Manpower Management in Automobile Dealership

Manpower management has always been one of the most daunting challenges for automobile companies. There is a problem with the skill gap that the industry is trying to fill over the years. 

HR organizations need to be more innovative on the talent strategies that need to be adopted at the automobile dealership. 

Also, there is a constant need for the workforce in the automobile dealerships who are capable of taking initiatives, demonstrate bold new thinking, and help in selling especially when in a time where digital trends are ruling the automobile industry.

Automobile and Technology

As automation and advanced technology take a major space in the automobile industry, hiring for automobile dealerships will need to bridge the technology talent gap by taking in a talented and skilled workforce.

Also, manpower management does comprise of employees and workforce who are equipped with the latest tech-related skills required in the automobile industry. Some of these skills include social intelligence, computational thinking, virtual collaboration, and so on.

In this article, we will discuss the following:

• The Manpower Management Challenges Faced By Automobile Dealerships.
• Top Practices/Strategies Required To Have An Efficient Workforce Management In Automobile Dealership
• Latest Landscape Surrounding The Workforce Management In The Light Of The COVID-19 Pandemic 

The Manpower Management Challenges Faced By Automobile Dealerships

Managing your manpower in an automobile dealership is not an easy task. There are always many challenges that come your way. Some of the most common and crucial challenges are the following:

• Shortage Of Talent Availability

There is a critical shortfall of manpower talent at both technical as well as commercial levels in this automobile industry. As a result, many automobile dealerships have to compromise on their manpower hiring.

They end up employing the medium to base level manpower at their dealerships. There is the unavailability of proper expertise and this industry has still not addressed this issue on a priority basis.

• Lack Of Strategic Planning

Many automobile dealerships do not have a strategic plan that involves hiring, promoting, training, delegating, and so on. There are no strategies to guide their manpower and as a result, they are lacking behind on giving an efficient performance. 

As a result, automobile dealerships are not able to identify the right manpower proportion and processes needed to create an impact of their dealership on the internal organization as well as their customers.

• High Turnover

The number of employees who quit or are fired and must be replaced is a key human resource problem in the automobile industry because it is costly. 

While the cost of replacing senior-level employees such as business managers, sales professionals, and so on is much more than replacing a lower-level employee.

Therefore, automobile dealerships have to closely study their turnover metrics and identify the pros and cons so that they can strategically reverse them later.

Read – 8 ways to increase automobile workshop revenue

Strategies Required To Have An Efficient Manpower Management In Automobile Dealership

The success of your automobile dealership will depend on the strengths of your manpower team. Furthermore, efficient manpower management will ultimately determine the organizational culture and customer experience at your dealership. Work on developing strong strategies that will yield a more strong and productive team.

• Stick To 40 Hour A Week

Dealerships are not known for long hours and shifts that extend into nights, weekends, and holidays. If you make your teamwork for extra hours, it will result in increased employee turnover and make them weak and less productive.

Therefore, manage your manpower by following a 40-hour week work rule. This will make sure that your manpower team has the time to spend with their loved ones and stay active and efficient while at the dealership.

• Effective Onboarding For New Members Of Your Team

Provide training to the new members of your manpower team and make them acquainted with various aspects of your automobile dealership like values, policies, and procedures.

Fitting in with the company culture is very important for the long-term growth of dealerships as well as for individuals.

Keep on conducting group meetings to make your manpower team aware of what is happening in the market, what are the customer preferences in automobiles, and basically every piece of information that will help you to manage your team efficiently and effectively.

• Ongoing Training For Existing Employees

Automobile dealerships need to invest in their team’s knowledge and skills. It will improve customer experience and employee morale which will result in the successful management of your manpower.

Have training processes planned out for your team in times when there are changes taking place in the automobile industry for which they will have to learn certain new skills and inculcate more new knowledge.

• Track Your Team’s Performance

Using various digital tools and software, automobile dealerships track the performance of their manpower. It helps them to analyze how each one of them is performing and then they compare the same with the established standards of performance and make the corrections accordingly. 

This helps in the smooth management of your work team. NeoDove is a great tool to track your team’s performance. See when they took a break, how well they interact with customers online, the duration for which they were logged in your servers, and so on. 

Latest Landscape Surrounding The Manpower Management In The Light Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

Hygiene and social distancing is the trend being followed in automobile dealerships as well. Moreover, they will continue to remain the same even in the post COVID era especially in the initial stages of normalizing.

To successfully manage their manpower, automobile dealerships are strictly adhering to the government guidelines for working employees and calling very limited employees at the dealership.

Automobile dealerships are conducting mandatory thermal scanning of the employees it is calling to the dealership. This happens when they enter and also when they are leaving the dealership after work hours.

Wearing face masks is compulsory. If anyone tests positive for the virus, it will spoil the entire management process and will risk the lives of other employees as well. This will result in the lockdown of the dealership and loss of revenue as well.

As a gesture of care and concern, many automobile dealerships send out transportation to pick up employees from their respective homes and drop them back as well as post their work time at the dealership. This keeps your team motivated and not worried about the problem of commuting.

Takeaway

Automobile dealerships are managing their workforce by allowing work from home option maximum times and calling limited employees only when required. This ensures social distancing is being followed and the employees feel comfortable working from home and communicating with their team members through various video calling platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and so on. The team members are using new-age solutions like NeoDove to remain in touch with customers even when working remotely.

Manpower is the most important resource for any organization to succeed and managing them effectively ensures you in your growth trajectory.