management 4 min read

11 Steps to Build a Great Company Culture at Your Dealership

Owning and managing a car dealership entails a lot of work. You have multiple groups of people to manage, inventories to catalog, and financial numbers to calculate. That doesn’t even include paying all the bills, dealing with customers, or negotiating with suppliers.

The people you hire can make your life much easier or much harder. In fact, building up a solid team of hard-working employees can alleviate your workload tenfold.

However, you’ll never keep quality workers on staff without a great company culture. But a great company culture doesn’t build itself or just magically appear. It too entails a lot of work.

Keep reading for 11 key steps in creating a great company culture!

How to Build a Great Company Culture

As we suggested above, building a great work culture for you and your employees takes a lot of effort. These types of environments, however, require everyone on-staff to play along. Without a continuous effort of the entire team, even the best workplace dynamics will fall apart.

1. Hire the Right People

First and foremost, the foundation of great company culture is built around the employees themselves. This means you need to hire the right people.

Whether you interview and hire employees yourself, or have someone doing it for you, the hiring process needs to be stringent and consistent. Make sure your employee who handles new hires knows exactly what you’re looking for.

Getting the right type of people hired who can contribute positivity and a solid work ethic is one of the most important places to start.

2. Be Clear and Upfront About What You Expect From Employees

Next, for the new employees joining your team, have a discussion with them about the type of work environment you are striving for. Communicate to them that as part of that environment, you have expectations of them.

They should be fully aware that failing to contribute to great company culture is equally as negative as doing poorly at their job. Let them know how little tolerance there is around the company for poor behavior.

For the employees who are already active, hold a staff meeting so you can go over your plans for creating a new, better company culture. Tell them what you expect and let them know the consequences of failing to contribute to a positive work environment.

This isn’t a scare tactic, make sure they know it. However, they also need to realize how important it is to build a positive work culture.

3. Listen to What Employees Have to Say

Now, as the leader of your company and its employees, you are tasked keeping your employees content. This means honestly listening to them and hearing what they have to say.

When an employee has a problem, whether it’s with another co-worker, a customer, their hours, or even with you, you need to provide a safe place for them to talk. Just as importantly, you need to help them solve their issues.

4. Create a Team Mentality

Great company culture is formed by employees who get along. In the workplace, it’s all too easy for people to get frustrated with one another and create an “us vs. them” mentality.

Prevent this from happening by constantly encouraging and emphasizing a team dynamic. More than that, get people involved on a personal level by having team lunches, dinners, etc.

5. Encourage Open Communication

Next, in order for employees to feel invested in the company, they need to feel like their opinion matters. You can achieve this by having a weekly meeting to discuss day-to-day operations.

Motivate people to participate and share their ideas about how things could run smoother, what’s working well, and what’s not.

6. Lead by Example

As the car dealership’s owner or manager, it’s up to you to be a positive example your staff can look up to.

Telling your staff to respect one another and then losing your temper or gossiping about people will not inspire a great company culture, nor will it inspire any trust.

Instead act at work as though you’re always being watched, because you probably are. Show your employees how you expect them to act by doing it yourself.

Through this, you will become a better leader.

7. Treat Everyone with Kindness and Respect

At the end of the day, everybody wants the same thing – to be treated with respect and kindness. It’s one of the first lessons we learn as children. Treat others how we would like to be treated.

Make sure this golden rule is engraved in your employees’ heads. Great company culture can’t exist without the basic foundation of respect and kindness.

8. Keep Employees Engaged

Great company culture is run by employees who are engaged at work and motivated to do their jobs.

It’s incredibly easy to become bored or burnt out doing the same thing every day. Help your employees stay engaged by giving them new weekly challenges. These challenges should be accompanied by small rewards for people who complete them.

Create fun competitions for individuals or with teams. The more fun you make it, the more your employees will respond positively.

9. Be Approachable

Along with treating everyone with kindness and respect, as a boss, you need to be approachable. Don’t allow yourself to come off as a scary or constantly irritated boss.

Your employees should feel 100 percent comfortable coming up to you with questions, concerns, or problems.

10. Recognize Achievements

A great company culture consists of employees who feel appreciated. Celebrating all the small wins people get throughout the day is vital to keep them motivated and hard-working.

Simply recognizing your employees’ achievements and calling them out can really make their day. Just make sure you don’t start gravitating toward certain people or it will looks as though you’re playing favorites.

11. See Your Employees as People

Finally, remember that your employees are human beings.

When managing groups of people, it becomes entirely too easy to start seeing them as simple assets to your business. However, seeing them as such can lead to treating them coldly or indifferently.

Your employees are people with their own thoughts, feelings, families, and personal lives.

You Can Do This and We Can Help

Creating a great company culture will take some hard work, dedication, and consistency. However, we have no doubt that you can do. Thousands of companies do it every day.

Now it’s your turn. However, if you need a little help, that’s what we’re here for! We can help your dealership run smoother than ever, helping you achieve higher numbers than you thought possible!