Pub. 7 2018-2019 Issue 4

22 San Diego Dealer improving. • You need some ideas about what to do that will be effective. Search the internet for “best practices for improving employee engage- ment.” The results will give you many different ideas for action. You are in the best position to decide what ideas would work for you, but it’s a good idea to be aware of what other companies, even in other industries, are doing. For example, you should check out what Google is doing to engage its employees. Whether you open up the decision making or not, you do need to ask your employees what they want to see in order to be more engaged with their work. • Use the feedback you get from employees and make a plan. • Take a baseline measurement before implementing plans. You can decide how far ahead you want to look, but three years is a good number: long enough for big changes, but short enough to keep actions and milestones realistic. • Look at tactical elements that improve performance. Always favor concrete actions that are over abstract ideas. “Provide in-house day- care” is better than “provide support to parents who are employees.” Accountability and Trust There are distinct differences in how baby boomers and millennials approach work. In fact, the baby boomer approach and the millennial approach can be exact opposites. What really matters is getting the work done and not so much how the work gets done. Your strategy, therefore, should be doing your best to avoid letting people divide into age-based camps. How can you accomplish that goal? It almost certainly won’t happen by accident. One good strategy is to pay more attention to accountability than to methods. If an approach works, and it is legal and ethical, why should anyone care about the specifics? The baby boomers probably have better interpersonal communication skills. The millennials are certainly going to be better when it comes to digital communication. You want all the skill sets you can find. Think broadly and find a way to accommodate everyone’s strengths. Your attitude will go a long way toward creating the right kind of culture, but you should also encourage people to compromise and to learn from each other. The way management makes decisions should make it clear that employees can trust the organization to be fair about accountability. The Advantage of Being Diverse Family dealerships are not alone in beingmultigenerational. The general population is in the same situation. As a result, troubleshooting problems becomes more effective if it takes advantage of generational diversity because that diversitymakes for better solutions. When you have projects, the smart approach is to involve representatives from each generation. Approaching a problem from multiple perspectives is more likely to produce solutions that are comprehensive. After all, millennials offer efficiency and creativity in their work, but those qualities pair well with the high-quality, detail-oriented work of baby boomers. Continued from Page 21 in your association’s trade journal is a solid approach to business development. dani@thenewslinkgroup.com | thenewslinkgroup.com | (v) 801.676.9722 ADVERTISING in your association’s trade journal is a solid approach to business development. Business publications are rated the first choice for staying in touch with what’s going on in their sector by 61% of decision makers. 83% of managers would recommend to people starting a career in their sector to read the business publications. A recent Nielsen Catalina study shows an average ROI of $7.81 for every $1.00 spent on print ads. Almost half of those surveyed preferred to look at an ad in print, and only 1 in 10 preferred to see that same ad in a digital version. And no one wanted to see it in an app. Print is tangible, it’s engaging, it’s readable, but most of all… it works!