9 • Lisa Lunsford (GS3 Global) • Claudia Marquez (Hyundai Motor Mexico) • Sejal Pietrzak (DealerSocket) • Kimberly Rodriguez (Dura Automotive Services) • Rosa Santana (Forma Automotive) • Anuja Sonalker (STEER Tech) • Sandy Stojkovski (Vitesco Technologies North America) • Chrissy Taylor (Enterprise Holdings).1 That’s a long list, and maybe you haven’t heard of every company listed after these names, but it’s encouraging so many women are CEOs as long as you don’t think about the number of men who are CEOs. Still, it’s progress. How do you encourage women to apply for work at your dealership? Think about what you can do to encourage women to take classes to help them get dealership jobs. Reach out to local schools and teachers at those schools. In addition to public and private schools, talk to people at universities and community colleges. Attend career fairs and support organizations that encourage all students to gain valuable trade skills. Consider awarding scholarships and offering apprenticeships. Even a relatively modest scholarship can still help students pay for their training. Most people will visit the website before they visit the dealership. Make sure yours sends the right message. For example, look at your dealership website and post pictures of a diverse workforce you want to encourage. People notice inclusive content; have prominent pictures of female employees on the website. Hiring women to work at your dealership is a good idea, but listening to them once hired is just as important. You want to create a collaborative and supportive work environment for all employees. Talk to them about the demands on their time, personal and professional. Would job sharing, flexible hours, or work-at-home options help? Offer everything you can that is situationally appropriate. If your DMS system requires a VPN, switch to a cloudnative solution so employees can log in from home. Promotions and pay raises encourage employees to stay with their companies. They are helpful, but make sure you don’t reward one gender and exclude the other. Given gender biases of the past, it can be easy to favor men over women unconsciously regardless of performance. Are women doing work that benefits the company but isn’t included in their job description? It’s important to identify and reward high-performing employees and provide mentorship, training and opportunities for career growth for every employee, regardless of gender. In an article by Bonnie Marcus that appeared on the Forbes website Oct. 13, 2021, she noted women had been encouraged to speak up about workplace injustices ever since the #MeToo movement, but sometimes no one takes action after listening to them. That’s a problem. People who get ignored tend to stop giving feedback, and when they have the chance to go somewhere else, they are likely to take it. The result is high employee turnover. Any company with high turnover, including dealerships, will not be as profitable as it could be. The article noted that 75% of women are discriminated against in the workplace because of age and gender chose to do nothing. More than two-thirds (70%) didn’t think talking would help. About one-fourth didn’t trust the human resources department, and a little less than a fourth thought talking would cost them their job. That leaves the 25% who did speak up. Some spoke with a manager, but 61% were dissatisfied with the result. Others spoke with HR; 71% thought that didn’t help either. When women feel ignored in the workplace, they may start thinking about exiting, or worse: filing lawsuits. Wouldn’t it be better to listen and take action to make them feel valued? What can you do at your dealership to change the dynamic? First of all, work toward making sure men do not outnumber women. According to David Mielach on the Business News Daily website on Dec. 1, 2021, women are 75% less likely to speak than men when they are in a minority. Groups without women reached different decisions than groups with women. The situation worsens when decisions are made by the majority instead of requiring a unanimous vote. They might not take as much time to speak and may not feel as powerful. Interestingly, asking for votes to be unanimous made it more likely for women to speak up because the group needed their vote to succeed. When women speak up, it’s important to hear what they have to say and assess how you can incorporate and respond to their suggestions. They have a different perspective than men, and hearing it will make your business more well-rounded and better connected with your customer base. Listening to the perspective of female employees will help you retain them as employees and help your dealership be more informed and able to communicate more effectively. Half your customers are women. Half your employees should be, too. But more than that, make sure they feel valued, respected, listened to, and part of the team. If that isn’t already the case at your dealership, you’ve got a great goal to work toward. 3 1To see a full list of 100 leading women in the North American Auto Industry, visit https://www.autonews.com/awards/100-leading-womennorth-american-auto-industry.
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