MINNEAPOLIS — The MRAA’s Marine Industry Certified Dealership program has collected more than 15,000 responses from dealership personnel in its Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS).
The ESS is a survey taken annually by dealership staff at Certified locations. It asks employees 33 questions about their dealership’s culture, in which the employees rate the dealership on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. It also allows the employees to give open-ended responses to questions about what the dealership is doing well and what the dealership could do better.
More than 1,140 surveys have been conducted on behalf of hundreds of dealership locations since 2017. Among the data, employees at Certified Dealerships have reported:
• 94.8 percent report that they know their job is significant and important to the dealership’s success.
• 92.8 percent know the core values and principles they are expected to follow at work.
• 92.3 percent say the employees at their dealership recognize the importance of their customers.
Dealers in the Certification program conduct the ESS annually to better understand the working culture at their dealership. After receiving a robust report of the results, dealers have the opportunity to work with their Certification Consultant to analyze the feedback. Each dealer then hosts a meeting with their staff, celebrating the dealership’s strengths and working as a team to develop solutions to meet employees’ workplace needs.
“Every year our employees score our dealership higher than the year before,” said Lou Cecchini, owner of Off Shore Marine in Branchville, New Jersey. “The reason why is that we take the results from the ESS and find our weaknesses. As a group we discuss and brainstorm new ideas to create a better work environment. This is a group effort and we have buy-in from every employee. It also helps when interviewing new hires as we are able to explain the ESS process and how important our employees are to the dealership.”
The Certification program also uses the ESS to determine the Great Dealerships to Work for each year. This December, 21 Great Dealerships to Work for will be honored at Dealer Week in Austin, Texas.
“The Employee Satisfaction Survey is one of our Certified Dealers’ favorite features of the program,” said MRAA Certification Manager Liz Keener. “They appreciate getting honest feedback from their staff and then working with their team to overcome any obstacles in their culture. I’ve seen some dealers make huge strides from year to year, as they continue to work with their staff to improve the workplace.”
She added, “This is especially important, considering our industry’s current workforce challenges. The dealerships that can demonstrate that they are a business that will listen to employees and work to develop a desired culture will retain their strong performers and attract new talent.”
About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas
At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043.
