Dealerships Have a Problem with Gen Y Workers

"Tom McParland" (tommcparland) 11/14/2013 at 02:04 • Filed to: Dealerships, stealerships, car buying, automatch consulting, automatch, articles

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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Gen Y will be operationally defined as workers in their 20's). The report makes a few interesting points namely-

Dealership turnover hit 62% for salespeople specifically. Overall, it dropped a percentage point to 35% in 2012 compared with the year before. But it's expected to increase as stores hire more Millennials, many of whom end up disliking aspects of the work, particularly the long hours.

"They value their free time," Kraybill says. "They won't work a schedule that goes over 45 hours a week. For many of them, a valuable spiff isn't money, but rather time off. Dealerships traditionally rely on money to motivate people, and Gen Y is less motivated by it."

Wards goes on to say that some more progressive dealerships are adapting with more flexible hours and incentives.

Here is my take...Like I have mentioned before, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! needs to be the driving force behind adjusting to not only a different generational workforce but a different generation of buyer. GM and BMW are currently experimenting with online ordering and sales. Most buyers, especially millennials do not want to go through the traditional circus of buying a car the "old-fashioned" way. I can purchase practically anything I want from Amazon 24hrs a day 7-days a week, and their customer service is available always.

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If dealerships really want to adjust to the new market, they need to start taking some cues from the online industry. Yes, you will still have to go to the showroom to test drive. But what about hiring internet salespeople to work a variety of hours, not just "traditional" dealership hours? If I want to order my Corvette at 2 a.m. I should be able to do that. Or how about incentivising customer satisfaction rather than unit sales?

Now again, selling cars can't possibly be the same as selling practically every other product on the planet (as Amazon does).

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HammerheadFistpunch > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 14:10

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I would be amenable to a life of selling cars if it didn't mean:

1. stupid hours

2. 100% salesmanship and nothing to do with a love of cars

davedave1111 > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 14:20

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The whole idea of car dealerships seems strange to me. Why is it that the two largest purchases in most people's lives - house and car - are just about the only ones where they happily sit down and let a salesman do his thing on them?

Tom McParland > davedave1111 11/14/2013 at 14:22

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At least with a house, the buyers have a bit more control. They usually will hire an independent inspector and make an offer on what they want to pay.

Mosqvich > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 14:25

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The report itself makes it seem like 45 hours a week is okay. I realize a lot of work a lot of hours, but it is not sustainable over time. Work-Life balance is incredibly important. If a company respects this balance, they'll be able to say "hey, I need you, just this week while so-and-so is gone, to work 60 hours." That's doable if it's planned and explained. Where I work we have Multiple Generational Management Training: Leaders are taught to understand differing needs between “Traditionalists” to “Millennials." This is not easy to implement. Managers have to understand what motivates people. Traditionalists (think WW2 to Vietnam era people) want to just tell employees what to do and expect complete loyalty, best effort, etc.., without much incentive. It always fails.

Interesting piece.

His Stigness > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 14:25

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Millennials, many of whom end up disliking aspects of the work, particularly the long hours.

This to me just reads as, "Millennials want to work fewer hours and exert less effort for the same amount of money."

Growing up in an upper-middle class town and going to the upper-middle class schools, I've noticed that kids in their 20's-30's (my g"generation") are a lot lazier than the "generation" of my older siblings. The difference between my oldest sister's coworkers (she's 31) and my coworkers is sad. My brother (23ish I think) runs a few Jimmy John stores in Phoenix and he sees the typical lazy kid I'm talking about. I don't know how my brother can stand managing sandwhich shops when he expects a high level of effort and a solid work ethic.

Also, going to a high school with a lot of upper-middle class kids I saw incredibly lazy kids are and how they expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. To give you an idea of what kind of kids I went to school with, Juniors and Seniors didn't get a locker because the school assumed that the kids would have a job, even though most of them didn't work. I always found that insane.

The Transporter > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 14:26

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Is it that Millennials don't want to work long hours, or is it that they don't want to work long hours at a car dealership? Lord knows that if the only job I could find was at a place who's business model revolved around conning hard working people out of as much money as possible, I'd do everything I could to spend as little time there as possible.

davedave1111 > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 14:31

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Heh. The last Labour government over here tried to introduce 'home information packs' in which the seller had to pay for a surveyor's report, with the idea of helping people buying houses. Didn't quite think that one through...

Tom McParland > His Stigness 11/14/2013 at 14:33

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I don't know if it really follows the "millennials are lazy" mantra more like "millennials don't want to work long hours at a soul-sucking job."

Battery Tender Unnecessary > HammerheadFistpunch 11/14/2013 at 14:34

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Ironically, all the salesman I deal with are fairly enthusiastic about their job and cars in general. The guy selling me the i8 has a modded Twin-Turbo Supra he built himself and my other sales guy drives 24 hour Lemons races in his spare time with his brother. They're also the least pushy I've ever encountered. They say the customers they keep tend to already know what they want when they walk through the door and don't need or want the pitch. They spend their non-customer time during the day on Jalopnik, other car blogs, forums etc keeping up and their bosses don't care because they prove their worth selling the niche, high-margin cars the "volume salesmen" can't wrap their head around.

HammerheadFistpunch > Battery Tender Unnecessary 11/14/2013 at 14:36

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That's a good niche to live in as a salesman.

POD > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 14:39

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The other thing with houses that typically happens is condition dependent offers that allow the buyer to walk away if any of those conditions are not met.
I did the same thing the last time I bought a car (the conditions in writing were that there would be no dealership logos on the car and that there would be no finance papers signed until the vehicle was on the lot and inspected by me), as a result I'm not welcomed back at 2 of my local dealerships.

McNewbie1 > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 14:57

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Like I mentioned on Twitter, I know companies that won't hire Gen Y, because they quit. Call it lazy, call it a generational shift, something is going on. It's a drastic one even between people in their 20's to late 30's. It's not even like my friend's law firm is an awful place to work with insane hours. It's entertainment law. Come in at 10:00, leave when the works done, lunch breaks, couple of weeks off in the winter when the entire industry is in vaca, again in the summer, etc. They tried hiring 5 Gen Y kids in a row who all quit within 3-6 months and moved back in with Mom and Dad in CT or wherever.
I did ask what happened. They said they would hire these kids who wanted in on big projects immediately. Anything less was beneath them. The Gen Y hires would also ask," why do I have to do this?" Um, because you were asked to? Shit that those of us who are older would never think of saying.
I also think they were hiring too many spoiled East Coast kids. My younger relatives from the Midwest, and other Gen Y people I know, would never act like that.

His Stigness > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 15:12

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Yeah but when a generation of college graduates has an unemployment rate of 8.5ish% and twice that for those without BA's, you can't afford to be so picky. Life sucks and all you can get is a job working a salesman than you need to suck it up and deal with it. I applied as a salesman at a local dealership because I need a job. I don't want to work as a salesman but I have to do what I have to do. Millennials are too picky.

His Stigness > McNewbie1 11/14/2013 at 15:16

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That seems to be a common theme among millennials. As I said my brother deals with a lot of lazy, self entitled kids in his managing job. I also worked overnight at Target for a time and the kids my age (early 20's) didn't last because they were too lazy and didn't want to work hard. I excelled because my mom and neighbor/friend instilled an honest work ethic in me at a young age. When I'm told to do something at work I don't ask "why," I just do it.

Millennials want to earn a lot of money now, they don't want to wait and they don't want to have to work hard, and as I've already found out, that's not the way the world works, you have to bust your ass to make money.

Burrito de EJ25 > His Stigness 11/14/2013 at 15:44

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Millennials, many of whom saw their parents work themselves into the ground for the majority of their life, want a higher standard of living. They want the things that the other 1st worlds' citizens get.

George McNally > Tom McParland 11/14/2013 at 17:12

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I manage a bakery and finding high school student to work is getting tougher and tougher. Most of them don't want to work more than 10 to 12 hours a week.

I know this is gonna sound like I'm a grumpy old man, but I was 19 when I made bakery manager(I work for a large east coast supermarket chain). I'm 54 and I've had at least two jobs since I was 12 years old.

Between my wife and I-we plan to semi-retire when we hit 60. I can't see some of the kids out there now doing the same thing.

King Ginger, not writing for Business Insider > Burrito de EJ25 11/14/2013 at 18:22

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Not just worked into the ground...worked into the ground and then laid off because they would collect a higher pension if they were employed longer.

Millenials have watched their parents generation work hard and either a) fritter away what they make or b) have no rewards from their efforts. It is no surprise they are cynical. Not to mention they have to bust their ass at menial jobs that pay little-to-nothing while the baby boomers (who still make up 30% of the workforce in white collar jobs) should be starting to retire but aren't.

The view that Millenials are lazy or disinterested is just anecdotal puffery from people who don't understand the context of what the generation is actually feeling and don't understand that making the claim that they had it so hard when living through some of the fastest growth in US history where even low-skill jobs payed well is just bullshit. It reminds me of the people who look at those who are unemployed and say "just go get a job" without understanding any of the socio-economic forces at play.

His Stigness > Burrito de EJ25 11/15/2013 at 04:50

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So they want a higher standard of living, that means you have to work, you can't expect it to be handed to you on silver platter. This country we live in and many proclaim time and time again is the greatest in the world has a flawed system where a few prosper and the many get screwed. Being lazy won't change that. Sitting on your hands and protesting won't change that. I have no solution to fix the problem with out society, but I do know refusing to do mediocre jobs is not a solution.

His Stigness > King Ginger, not writing for Business Insider 11/15/2013 at 04:56

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Did you not see the part when I said I'm in my 20's and therefore a "millennial?" I am not one of those retired baby boomers who looks at unemployed people and tells them to get a job because it was so easy in there day. I'm currently unemployed, and I am a highly skilled worker. I am more than well aware of how fucked my generation is. If I don't get my BA then my chances of finding a job (talking in general, not my specific field) gets cut in half. But if I do get my BA then I will more than likely be saddled with large student loans for the rest of my life. My generation is fucked because the Baby Boomers, and the Republicans they elected, have worked very hard to make sure Social Security is only around long enough to pay for them, and when it gets time for me to retire, I'm fucked.

King Ginger, not writing for Business Insider > His Stigness 11/15/2013 at 08:48

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I did, which is why I excluded any reference to you directly.

My statement was meant to be sweeping because the statement that millenials are lazy is a running generalization used by an inordinate amount of the workforce who are NOT millenials to describe things that they don't understand.

It isn't new by any means; the Greatest Generation used to lament the counter culture of the 60's (their own children, just like Boomers to us) as being lazy and misguided. While the experiment of modern capitalism and upward mobility is still only a century old, patterns ARE emerging. The key is that millenials are the one group of all the current generations to be best suited to understanding the context of history and to learn from it (simply by dint of having more information and better/future advances in technology).