The Talent Shortage Dealerships Will Face

"There is a shortage that we will all face that is bigger than the current chip shortage, will last longer, and have a greater impact on your dealerships in the years to come than what you are facing now... The next shortage won't be of chips or inventory... it will be of quality talent in our stores" said Jared Hamilton, Founder & CEO of DrivingSales, as he addressed attendees of the 2021 DrivingSales Executive Summit. 

“At some point, the chip shortage will be over and inventory levels will normalize and our hiring leverage as dealers is going to drop”.

The pandemic has caused a reassessment of cultural priorities among the workforce today. Dealerships are faced with the challenge of competing for the next generation of high-quality talent to work at our stores. As the demand for quality talent increases, the cost of labor will inevitably increase. But this challenge can’t be solved by only throwing money at our employees. Dealerships need to be prepared to offer an employee experience that aligns with the current shift of employee priorities. 

Attracting the Modern Workforce

According to the latest DrivingSales Talent Research study, 86% of non-automotive employees said that they would consider taking a job at a dealership. There’s a massive talent pool outside of our dealerships that we should be competing for in order to build the teams that will outperform the competition. One of the key priorities among the modern workforce today is the method in which managers communicate the objectives and responsibilities expected from employees. 80% of disengaged employees did NOT have clear objectives for success. 

Employees demand clear expectations as well as instant and specific feedback so they fully understand how they are performing. This behavior among today’s talent is not new, however, this need has been amplified with the pandemic.

Using a Scorecard Review Process to Attract and Coach Employees

We can learn some valuable lessons from video games today, such as Call of Duty, when it comes to delivering objectives followed by clear and specific feedback.

Employees today have grown up playing these games and have become accustomed to seeing their performance communicated clearly and instantly. In Call of Duty, a player is constantly reminded of their wins, losses, deaths, headshots, etc. Part of the stickiness of those games is the dopamine rush that players experience as they level up and see their stats improve.

A Scorecard Process leverages these same principles to attract and engage their people by focusing our efforts on the key behavior that leads to success. Instead of wins, losses, and headshots, we might focus on metrics such as gross generated, CSI, ROI, etc.

Each action is graded against benchmarks and is given a rating. Performance data is always current and both the employee and manager are given a clear overview of performance. Not only does this draw attention to areas of concern when performance drops but it gives our people the same dopamine hits when they “level up” or crush a goal.

Implementing a Scorecard Process at Your Dealership

A Scorecard Process can be managed in a variety of ways. The objective is that the Employee and Manager are provided with real-time data to analyze key areas of performance.

Select Metrics

Have a system in place for measuring development and performance. KPIs should be clear and easily accessible to both the manager and the employee. It’s important that all of the metrics included in the Scorecard Review are objective. The leadership team at your store should be the ones to determine which metrics are included in the Scorecard and the appropriate benchmarks needed to motivate the team. Only include the most important metrics to avoid making the process hard to manage and convoluted.

Establish Benchmarks

Each metric should be given a simple grade or score so that performance is easy to identify and understand.

We recommend grading performance with a simple star rating (1-5 Stars).

- 5 Stars: Exceptional. Well above average performance. Doesn’t happen often.

- 4 Stars: Very good. Employee has demonstrated above average performance. 

- 3 Stars: Good. Average performance with room for improvement.

- 2 Stars: Needs improvement. Performance gaps should be addressed.

- 1 Stars: Very poor. Immediate improvement is required. Significant coaching is necessary.

Record Performance Data

Scorecard metrics need to be updated regularly. Determine a cadence for updating numbers and hold your team accountable to make sure current numbers are being added. This part of the process should be employee driven. This helps to avoid overwhelming your management team and creates a sense of ownership that employees will have over their performance metrics. The exercise of inputting numbers acts as a constant reminder of where the employee should be focusing their effort.

Coach the Employee to Success

Set a date to have one-on-ones with each employee to review the scorecard. Each metric should be evaluated. This part of the process is an important coaching opportunity where leaders can address any areas of concern. Feedback should be very specific with the goal of addressing any low metrics on the scorecard. It’s important to not only focus on the negative. Make sure to celebrate any wins in employee performance.

Create an Action Plan

Scorecard Reviews should be followed up with an action plan to improve performance. It’s important that the manager gives the employee assignments or homework to address performance gaps. Assignments might be to perform a certain task or complete relevant training. Make these assignments a high priority and hold your team accountable for completing them.

A Scorecard Review process is an extremely valuable coaching tool dealers should be leveraging today . It provides us with a platform to coach and guide our teams to higher results. As a result, our dealerships become more desirable to the top talent that we are competing for today as we create a pathway to exponential growth and success.

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Not sure how to get started creating a Scorecard Process? Let the DrivingSales team show you how. Sign up today for the DrivingSales Master Certification course where we will be walking dealers through the process of launching a Scorecard Process, sharing tips to make the process stick as well as offering templates and example scorecards to get you started. This class is free for dealers to attend and is happening Nov. 9, 2021 | 1PM Eastern. Seating is limited so sign up today. Click here to learn more