A Case for Coaching

With over a million people directly employed by dealerships in and a turnover rate of 46% we face a compelling reason to invest in coaching. Just take a moment to think of the enormity of this number… That’s 460,000 people either leaving the employ of dealers; they are either being fired, resigning, or leaving the business in its entirety. Although this number is high it pales by comparison with the actual cost of this turnover. Figures from the latest NADA Meeting show these to be 30-50% for an entry level employee, 150% for a mid-level employee and 400% for an executive or highly skilled employee. Calculated out turnover is costing in the BILLIONS of dollars each year.

Before we start coaching, we must understand the three levels of employee engagement and why we need to section them.

• Engaged Employees – Are emotionally committed to the Organization, Brand and Community, they understand the mission, values, and goals. They are willing to go that extra mile and have a penchant for teamwork. Losing these individuals would and will influence the other team members.

• Unengaged Employees – Understand that their position within the Organization is necessary however they possess little passion for their work and career, look to it as a Job and not a career, rarely are they there to assist in extra efforts or team building. They are necessary for the fulfillment of the jobs at hand but create a potential drain on the culture.

• Disengaged Employees – These are toxic to the Organization as they do not care about their positions, teammates, or customers. They may directly or indirectly challenge company practices and processes which may lead to sabotage of the productivity, profitability, or reputation. These must be sought out and removed before infecting negativity into other members of staff.

Frightening as it may be in a recent Gallup Poll 85% of employees are either Unengaged or Disengaged, with 51% looking for new position or open to offers. If we are to consider the above classifications as first being beneficial, the second being manageable and the third being terminatable we can start structuring coaching.

But why should we coach? In a study from the Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness it showed benefit increases in Sales by 10-19%, Profitability of 14-29%, and Customer Experience by 3-7%. More importantly Employee Engagement rose 9-15%. Other coaching benefits included improvement in self-confidence 80%, relationships 73%, work performance 70%, business management 61%, time management 57 %, team performance 51% AND 93% of companies that offer coaching report significantly less turnover.

Again, from Gallop, there research shows a 5% increase in Employee Engagement directly relates to 3% increase in revenue with Organizations scoring in the top 25% having increases by 10% in Customer Satisfaction, 17% in Productivity, 20% in Sales and 21% in Profitability.

All this comes at a cost but what is the return? In the same studies, 86% of all the companies broke even on the initial coaching investment however 47% achieved at least a 10x ROI and 19% of them reaching over a 50x ROI, with the median rate being 7x. With numbers like these it should be automatically part of the cultural process in a dealership.

Before we start coaching, we must understand that coaching is not training nor is it about giving advice, providing therapy, having all the answers, or driving the process. A coach is going to assist in isolating challenges and obstructions, creating bridges, improving motivation and teamwork, increasing productivity, and removing negativity. Doing so will bring you the results above and dramatically change employee engagement.

I challenge you to name another opportunity that can bring this overall return into your facility. So let's work together at bringing the absolute best out from your team while decreasing the negativity that is below the surface from the disengaged and bring everyone along the path of success.