Come by the KPA booth at Digital Dealer. My team and I will be performing evaluations and strategy sessions regarding your current social media presence.
That’s it. No fine print. Just come by and we’ll give you honest feedback on what you’re doing on social media and how you can improve it (if at all). It’s a great way to pick the brains of some of the industry’s leading social media minds without obligation or expectation.
The HRM team just received this in the mail from a happy HRM client.
Thanks Fix Auto!!
Housekeeping is the management, care and servicing of a facility’s property and equipment. It is more than keeping the shop floor clean. It has an effect on:
Why does good housekeeping matter?
You may also like these resources:
2012-10-11 10.03 Yuck! Housekeeping Regulations for Dealers that You Just Have to Know [Webinar]
Spring Cleaning for Three Trouble Areas in the Service Bay
OSHA Fines Auto Parts and Used Car Dealer $49,000 for Safety and Health Violations: Conclusion
This quick video covers the five basics about facebook:
1. Why your earlier efforts on facebook failed
2. How to build a social media strategy on facebook
3. How to actively engage the facebook community
4. How to really advertise on facebook
5. Build positive word of mouth (pwom).
More resources for using facebook as part of your internet marketing mix:
The biggest Facebook Marketing mistake: Not using Facebook Insights [webinar]
Marketing Alert: Don’t Post the Same Content as Other Dealers
Your employees can use their personal social media efforts to help your dealership. Just make sure you’ve implemented an effective social media policy.
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about what employers can legally require of their employees in the social media space. Out of necessity, the conversations often focus on how to create effective employee guidelines, and what happens when you don’t.
Important stuff, but if all your dealership has is a well-written social media policy, and no business benefit coming from your employees’ personal activities on networks like Facebook, you’re missing out.
Your staff can use social media to:
“Really?” you might say. “Then show me how.”
Glad you asked! In a recent blog post on Dealer Bar, JD Rucker (KPA’s Director of New Media) gave practical tips on how your employees can use their personal Facebook accounts to appropriately – and legally – boost your dealership’s visibility.
Like these ideas? Take a deeper dive by reviewing “Should Dealership Employees Connect With Customers Through Social Media?” and let us know what you think.
When it comes to building a safety culture, here’s a piece of advice most dealers have heard many times: All your safety programs, processes and action items need to be written down.
“That’s obvious,” you might say, “But why do I have to invest so much time keeping records?”
Written records are necessary to follow up on minutes from safety meetings and prove due diligence during inspections. But there’s more to it than that. Written records prove to your most important constituents –your staff – that you:
Pay special attention to number 3. Employees who see management making consistent improvements to safety problems they’ve reported are less likely to take their concerns to OSHA. (KPA’s observed an increase in the number of employee complaints to OSHA in recent years.)
Don’t give your employees reason to pick up the phone and tell OSHA, “They’re not doing anything about XYZ…” Show them you’re making progress.
If you’re doing that already, what’s working for your dealership? How do you measure and report progress?
Resources related to this blog post:
Webinar: “How to Develop a Positive Safety Culture” by Nick Hardesty
Blog posts on safety culture: Defining a Safety Culture, Tip #1 –Senior Management, Tip #2 –Safety Coordinators, Tip #3 – Accident Follow-up, Tip #4 – Return-to-Work Policies, Tip #5 – Employee Feedback
The Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulation is a federal regulation that applies to all states. Its purpose is to reduce the discharge of certain petroleum products (oil) into navigable waters. This regulation may apply to you if you have a floor drain in your service area or sewer drain in your parking lot.
This quick video overview gives basic information about what the EPA takes into consideration for determining if your business is required to have an SPCC plan. For more information, check out these resources:
KPA’s Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan service
EPA Finalizes Multiple Changes to the SPCC
Let’s say you’re trying to implement a more effective safety culture at your dealership. You’re running down the checklist: Senior management team’s on board? Check. The safety coordinator’s been assigned? Check. Quick follow-up on accidents? Check. Return-to-work procedures? Check.
Employee feedback?… Uh oh.
It’s easy for a “safety culture” to become a stream of top-down orders from management, without much feedback being sent back up the corporate food chain. And employees who don’t give feedback are less likely to report accidents in a timely manner, or new risks they’ve observed. What can you do to get them engaged?
If you’re a supervisor who’s trying to get your employees to provide more feedback about safety, you may find that your HR manager becomes your closest ally. That’s because employees who know their feedback is valuable to management tend to stay longer, produce more, get hurt less, and refer their friends for open positions. HR will love you!
Resources related to this blog post:
Webinar: “How to Develop a Positive Safety Culture” by Nick Hardesty
Blog posts on safety culture: Defining a Safety Culture, Tip #1 –Senior Management, Tip #2 –Safety Coordinators, Tip #3 – Accident Follow-up, Tip #4 – Return-to-Work Policies
Injuries happen. Auto dealers who have successfully implemented a positive safety culture have created effective procedures for helping an injured employee get back to work. A lot can be done to communicate to the injured colleague that they are valued and wanted back.
Here are a couple of scenarios where it’s important to encourage employees to return to work:
So how do you make sure people in these situations know they can – and should – come back? Have a written return-to-work policy and give it to your employee. Set the expectation that they are wanted back, if at all possible.
This is a win/win approach to an injury: Employees feel appreciated and are more productive. Employers gain from lower workers’ comp premiums and lower staff turnover. By the way, this topic can get complicated. If you have questions, contact your HR consultant, or consider signing up for our Human Resources Management consulting service. (Just email Kathryn Carlson – kcarlson@kpaonline.com).
Resources related to this blog post:
Webinar: “How to Develop a Positive Safety Culture” by Nick Hardesty
Blog posts on safety culture: Defining a Safety Culture, Tip #1 –Senior Management, Tip #2 –Safety Coordinators, Tip #3 – Accident Follow-up
Even in the safest auto dealership, accidents happen. In fact, what happens in your dealership in the hours following an accident is an excellent test of your positive safety culture. Here are a few things to look for:
Did you notice how these four factors work together? If a Service Manager has a track record of being tactful and fair during accident investigations, employees are more likely to report accidents to him truthfully and promptly. This, in turn, allows the dealer to handle claims in a timely manner, and find ways to prevent future accidents by holding investigations when the incidents are still fresh in everyone’s mind.
Even though accidents aren’t good, the way they’re handled can actually reinforce morale. Also, each accident is an opportunity to gather important information that may help prevent similar incidents in the future.
Has your dealership discovered some good techniques for accident follow-up? I’d love to hear them.
Resources related to this blog post:
Webinar: “How to Develop a Positive Safety Culture” by Nick Hardesty
Blog posts on safety culture: Defining a Safety Culture, Tip #1 –Senior Management, Tip #2 –Safety Coordinators
