Punishing ingenuity
I heard a story recently about an RV dealer who was in need of some qualified and educated service technicians, so he took a rather unconventional approach to recruiting some to his dealership. The dealer asked that I not identify him because he’s still kind of shocked at the reaction of his competitors. Frankly, it blows my mind, too.
As graduation day approached at a nearby community college, this dealer set up a beer and pizza night in the technical services building. As students finished classes one evening, they were invited to stop by for free food and drink as the dealer made his pitch for coming to work for the company.
I applauded the dealer for his brilliance. Those of us who are born with testosterone coursing through our veins know of only one thing that can attract a guy’s attention faster than a piping hot cheese and pepperoni pizza and a bottle of ice cold adult beverage. In fact, most college guys spend more time pursuing beer and pizza than they do their studies.
Several dozen people trained in automotive maintenance, plumbing and electrical systems showed up that night to hang out, munch on some food and learn if the business offered any jobs that appealed to them at a rate of pay they found attractive. Excuse me, but how many RV dealers would give their left arm for the ability to pitch a job opportunity to a qualified horde of hungry hombres who happen to be looking for work? I suspect the answer to that would be “most.”
As you can imagine, several of the students took the dealer up on the offer and filled out applications. By the time they graduated, they had a job waiting for them. Sounds like a simple story of an innovative dealer taking a simple, but effective approach to recruiting staff. But the story doesn’t end there.
Apparently, several technicians currently employed at other area RV dealerships were attempting to better themselves by taking tech school classes at night. Despite already having jobs, the guys showed up at the informal meeting anyway — probably lured by the smell of pepperoni and the distinct sound beer cans make when opened. The technicians liked what they heard about the other dealership and jumped ship.
Rather than smacking themselves on the forehead and saying, “Doh, why didn’t I think of that?”, the other dealers took a different approach. They successfully lobbied the state dealers association to remove the offending dealer from its membership ranks. That, in turn, blacklisted the dealer from participating in the local regional RV show which was open only to members of the state RV dealers association.
The offending dealer has more than one store and only one location was banned, so the suspension is pretty much ineffective other than to send a message that ingenuity is unacceptable. I guess the move also signals to other RV dealers that business owners needing staff must play the game by placing ineffective ads in the local paper and hoping for the best. I suppose other dealers in that state must also get advertising and marketing “approved” by the state association’s leadership so as not to run afoul of business owners whose fragile egos might get bruised.
Retaining staff is a huge problem for most dealerships. But I think if any employee is willing to jump ship because another dealer offered a meal and a beverage, there wasn’t much loyalty to his employer in the first place.
I realize no matter how thinly you slice the bologna, there are always two sides. I may not be privy to all the details leading to the suspension, but I suspect that someone needs a hug. To get that upset over losing an employee to a slice pizza and a bottle of Bud suggests a level of immaturity not often seen outside college campuses. It’s akin to busting someone on the chops for “stealing my girl.”
All I can say is payback is tough. And it’s not the offending dealer I’m worried about.
July 27th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Why are some of you so quick to question a techician’s “loyalty” because they may seek to improve themselves elsewhere.
I have a very simple rule when people resign from my company …. if you are looking for the reason just look in the mirror.
People don’t leave companies that they enjoy working for. They don’t leave companies that treat them with respect. They don’t leave companies that invest in their personal development and customer skills. And they don’t leave companies that pay for the services rendered, provide a well lit and clean working environment, and have some fun once in awhile.
What could you have done differently if you’ve recenlty lost a qualified technician to a competitor down the street? Probably quite a bit.
It is too easy for people in the RV industry to simply the issues. Just like sales people that complain about losing deals because the guy down the street gives away the product, there is yet another group that still hasn’t figured out that the most valuable employees you have are the folks that fix the problems … your technicians.
Anybody can sell something the first time, but if you are fortunate to have a lot of repeat customres you can bet that some of the credit has to go the guys/gals that keep your customre on the road and not back at your lot.
You must earn loyalty and respect, just as you have to earn your customer’s business.
July 25th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Recruiting new technicians and retaining current technicians has become an art in todays workforce. I applaud the RV dealership for such an innovative device to lure new recruits.
Although, I have a concern with the fact that the communitiy college would allow a recruitment in their technical services building or any building located on their campus that involved the distribution of alcohol as many campuses have a student body that is made up of minors.
In our dealership we have instituded the use of a mentor-mentee program to recruit new technicians and that works very well for us.
I totally agree that if a tech ‘jumps the fence’ in pursuit of ‘greener grass’ more than likely had little loyalty to the exsisting employer.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
If the second RV dealer is correct about the association with the first RV dealer, then the person that brought this story to Greg deserves everything the local association wants to throw at him/her.
In fairness to the industry, if this story proves to be false, or at least woefully one-sided from the first dealers point of view, then the dealer and the state association should be identified.
I’m glad I read all the messages carefully before posting my comments, because the keyboard was going to be blazing tonight!
It didn’t take long for the hot stove league to jump all over this one ….. let’s see what evolves here over the next 24 hours. My gut feeling tells me the first dealer has a lot of explaining to do.
Great reporting Greg, keep these blogs coming!
July 24th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I am a former RV/Manufacturer’s Representative now moved into retirement and occasional exposure to other marketing fields. You need to know, first, that this is a common method of hiring recent grads in several other industries. One such is the medical field where graduates enjoy an organized day of company solicitation. Booths are set up in an auditorium or such and many goodies are given away to any one that will stop by to visit. Pizza and beer could be good attention-getters in the correct situation. Then the new grads “make the rounds” leaving resumes at every desireable booth. (It is called a “Job Fair”.)
If you want to criticize anyone, it should perhaps be the school operators who apparently failed to promote the event properly. If ALL dealers were represented,employee loyalty would be a bit stronger because a present employer might identify someone who spent too much time at a competitors booth, and most importantly, ALL dealers would have the same chance to make a pitch to all graduates. Thus it is the school itself that needs to broaden its’ final class days events. No dealer should feel guilty and all dealers will learn from this experience.
July 24th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I would like to retract my previous reply if the story is not as originally portrayed.
July 24th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Dear Greg,
This scenario regarding the dealer doing a pizza night sounds very familar. If it is the situation I am familar with then you only have heard a small portion of the story. The recruiting was done at an RV Tech coarse that is supported by many dealers, not a unrelated set of coarses for auto techs etc.
All the participants at the coarse were employed by many different RV dealers. The coarses success depends on these dealers participation.
What dealer is going to spend the money and time training techs (in this case for a 3 year apprenticeship) only to have them picked off when they are many miles from their dealership. The dealers who paid the way for these Techs for over 3 years has little chance to participate in any discussion re competition for there future services when they are drawn to the beer and pizza night many miles from home. The dealer giving away the pizza has the pick of many techs and just simply ups the anti until he gets the tech numbers he needs. This makes the school little more then his recruitment ground. Most of the dealers are 3 to 6 hours away, but the recuiting dealer is located very close to the school.
If a dealer is feeling he is at a disadvantage by using this tech school he will no longer send techs that way and the program will be in danger.
Only one dealership has attempted this method,the others realize that it would be chaos and then ruin for the coarse if this practice was allowed to occur or expand.
When this offening dealer was approached by his local assc. he wrote a letter of apology to all dealers blaming a subordinate for poor judgement and said he regretted the incident. Now he is at it again and the apology seems moot.
As I understand it this same dealer had one dealership removed from the local assc. because in spite of warnings he posted a sign stating they would not work on any products from one paticular well known brand as it was a safety hazard. This was and is obviously against RV assc rules. That was the reason this dealership was removed from the assc.
I do not think anyone would object to creative recruiting methods but the incident I am familar with was in many eyes in very poor taste and jeaprodized a program that was many years in the making by many progressive dealers with forsite for the entire industry.
If our industry is to become more and more professional then respect for fellow dealers and competative manufactures will be manditory. Trusted training facilities for better techs. are also a part of the bigger picture. Are there times when a dealer should put the greater good of the industry ahead of his personal agenda?
Greg,I would request the same courtesy as the dealer you discussed and let me remain anonymous.
July 24th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
The outsmarted dealer is caught up in the revenge state of mind when he should funnel all his efforts into being more creative than his competitor. The creative dealer is probably already taking the competitor’s customers also.
If I was the dealer that got the boot, I would spend twice as much in advertising that it would have cost to do the show on the same weekend of the next show and see who prevails.
July 24th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Hey Greg, thanks for that great story. Indeed, there is a moral in this story and that being - “necessity is the mother of invention”…. I seriously applaud that innovative dealer and his inventiveness. Personally, there appear to be plenty of examples of dealerships that could use a great measure of inventiveness in their daily operations, especially when it comes to the Customer Service facet of their operations.
Also, there is a second part of that story that begs to be recognized and that is the impression it made on the young men who took up the dealership on the offer. I could be wrong, but in my way of thinking, the young men who joined up with the dealership will remember the opportunity for many years to come. Good impressions count for a lot in this business.
Thanks for bringing that story to light.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
The employees that left, were obviously not happy where they were currently employed. If you don’t take care of your employees and respect them, they will be gone at the first opportunity.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Congrats to the dealer that “got the boot” from the local show because he use a basic freedom of choice to recruit new blood into his dealership. Shame on the dealers who protested!! To Bad other dealers were jellious of his great idea of recruiting new service personel! The industry has done little in the last 10 years to provide a resource of techs into the industry. (Techs are a mainline to quality on the retail level.) I would love to meet this dealer, however, after 30 years in the industry, I would bet I know him anyway.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
MAYBE THE DEALER WHO LOST HIS EMPLOYEE SHOULD DO SOME SOUL SEARCHING TO DETERMINE WHY HIS EMPLOYEE WAS SO EAGER TO CHANGE JOBS!!!
July 24th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I have one for you. Last Saturday, the receptionist got a call asking for someone in new sales. My salesman was busy and she asked me to take the call. The conversation started oddly with someone describing this new beautiful dealership that sells boats and RV’s etc. After several descriptive moments, she asked me if it was somewhere that I would consider working. When I told her I was the owner, she laughed and said I guess not.
I asked for her name and phone number and she asked why?
I told her that I thought that it was inappropriate to
contact my sales force especially on a busy Saturday to recruit my salespeople. Her reply was “get with it lady
this is the NEW world” and she hung up. The beer and pizza seem like a nicer approach, don’t you think??????
July 24th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
You sometimes wonder if these dealer associations are nothing more than attempts at monopolies (oligopolies since there are few members). I have seen many cases where innovation is stymied by bureaucracy and dirty deeds, but this takes the prize.
By the way students pursue beer, pizza and babes.
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