By: Chelsea Verstegen
This article is authored by our partners at Hireology, the automotive experts providing HR Solutions for Dealertrack DMS.
Implementing new technology happens frequently in dealerships — especially in 2020. Technology platforms have the opportunity to boost employee engagement, streamline daily processes, and save your dealership time and money.
This year, many technology investments have been made to help teams do their jobs safely and efficiently. But, without proper training, they can have adverse effects on employee productivity.
Ensuring your team understands the ins and outs of your products is a necessary step in your company onboarding and training. The same should be required for any new digital purchase. Here are some ways you can help your team transition to digital processes at your dealership.
Make Sure Your Technology is Teachable
Before making a technology transition, think about the adoption of the product. Does it integrate with your existing platforms? Does it need special equipment (Mac vs PC or mobile vs tablets) to run effectively? Does it fit into your team’s current workflow or will it make their job more difficult? And, most importantly, are there others in the retail automotive industry using this technology and will it be easy to teach your team?
Without running through these questions, you risk wasting valuable time and money on a product that will only hinder your team’s performance, so be mindful as you try out new products.
Share Value Propositions with Employees
Make sure your employees know why you chose to purchase new technology. Share with them why your investment was made, talk about competitors that you considered, and detail what made you ultimately make your decision.
You can even involve your team members that will work most closely with the product in the decision making process — they’ll be able to give you great insight into pain points in your current process.
Ultimately, you want your team to understand the impact that each individual has on your ROI, so explaining why a product was purchased to help them achieve that goal will show them they are valued.
Incorporate Tech Training into Your Onboarding
The onboarding process is a time to get to know your new employees and provide them with insight and training to do their job while representing the high standards of your dealership. But it’s also essential to use the onboarding process to get new hires up to speed on how to utilize your various digital platforms to their advantage.
With each new advancement or product rollout, make sure you update your onboarding to include training on it. Make your training comprehensive and detailed so your HR team isn’t bogged down with too many follow-up questions.
Provide Training for Tenured Employees
Make sure all your employees know how to properly use your technology stack — even those that have been with your dealership for a while. New product features can be covered in monthly or quarterly product training sessions to provide employees with a greater understanding of your digital investments.
Ask that managers check in with their team to make sure any questions are addressed and that everyone feels comfortable with their knowledge base on new and existing technology. Use feedback from these conversations to guide your future training sessions.
Incentivise Using Digital Products
There may be some team members that are not used to technology driving their day-to-day, so they may be a harder sell when it comes to the implementation of new digital practices. Create an incentive program that rewards those who adopt the new technology, or try making technological training part of employee bonus or career advancement requirements. This will motivate your employees to learn new skills and give them targets to track their progress.
The right technology platforms have the potential to transform the daily processes at your dealership, but without careful consideration, comprehensive training, and ongoing motivation, your investment could fall flat. Set your team, new and old, up for success with thorough training on new technologies to guarantee positive ROI.
Interested in learning how Hireology can help you take your hiring process digital? You can schedule a free demo here.
Join us at Cox Automotive Experience — Reserve your spot today — and be surprised by what you can accomplish with the partners.
About the author
Chelsea is a content strategist at Hireology. She moved to Chicago from Texas in 2017, and has since worked in content creation roles at other SaaS companies with the intention of creating thoughtful, industry leading materials. Chelsea attended Texas State University with a major in Journalism and a minor in English.
