When we last visited the topic of hiring and retention a few years ago, conditions were especially favorable toward job hunters. It was the era of the Great Resignation, an extended period when four million members of the workforce were switching jobs each month. And while the dust has settled and unemployment (discounting 2020) has reached its highest level since 2017, it remains historically low.
We’re all aware of the dearth of available salespeople, but sourcing technicians, admin and other roles also remains a challenge. Big box retailers and online behemoths are opening warehouses/distribution centers throughout the country. Amazon, for instance, now pays fulfillment and operations staff $20.50 an hour—an increase of more than 50% in the last five years—according to its website. That sets a wage baseline for that tier of employees.
As we continue this month’s State of the Industry report on hiring and retention, we asked our dealer panel if the current hiring climate has prompted them to change any aspects of their hiring practices. Beyond offering a competitive salary, we asked about the strategies they’ve followed to ensure they can find an optimal fit.
For a major dealer such as Impact Networking, the core strategy centers on balancing both skillset and cultural fit. According to Cynthia Bennett, vice president of talent acquisition, the current hiring market conditions has prompted Impact to expand its teams and restructure roles to ensure that experienced employees can concentrate on strategic initiatives.
“By delegating certain tasks to lower-level roles, we enhance overall efficiency and allow our seasoned professionals to leverage their expertise more effectively,” she said.
Not being able to source experienced salespeople has never been a concern for NBM. The Burlington, Massachusetts-based dealer is quite content to bring in individuals who represent a good cultural fit and have the qualities that can be molded into effective selling. Vern Hydorn, vice president of sales, prefers having individuals who have zero selling experience in any industry. That way, the new hires can learn the NBM way of doing things.
Hydorn performs all of the initial interviews, and those he deems worthy of a deeper look will have a second interview with one of NBM’s sales managers. “When they come back in for the second talk,” he noted, “it’s less about whether we think they can do the job and more focused on ‘Hey, is this someone we want to work with?’ On the service side, I think it’s flip-flopped—we’re more concerned about their experience, knowledge and skill set. They’re on the road a lot and they’re kind of lone wolves.”
Working with a local high school to develop a work-study program has alleviated some of the challenges for Las Vegas-based AIS when it comes to finding people. According to Rosa Solares, director of culture and talent management, the hiring philosophy is more strategic, with the long term in mind as opposed to a quick-fix hire.
Sticking to their guns, and hiring for culture first, is what ensures AIS the most optimal fit. “Culture and talent are king, above all else,” she said. “We’ve passed on some highly skilled and successful candidates in the past, because unfortunately they were not the proper cultural fit for us.”
In response to the considerable lack of technician candidates, AIS decided to grow some on its own, so to speak. In May of 2023, the dealer launched a service technician apprentice program. Working from a list of candidates culled from attending job fairs, AIS invited a handful of mechanically-inclined candidates to a lunch-and-learn session. The process ended up yielding two young technicians who have been with AIS for more than a year. At the start of this year, a few incumbent employees in warehouse and logistics were put through the program.
“This has worked out quite well for us, and is really important given how hard it is to find techs in Las Vegas,” Solares added.
Given the sometimes-costly consequences of hiring the wrong person, dealers such as Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office in New York City rely on DISC profiles to evaluate if the applicant’s profile matches “what success looks like at Atlantic,” notes President Larry Weiss. The dealer is also moving toward using another profiling tool, the culture index, which he termed “the DISC profile on steroids.”
“We’re going to rely more and more on looking at the successful profiles in the respective positions that we have, and matching it up with the profiles of our job applicants,” he said. “We’re using it as a basis to interview. We’ll stop interviewing them if [applicants] don’t match the profiles we’re looking for.”
CPI Technologies of Springfield, Missouri, takes great pains to ensure new hires do not upset the chemistry of the current team, notes Erik Crane, president and CEO. An optimal fit is essential to maximizing productivity and efficiency. Skills are a plus, but new hires can be taught the CPI way of doing things.
“We continuously train all employees,” Crane said. “If someone doesn’t have a certain skill but meets all other criteria we feel we can train them up on a skill or two.”
Dealers such as Doing Better Business of Altoona, Pennsylvania, incorporate an extensive interview process to ensure candidates mesh with its culture and team, notes Deb Dellaposta, president and CEO. “This is more important to us as we can teach skills and experience will come with time,” she said. “We are very protective of our culture.”
