Employee Activity Management or EAM is every Dealer’s worst nightmare and it’s most ignored challenge. We will discuss why in the paragraphs to come and what we can do to manage it, but before we can talk about managing our employees, we have to look at why workers come to work.

                For the last 50 years the Wall Street Journal has done a Gallup poll of American workers and ironically the only thing that has changed throughout the years has been the number of workers. This poll has shown that only 30% of American workers, regardless of the field in which they work in are actively engaged. That’s a whopping 70% of American workers not engaged. Even more staggering is that of the 70% not engaged 50 % are simply not interested or not motivated leaving 20% actively not engaged, or not engaged on purpose. Those 20 percenters almost all stated that they simply were not appreciated or felt like their job did not matter leaving them bitter and angry. Of the 50 percenters, they almost unanimously claimed that they were not engaged because they did not know why they were doing their jobs leaving them distant from the company with no goals to achieve.

                To truly understand engagement we have to look at what motivates workers. You would be surprised to know that money is actually number 2 reason in a recent Forbes Magazine poll on what motivates workers, and career advancement was number 4. Little less surprising that proving others wrong was number 3, but I was most surprised to see the #1 reason why workers are motivated and that is Trustworthy Leadership. Studies have shown that Leaders that have your back and shares the company’s vision and set attainable goals will win the trust of their employees who in turn will be more motivated to achieve. Trust is a powerful motivational tool and those leaders that are more transparent with their employees about expectations will find surprising results and new types of opportunities to develop talent.

                That leads us to how we manage our employees, as Managers, General Managers, and even Dealers. Do we fall into the “just do it” rut? Even worse have we heard ourselves say “its how we have always done it?”  These are the seven most expensive words in business today. We do one of two things wrong. We either give a destination with no directions on how to get there. “Go sell cars!”  Or we give them directions, spend money on training, but fail to share our vision and do not set attainable goals. Do we tell our employees why we do the things we do, or why we started this business in the first place? Those same studies showed that employees that knew the mission statement of the company or it’s Vision not only were happier, but were more successful. When we are hiring employees do we look to fill seats or do we share the company vision in the interviews and hire people that share those beliefs and have the same goals that we do? To provide a safe and trustworthy place to have their vehicles serviced, and purchase safe and reliable vehicles for their families?

                Now that we have established why we do what we do, how do we keep them motivated and managed? Remember, an employee that not only knows the destination, but also has the road map, is more successful and happier at work which equates to actively engaged employees. We do this now, with a CRM. A Customer Retention Management software needs to keep your employees engaged everyday with not just prospects but current & previous customers as well.  Key factors to consider when choosing a CRM to actively manage employees: automation, visibility of employee actions, visibility of customer actions, mitigation of compliance issues, and finally the ability to insert your DNA into the functions and direction for the employees.

                Finally, remember it’s not always possible to see on paper your ROI or return on investment. What we do know for sure is that employees that are monitored produce more. Employees that know your company vision produce better results, and employees that know the destination and how to get there will do so not just for themselves, but for you.