Quality of IT influencing dealer staff recruitment and retention

29 January 2008

 

The quality of IT systems used within dealerships is starting to have an impact on staff recruitment and retention, according to dealer management systems specialist Pinewood.

 

Pinewood Managing Director Neville Briggs commented: We have seen a number of job satisfaction surveys within the automotive press lately and a factor that has been increasingly reported by our own dealer customers is that employees are taking more of an interest in dealership technology levels and how it affects their ability to perform and meet targets in their role.

 

Briggs continued: "The crux of the matter is whether employees who work for a dealership, or are thinking about making a move to a new one, believe they are being given the right tools to do their job.

 

"If they are forward looking and with experience of a good IT structure, they will know how much strong DMS, web enabled leads and effective CRM tools can help them.

 

"A good example is the sales team, a salesperson who knows how much a DMS with good marketing and CRM capabilities can contribute to them hitting targets will think twice before joining a dealership with an antiquated or even non-existent IT strategy."

 

Pinewood says that this trend is another result in the continuing emergence of the "iPod generation" of dealer managers and employees it has previously identified.

 

Briggs said: "We are increasingly dealing with dealership team members who are in their 20s and 30s - you might call them the 'iPod generation' - who grew up with PCs, own an MP3 player and have a Facebook account. Technology holds no mystery for them. It is simply another tool at their disposal.

 

"These people expect to find the same levels of technology in their work tools as they would in the leading edge consumer goods they use every day in their personal lives. If they don’t find IT at work that supports them in doing their job, they tend to question the culture of the dealership.

 

“We meet a lot of dealership team members during the course of our Pinnacle training and implementation projects and find they respond positively to Pinewood technologies.  Providing our solution within a web browser and using only the latest Microsoft tools within our software means we are able to deploy the most agile functionality to users.

 

“This all adds up to streamlined processes which can make a great deal of difference in workflow for many dealership employees.”

 

Briggs also explained that it was largely true that a dealership's IT was often a reflection of its entire company culture.

 

He said: "“We find that a dealership's culture, processes and IT are mutually supportive aspects of the success of a business.  A good IT structure is usually found in a well organised business with low team member turn over. But we have also found that antiquated DMS systems that make the job tougher than it should be are often seen in less forward thinking dealerships where employees don't stay in role for long.”

 

 

For further details please contact Simon Wells at
Paperchase Public Relations on 01283 711311
or e-mail simon@paperchasepr.co.uk