Pandemic validates telecommuting options for some stores

Something counterintuitive occurred when sales agents in the business development center at Faulkner Subaru Harrisburg started working from home during the coronavirus pandemic: Communication improved, and productivity increased.

"I never would've guessed that communication would get better with employees working remotely," said Doug Jones, general manager of the Pennsylvania dealership owned by Faulkner Organization. "But we're getting responses [to sales inquiries] faster from salespeople and our sales manager. And we're getting answers back to customers faster, so they're happier, too."

The experiment "has worked out so well" that Jones gave the green light for the dealership's three BDC employees to continue working remotely even after everyone else at the dealership returned to in-person work.

Faulkner Subaru's experience is not isolated. Many stores on the 2021 Best Dealerships To Work For list reported that telecommuting initially increased and has continued at elevated rates during the pandemic. The increase in remote work proved to be a useful tool for some retailers as the pandemic forced them to rethink operations and adopt new work force strategies.

Tim Boylan, general manager of Acura Turnersville in New Jersey, owned by Penske Automotive Group Inc., reports a similar upside to telecommuting. Nine of the store's 36 employees — including seven from the store's BDC — continue to work remotely long after New Jersey's pandemic-related stay-at-home orders were rescinded last summer. A warranty administrator and a corporate recruiter also work remotely, he said.

"We've seen great efficiencies and effectiveness because BDC employees are making more service appointment calls and more outbound calls to solicit declined service work," Boylan told Automotive News. "I think there are less distractions and interruptions at home, which leaves them with more time to make more calls."

The result? An increase in service appointments, service revenue and gross profits, though Boylan declined to provide specifics.

About half of this year's winning dealerships said they offer telecommuting as a standard practice. And more than half of the stores on the list said their telecommuting rates increased after the start of the pandemic in early 2020, with some reporting that half or more of employees were working from home, according to a survey by Best Companies Group, which compiled the Best Dealerships To Work For list. Those rates have since moderated, though nearly a quarter of the winning dealerships reported that staffers are still telecommuting at levels higher than before the pandemic began.

At Faulkner Subaru, BDC response time to customers' queries is now five to 10 minutes, down from up to 30 minutes pre-pandemic, Jones said, citing data from the store's customer relationship management system.

The secret sauce? Using the Slack communication platform allows employees to quickly send messages even when they are busy. Before, BDC agents were forced to wait for, say, a sales manager to get off a phone call or finish a meeting before getting questions answered, Jones said.

Beyond the BDC, two office workers kept working remotely, meaning about 10 percent of the store's four dozen employees now telecommute, up from zero before the pandemic, Jones said.

Also, the remote employees seem to communicate more than usual to compensate for not being able to talk face-to-face with colleagues.

Kim Stanley, an area human resources manager for Penske, said telecommuting can help attract and retain employees.

"We believe we will have to continue to look for these kinds of opportunities in order to attract and retain team members moving forward," Stanley wrote in response to a survey of winners conducted by Automotive News.

Diana Kennedy, general manager of Volvo Cars Marin in San Rafael, Calif., owned by Price Simms Family Dealerships, said, "I can definitely see us doing more of this as we grow, but there are limits."

Two of the Volvo store's employees — a marketing manager and a BDC agent — currently work from home. Those jobs are suited for remote work because they don't require continual face-to-face interaction with fellow employees, customers or vendors, Kennedy said.

"Our marketing manager is just as productive as before, if not more," she said. "She enjoys having the freedom to structure her day as needed and says it helps a lot when she can stop and take a walk to mentally regroup. That's hard to do in the store, where you're always getting interrupted by curveballs."

Some dealership leaders don't object to telecommuting but say it often isn't feasible, according to the Automotive News survey.

"While I think we have a much higher comfort level that telecommuting can be effective, the core job functions of the dealership will likely remain in person for some time," Jennifer Myers, director of marketing at Kunes Auto Group, wrote in a survey response. Kunes owns nearly two dozen dealerships in Wisconsin and Illinois.

"There's so much in a dealership that needs to happen at the dealership," she added. "We handle customers' most personal financial and identification information, which needs to remain in the store. Vehicles are fixed in the store. Customers are in the store."

At other dealerships, telecommuting is typically off the table.

"Even with the ever-changing landscape of COVID, the majority of our business to date is still done in-person and on-site," Michael Faul, general manager of Penske-owned Mercedes-Benz of North Scottsdale in Phoenix, wrote in a survey response. "Telecommuting is not an option for most of our personnel."

At Friendship Nissan of Boone in North Carolina, owned by Friendship Family of Dealerships, employees can work from home if absolutely necessary, dealer principal Dustin Walters said. But he expressed concern that telecommuting can upset employees' home-work balance.

"If a team member's responsibilities necessitate that they work from home, then we accommodate them," he wrote in a survey response. "But we prefer to allow our team to relax and enjoy family time when they are at home instead of being consistently focused on work."

Adam Robinson, CEO of dealership recruitment technology company Hireology, predicts telecommuting will become more common at dealerships, especially for BDC employees.

Dealers who embrace the trend will be able to compete better against other employers offering flexible or remote-work opportunities, Robinson said. And offering remote jobs could make it easier to hire altogether — no small thing in today's extremely tight labor market.

"You may find that you get access to a higher-quality talent pool when you're enabling people to do that job from their home," he said. "We never would have considered that three years ago, but today, I think it's on the table."

Generally speaking, the days of office-only workers are gone, Robinson said: "Dealers that are waiting for things to revert back to 'normal' will be waiting a long time. This is the new normal."

Acura Turnersville's Boylan agrees.

"We plan to let them keep working remotely," he said. "It's working for us, and our employees are happy. So if it's not broken, we won't try to fix it."