Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 11

11

* N O V E M B E R 2 019

Show 'toxic' staff the door, and fast
IN MY COLUMN LAST ISSUE,
I wrote about how Automotive
News Canada's Best Dealerships
To Work For of 2019 provided
great insight into how to retain
talent.
But there's a flip side of that
issue. How does a manager
know when to let someone go,
and how
they
Just one toxic should
approach it?
employee
That was
one of many
can poison
burning
an entire
issues discussed at the
workplace
and must be inaugural
Automotive
viewed as
News Canada
Forum
dangerous to Retail
in Toronto,
the business. Oct. 23, particularly
during a panel discussion featuring four of the brightest minds in
the Canadian dealership world
(see stories, Page 16).
I was struck by how blunt
some panelists were about the
importance of making sure no
"toxic people" are allowed in the
workplace: Employees who drag
down the morale of others and
strain the business.
Holding on to them also
shows the other employees that
management is either disconnected from the realities of the
workplace, that it's weak or it
doesn't care about morale. All
are bad.
Michael Norris, dealer principal at Volvo of Edmonton, said
his dealership essentially has a
three-strike policy: An underperforming employee will be given

FROM TORONTO

JOHN IRWIN

COMMENT
two write-ups explaining where
he or she is underperforming. If
the employee doesn't change,
Norris lets him or her go.
It might sound harsh, but
Norris said it's for good reason.
People generally perform better
if they are surrounded by
co-workers they get along with
and who also do good work, he
said. Keeping an employee who
isn't pulling his or her weight or
is a drag on morale will bring
down the performance of the
whole group, Norris said. In
essence, it's not a problem of
just one person.
"I'm always amazed organizations will have those two or
three toxic people that they
keep around," he said. "Most
people leave dealerships quite
often because of that one toxic
person, so we're pretty aggressive about not having them
around."
The panelists - as well as
many of the dealers with whom
I spoke at the Best Dealerships
To Work For gala awards ceremony that followed the retail
forum - spoke about the need
to have strong practices in place
to limit the number of hires who
do not fit in with their stores'
culture, as well as training to
keep everyone's skills sharp.
Steve Chipman, CEO of

Leads,
Leads,
Leads
Leads
and
and
more
more
Leads.
Leads.

Birchwood Automotive Group in
Winnipeg, said his dealership
group depends in large part on
referrals for new hires, saying
those employees are typically
loyal and are happier from the
start because they know someone on staff.
"That's our best source,"
Chipman said. "The people we
hire are very loyal."
Many dealers see referrals in
particular as an effective way to
avoid hiring toxic people. It
makes sense. If an employee
who is well-liked and respected
within the organization knows
someone who might be a great
fit, odds are that person will end
up being a great fit.
It's important, of course, to

Dealers wouldn't have as many toxic people on staff if they
weren't hired in the first place. Steve Chipman of Birchwood
Automotive Group, second from right, said during an
Automotive News Canada retail panel that referrals are
"our best source" for new employees. Also pictured, Trent
Hargrave, dealer principal of Riverside Dodge-Chrysler-JeepRam, and Susan Gubasta, CEO of Mississauga Toyota.

said the agreement with
FreedomRoad makes turnkey vehicle financing available for American customers,
increasing affordability.
- Steve Mertl

Toyota Canada boosts
hybrid battery warranty

SCARBOROUGH, ONT. -
For the 2020 model year, the
automaker will increase by
two years the warranty on
batteries used in Toyota and
Lexus hybrid vehicles.
The coverage, which is
transferable, extends to 10
years or 240,000 kilometres,
from eight years or 160,000
kilometres, the automaker said. For other hybrid
components such as control modules, the warranty will remain at eight
years/160,000.
"Over 98 per cent of the
Toyota hybrid-electric vehicles sold in Canada since
2001 have never had their
original battery replaced,"
said spokesman David
Shum, who was unable to
provide warranty data.
Toyota said it has sold
more than 208,000 electrified vehicles in Canada. The
company currently offers

seven hybrid models, including three in the Prius range;
Lexus has six. - Steve Mertl

800-volt system tops
innovation awards

AJAX, ONT. - THE
Automobile Journalists
Association of Canada has
recognized important technical advances in the auto sector with the 2020 Automotive
Innovation Awards, selected
by a panel of seven members
who regularly write on the
subject.
Porsche was honoured with the Best Green
Innovation award for the
Taycan battery-electric

Stephanie Wallcraft, president
of the Automobile Journalists
Association of Canada,
presents the 2020 Best Green
Innovation award to Patrick
Saint-Pierre of Porsche
Canada for the automaker's
Taycan 800-volt architecture.
P H O TO : J O H N WA L K E R / A J A C

Brought
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P H O T O : G I A N C A R L O PA W E L E C

TRANS-CANADA NEWS 5,000 KILOMETRES OF STORIES
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

still do your due diligence, but
referrals seem likely to result in
the right fit more often than not.
And make no mistake, building a great culture and a work
environment that is exciting,
challenging and rewarding for
employees is the key to cutting
down on the turnover problem
that plagues so many dealerships.
It's no wonder, then, that
many of the Best Dealerships To
Work For are quick to dismiss
employees who drag down others, and also work to build up
good workers who show promise.
Doing anything else would
bring down the whole dealership. - ANC

sedan's 800-volt architecture, which uses liquid-cooled
cables to charge the battery,
providing a claimed 100-kilometre range in five minutes.
Porsche says it's the fastest-charging EV on the market.
Blind-spot monitoring was
singled out in two awards.
Hyundai's system, which uses
360-degree camera technology to display wide-angle views
of adjacent lanes within the
gauge cluster when turn signals are activated, received
the Best Safety Innovation
award.
FCA got the nod for Best
Technical Innovation for its
blind-spot system with trailer
detection for Ram pickups. It
detects the length of a trailer
when hooked to the truck and
alerts the driver if another
vehicle is in either the truck's
or trailer's blind spot.
- Steve Mertl

Just
Just
like
like
that.
that.

Made from recycled tires, the
Eco-Flex Eco Wall is claimed
to absorb the highway traffic
sounds of dense urban areas.
PHOTO: ECO-FLEX

crumb that's used to produce
new rubber products such as
curb ramps, industrial walkways and road rumble strips;
its latest innovation, the rubberized Eco Wall, absorbs
sounds from highways that
run through urban areas
and has a lifespan of 50-100
years, reports Global News
Edmonton.
Euroshield of Calgary
makes roof shingles from
tires, claiming they're durable enough to be the last shingles a building owner will
ever need to buy.
"The reason that you don't
want a tire in the landfill is
that it doesn't break down,
Companies find new
[which is] the exact same
uses for old tires Contact:Contact:
reason why you would want
CALGARY, ALTA. - JAYSON
to put itZILKIE
on your roof," said
JAYSON
ZILKIE
Keeping used tires outDirector
of
official Chris
Director
- Euroshield
landfills is a goal for two
Kinnee.
Automotive
Automotive
DivisionDivision
Alberta companies that turn
Eco-Flex to date has recythem into entirely new prodcled
close to 80 million tires,
E. jayson@lowestrates.ca
E. jayson@lowestrates.ca
ucts.
said CEO Alan Champagne.
C. 250-870-1600
C. 250-870-1600 - Joe Knycha
Sturgeon County-based
Eco-Flex turns tires into
a
www.LowestRates.ca
www.LowestRates.ca - ANC

Leads,
Leads,
Leads
Leads
and
and
more
more
Leads.
Leads.

Brought
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to you
to you
by by
Award
the the
Award
Winning
Winning

Just
Just
likelike
that.
that.

Contact:Contact:

JAYSON
JAYSON
ZILKIEZILKIE

DirectorDirector
Automotive
Automotive
DivisionDivision

E. jayson@lowestrates.ca
E. jayson@lowestrates.ca
C. 250-870-1600
C. 250-870-1600
www.LowestRates.ca
www.LowestRates.ca


https://www.lowestrates.ca/ http://www.LowestRates.ca

Automotive News Canada - November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - November 2019

Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - Intro
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 1
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 2
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 3
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 4
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 5
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 6
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 7
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 8
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 9
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 10
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 11
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 12
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 13
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 14
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 15
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 16
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 17
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 18
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 19
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 20
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 21
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 22
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 23
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 24
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 25
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 26
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 27
Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - 28
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