Solve Your Workforce Pain
Navigating staffing decisions and workforce challenges can be overwhelming. You want to reduce the burden of retaining skilled team members, keep up with seasonal swings and figure out how to make the most of your current staff. It’s especially hard to get a grip on your workforce struggles while trying to maintain profitability and performance. So, how do you right-size your team, maximize productivity and safeguard the customer experience?
We’ll help you tackle those questions head-on in this month’s MRAA Spotlight, providing you with access to new and improved resources, including the MRAA Career Center, a range of courses, guides and templates, and updated job descriptions. Now is the time to re-evaluate how to manage your workforce pressures for short- and long-term success. This Spotlight can be your roadmap to do that with confidence and clarity.
BLOGS
BLOG
Finding the Right Crew: Rethinking How We Hire Sales and Service Staff
Building a strong sales and service team starts long before a position opens. In this MRAA Spotlight, marine industry expert Amanda Funk of Compass Maritime Group reveals why proactive hiring — not reactive recruiting — is the key to attracting, developing and retaining top talent at your dealership. You’ll discover practical strategies to strengthen your workforce and set up your dealership for lasting success. Bonus: CMG shares two resources to help you dial in your team.
BLOG
Slow and Steady Wins the Fall
When the rush of winterization season hits, it’s easy for your dealership to trade caution for speed. It sounds like a good plan, but that’s when costly mistakes happen. Mitch Belter of Trucordia Marine shares why slowing down, following checklists and enforcing consistent processes is a better decision — and one that will protect your inventory, your customers’ boats and your team. This practical guidance encourages you to take a deliberate, steady approach this fall — because slowing down now keeps you from paying for preventable errors later.
BLOG
Leadership & Loyalty — From the Top, Down
Struggling to keep your team motivated, loyal and long-term? You’re not alone — workforce turnover, burnout and disengagement are common challenges across marine retail. But at KICKER, a culture rooted in trust, flexibility and family-first leadership has helped this MRAA Platinum Partner retain employees for decades while building a strong, engaged community. The KICKER story offers inspiration — and practical ideas — for how you can create a dealership culture your team won’t want to leave.
BLOG
Between the Gaps: Bridging Departments to Boost Performance and Employee Loyalty
Your dealership’s success depends on how well your team works together. When every department communicates, supports each other and stays aligned, employees perform better and customers notice. Chris Dominis of Motility Software Solutions, an MRAA Platinum Partner, will help you focus on creating a culture of teamwork and accountability to drive loyalty and long-term results.
BLOG
Alpin Haus Honors 25-Year Employees with Culture-Driven Loyalty Strategy
At Alpin Haus, celebrating long-term employees (25-plus years) and investing in leadership created a culture of connection that’s felt by both staff and customers. Discover how their approach — and using tools like MRAA’s Dealership Certification Program — can help you build a stronger dealership from the inside out.
BLOG
Hold Onto Your Team and Boost Their Satisfaction
By taking a proactive stance to engage your dealership’s workforce, you gain their trust and boost employee retention. Consider doing stay interviews to connect with and get to truly know your team. Highlighting a key insight and the full MRAATraining.com course from Gloria Sinclair Miller, HR Expert at SHRM.
RESOURCES
RESOURCE
Job Descriptions for Your Dealership
MRAA members have access to nearly 50 job descriptions for common positions around the typical dealership. Download a document, customize the content for your business, then copy and paste the updated copy into a document with your dealership’s branding to create a job description for your unique position.
To serve your changing workforce needs, MRAA is partnering with Amplified People Solutions on a multi-year initiative to take these sample job descriptions to the next level. As part of this project, we are providing two blank templates you can download and customize for any position, in addition to a growing number of updated samples, all marked “NEW.”
MRAA Members Only!
RESOURCE
Mini-Guide: How to Update Your Employee Handbook
Keep your dealership compliant, consistent and employee-focused with this step-by-step guide to updating your handbook. Developed with Amplified People Solutions, this resource outlines when and why to revise, how to engage key team members, and what to review. Complete with a checklist tailored for marine retailers, it ensures your policies reflect your values, support compliance, and boost employee satisfaction and retention.
MRAA Members Only!
RESOURCE
The MRAA Guide to Onboarding
Many of you know firsthand, there are few things that are more painful than losing a key employee.
This handy and helpful onboarding guide is loaded with explanations, directions, checklists, links and resources to support the creation of a thorough four-stage onboarding process for your dealership.
MRAA Members Only!
RESOURCE
Marine Dealer Cybersecurity Checklist
Taking care of your people means preparing them for cybersecurity measures. When your team knows how to spot threats and protect customer data, they feel more confident and your dealership avoids costly disruptions. Use this checklist — supplied to you by IDS Marine, an MRAA Education Champion — to easily add cyber awareness to onboarding and strengthen day-to-day operations at your dealership.
DATA
DATA
Dealer Feedback – Workforce Trends
Managing your labor costs is only one challenge you’re facing in your dealership. In order to maintain a winning workforce strategy you also must understand your employees’ needs, help them grow, train them, engage them and build a culture the not only satisfies, but also create longevity and loyalty.
That’s why MRAA, in collaboration with Baird and Soundings Trade Only, asked dealers this critical question in a recent Pulse Report:
- As you plan for your slower season, what is your most pressing workforce-related challenge?
Beyond these five choices, the dealers anonymously shared more insights on their current workforce pain points. Dealer feedback reflected a mixed employment outlook, shaped by uneven demand, persistent labor shortages and rising costs. While a few businesses report stable or improving workforce conditions, most describe cautious or defensive strategies.
Not an MRAA Member, but want the MRAA Pulse Report data? Reach out to Sherri Cuvala, MRAA Director of Membership, at sherri@mraa.com.
EDUCATION
EDUCATION
MRAATraining — Workforce Education Built for Dealerships
Staffing shortages, turnover and rising demands have made workforce management tougher than ever. MRAA’s training resources are designed to help you close those gaps, ease department strain and create long-term strategies for employee engagement and success.
At MRAATraining.com, you’ll find a library of relevant workforce-focused education — from leadership development to onboarding best practices — all built to strengthen your team and stabilize your operations. Here are three helpful courses. Visit (log in) www.MRAATraining.com today to start you developmental journey.
- FOR SILVER MEMBERS + — HR Strategies to Fill Gaps in Your Dealership’s Workforce — With first time buyers on the decline, it’s important to understand that the model for customer acquisition is changing. Fueled by research from Discover Boating, take the next step by identifying what these buyers want in their first engagement with dealers and how to give it to them. This session will cover changes to both the sales process as well as marketing techniques that are designed to help you sell more boats.
- FOR SILVER MEMBERS + — Reduce Service Dept. Pain with These Workforce Tools & Strategies — If you’re frustrated by workforce shortages in your department, you’re not alone. While many factors are out of your control, adopting the right strategies can give you a competitive edge. The Service Managers who thrive are those addressing workforce challenges head-on. This course will teach you how to develop a service recruiting strategy, improve your department’s work environment, and enhance your ability to train new hires. By the end, you’ll have the tools to attract and develop the team members you need now and in the future.
- FOR MRAA GOLD MEMBERS — Develop Your Dealership’s Workforce Outside In —Dealers have reported time and again that hiring and retaining high-performing staff is growing increasingly difficult. This course will help you take your coaching and mentoring efforts to a whole new level and give you the advice you need to grow an all-star team. Learn how you can develop your employees for improved performance and retention and how you can expand your workforce in response to marketplace demand.
Not an MRAA Gold or Silver Member, but want to experience the MRAATraining courses and all that MRAATraining has to offer? Reach out to Sherri Cuvala, MRAA Director of Membership, at sherri@mraa.com.
Dealer Week
EDUCATION & TRAINING
7 Levers to Boost Efficiency and Margins
When the market slows, cutting costs or chasing sales might seem like the answer — but real improvement comes from a complete, systematic approach.
In this session, leadership coach Dave Newell reveals seven practical levers that you, as a marine retailer, can pull to boost efficiency, strengthen your people and drive profit. You’ll explore how aligning your team and refining key processes reduces stress and creates lasting results.
Dave will take a deeper dive into the three most critical areas impacting dealerships today — People, Process, and Cost — helping you identify gaps, measure performance and apply actionable strategies to elevate your operation.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the seven levers that directly impact profitability
- Evaluate your dealership’s performance in each of the seven areas – diving deep into People, Process and Cost
- Prioritize immediate approaches in People, Process and Cost that can be taken for short-term gain
- Create a clear action plan to implement shifts in your dealership to boost profitability
Need more workforce-related tactics, try these: