No, it isn't your inventory. It's your people.

Turnover rates in the automotive industry are atrocious. Our founder recently spoke with Adam Robinson, founder and CEO of Hireology, and he passed along an anecdote of a time early in his career where he would train a dealership on software, just to have them call him back three months later because the staff he trained had all left.

Culture matters. If we can't keep employees happy, they won't stick around. If they don't stick around, we're constantly replacing them. This brings a vicious cycle of fighting to create culture in an environment that is constantly changing. How will we ever create anything effective in an environment like that?!

You might be saying "well, that really doesn't affect my business", but studies say otherwise. A 2015 study by the University of Warwick shows that happier employees are 12% more productive. Adam even suggested to consider how constantly being short-staffed affects your billable time. You could be constantly short one employee... or worse, you have your most proficient employee training the new guy and now it feels like you're short a team of people.

See...happy employees lead to higher retention and happier customers. They'll get personal service in a reasonable timeframe. The customer can feel the difference when an employee treats them with genuine concern for their needs. They don't feel they're being taken advantage or that they're only being taken care of on because a company policy says to check in with each customer twice.

Trust is valued significantly higher than price. Building a culture of trust with your employees will breed a culture of trust with your customers.

What do you think? Have you made any efforts to make your staff your priority?