Employees are the backbone of any business — ensuring everything is completed efficiently and successfully. As specialty dealerships adapt to industry changes, keeping employees informed and prepared is essential. Your dealership will reap tangible benefits when your personnel feel confident in their roles.
Here are four ways to instill employee confidence and drive success throughout your dealership:
1. Provide Access to Learning Opportunities
Continual learning is a vital aspect of professional growth. Encourage your employees to engage in various opportunities to strengthen their industry knowledge and skillsets.
For example, sending your employees to designated dealer training events will help them learn how to optimize their experience with the tools and software your dealership uses. You can also promote employee attendance at industry trade shows and conferences, where they can stay informed on industry news and developments. Lastly, provide suggestions of helpful industry newsletters or blogs your employees can subscribe to so information gets delivered directly to their inboxes.
Proficient training is vital for employee success and productive dealership operation. To prevent your dealership from falling behind, you’ll want to encourage your employees to engage in these learning opportunities.
2. Build Trust
Trust is an important element of a successful business. As a manager, you need to be able to trust that your employees will handle their responsibilities correctly and timely. Similarly, dealership personnel should have trust in their management.
One way to create a sense of trust throughout your business is to follow an open communication policy. When employees have the chance to express their concerns or ideas regularly, they’ll feel more comfortable and confident that what they have to say is important and will be taken into consideration. Additionally, demonstrating that you trust them enough to communicate openly and honestly will ultimately strengthen your employees’ sense of teamwork.
To create a strong foundation of trust from the beginning, it’s important to establish clear expectations — and stick to them. As a manager, it's your responsibility to express what you expect from your team members and provide them with the necessary resources. Overall performance will improve when it's clear what to do and how to do it.
Trust is strongest as a two-way street. By delivering trustworthy management, your employees will feel more inclined to reciprocate trustworthy behavior.
3. Recognize Employee Accomplishments
One of the most effective ways to boost employee confidence is to demonstrate that you notice and appreciate their hard work. When your employees go above and beyond or demonstrate highly effective problem-solving skills, give them some sort of acknowledgment. Whether this takes the form of a shout-out on your company’s communication platform or a prize or certificate at a company-wide gathering, your employees will appreciate recognition.
Another small but meaningful act of recognition is to acknowledge recent milestones such as birthdays, work anniversaries, births, weddings, and graduations. This is an extra step to show your employees that they're important to you and the business.
4. Offer Feedback
As much as your employees would love to only focus on the success they deliver in their role, they need to be informed on how they can improve. Constructive criticism is a surefire way to strengthen employee skills while reinforcing effective behavior.
Keep in mind that delivery makes a big difference. Feedback is meant to be helpful, not derogatory. Instead of calling out an individual publicly, hold one-on-one meetings to discuss what’s going well and what should be altered to deliver better results. Employees can also take this opportunity to discuss their perspectives and ask questions that may have been put on the back burner. Having this designated time to get on the same page will help improve efficiency, productivity, and your dealership’s success!
Confident, knowledgeable, and well-trained staff are fundamental to a successful business. By practicing these four steps, you can boost employee confidence and leave your dealership better prepared to take on the challenges ahead.