challenges of talent
turnover.
acquisition and retention. lower
The Best Dealerships are proactive with career planning and
advancement, and paying for professional upgrading and courses.
They praise staff, thank them and respect them. As a result,
employees become more connected.
Peter Burke, president of Best Companies Group, which managed this Best Dealerships project, said about 41 per cent of
Canadian employees feel a strong connection to their workplaces.
"The 2019 winning dealerships blew that number out of the
water. Instead of 41 per cent, 95 per cent of their employees are
'engaged.'"
Engagement comes in many forms, from providing flexible hours
to helping balance work and home life, to outings where staff can
blow off steam and connect with others. It boils down to one thing:
Caring about them.
But see for yourself. On pages 18-40 of this issue, the 25 dealerships share what gives them the edge in a competitive job market, and why the staff liked them enough - or loved them enough
- to nominate them. - ANC

EST. 1925.

PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
KEITH E. CRAIN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
KC CRAIN, GROUP PUBLISHER
JASON STEIN, PUBLISHER

DAVE VERSICAL, CHIEF OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS GROUP

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

NEWS DEPARTMENT

JEFF MELNYCHUK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, 506.854.5024, JMelnychuk@autonews.com
GRACE MACALUSO, MANAGING EDITOR, 226.787.0441, gmacaluso@crain.com

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Email: customerservicecanada@autonews.com

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Karen Rentschler, 313.446.6031
Email: Krentschler@crain.com

MORGAN BELL IS IN LOVE.
The problem isn't limited to the private sector. It
The object of her affection is her job as assisalso is infecting the public domain: health care,
tant sales manager at Riverside Dodge-Chryslerwhere nearly one in five jobs is precarious, and
Jeep-Ram in Prince Albert, Sask.
education, where nearly three in 10 jobs are pre"I like that transactional relationship with cuscarious, the study says.
tomers," says Bell, 28. "I really fell in love with it,
At Riverside Dodge and Park Avenue VW, two of
and that's how it turned into a
the 25 retailers that landed on
career path for me."
Automotive News Canada's list of
Since starting at Riverside
Best Dealerships To Work For,
MANAGING EDITOR
Dodge four years ago as a prodemployees enjoy a steady
uct specialist, Bell has been proincome, bonuses, career
GRACE
moted once and purchased her
advancement and a full slate of
MACALUSO
first home this year.
health and retirement benefits.
It's a similar story for David
Yet, job-hungry millennials
Giguère, whose "passion" for cars
aren't breaking down the doors of
as well as an auto industry develdealerships. In fact, most of the
COMMENT
oping electric and autonomous
winners expressed concerns
vehicles led him to Park Avenue Volkswagen in
about filling jobs at their workplaces.
Brossard, Que. In just three years, Giguère, 25, has
Bell thinks she knows why.
worked his way up from product specialist to team
"Dealing with customers has a negative percepleader, supervising eight sales staff.
tion," she says. "Young
Not bad for a couple of millennials, charting
people fear commisDealerships
their course through an economy fraught with presion-based pay. They worry
carious work that traps many young people in temthey're not going to be able
need to find a
porary contracts. That often means no steady
to pay their bills and that
more effective
income, no pension, no benefits and no sick pay.
there may be a lot of volaAccording to a 2018 study by the Canadian
tility in what they could be
way of telling
Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), 22 per cent of seeing in month-overtheir story.
professionals are in precarious jobs, despite high
month earnings."
levels of education, credentials and skills.
To address this, many
"All the hallmarks of precarious work are creepauto retailers have shifted from commission-based
ing into professions," says CCPA-Ontario Director
to salary-based compensation. They also offer benTrish Hennessy. "The survey reflects some
efits ranging from health, dental and retirement
deep-seated concerns about economic insecurity.
plans to paid vacation, bonuses and training.
"The majority of professionals without full-time
In an era of growing economic insecurity, dealerwork prefer better job stability, and 43 per cent of
ships have an opportunity to shine. "We're a hidden
them say the lack of stability
gem, and it's our job to make people aware," says
keeps them up at night."
JP Martel, manager of people and culture at Bruce
Hyundai in New Minas, N.S.
But they need to find a more effective way of
Morgan Bell is an example
telling their story.
of a millennial who fell in
And they need ambassadors, such as Bell and
love with working
Giguère, to spread the word that automotive retailat a dealership
ing can help millennials enjoy a long-term love
PHOTO: RIVERSIDE DODGECHRYSLER-JEEP-RAM
affair with their careers. - ANC

Grand Caravan: The rolling dead?
DODGE'S MINIVAN MUST BE
some sort of motorized zombie.
How else can you explain its
ability to live on and on and on?
I've been writing about "the
end" of the transcendent people
mover since November 2016.
"A letter of understanding
sent from Magna International to
Unifor says its Integram Seating
plant will cease delivery of the
Caravan seating to FCA's
Windsor assembly plant in July
2019, likely marking the end of
the minivan's run," I wrote on
our website back then.
In May
2019, indusU.S. President try analyst
Donald Trump Joe McCabe
said FCA
could keep
plans to
the Grand
replace the
Caravan alive. Grand
Caravan with
the entry-level Voyager, based on the
Chrysler Pacifica. Even FCA
Canada has said the Dodge
Grand Caravan "will eventually
go away."
And now this: The "garageable van" might get a pardon
from none other than U.S.
President Donald Trump. He is
hellbent on revoking California's
authority - granted by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
in the 1970s - to require auto-

DIGITAL AND
MOBILE EDITOR
AUTOMOTIVE
NEWS CANADA

GREG
LAYSON

COMMENT
makers to build vehicles with
tougher emissions standards
than U.S. federal regulations.
And that might breathe new life
into the Grand Caravan.
That's because come 2020,
the Caravan won't meet
California standards, or the standards of other states that follow
the Golden State.
Unifor officials tell me they
hope Trump wins the battle over
California's ability to set its own
standard, thereby allowing the
minivan to be sold in America's
most populated state.
Imagine that, a Canadian
union cheering on a conservative
U.S. president.
Unifor strongly believes more
product is needed - whether
new, old or stale - to save the
third shift at FCA's Windsor, Ont.,
minivan plant. So, whether it's a
new crossover or the Dodge
Grand Caravan matters little to
the 6,000 people who work
there, and the thousands more

who supply the parts.
Even if FCA does kill the
Caravan - at this point by way
of a silver bullet or stake through
the heart - the name itself
might still live on.
I say that because Allpar, a
website dedicated to all things
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, is
reporting - "according to sources within FCA Canada" - that
the lower-priced Voyager, being
built on the Pacifica platform,
will be called the Grand Caravan
in Canada.
"The Chrysler Voyager will initially only be available in the
U.S. market, but will be available
in Canada at a later date," FCA
Canada spokeswoman Lou Ann
Gosselin said via email in
October.
"While we've announced that
the Dodge Grand Caravan is the
minivan that will eventually go
away, we're not going into more
detail at this time."
Keeping the name in Canada
makes sense. The Grand
Caravan had always looked like
the defunct higher-end Chrysler
Town & Country. And it's the
country's most popular minivan
(thank the Canada Value
Package for that). It has outsold
the Pacifica seven-to-one
through September, 22,216 to
3,122. So, it might still be here
a while. - ANC

Automotive News Canada - October 2019 - v2

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