Did you know you can fill vacant roles by an average of 37 percent, or 16 days, faster than the national average using an optimized hiring process?

Most dealerships, however, use a hodge-podge of technologies to tackle recruiting, hiring and human capital management. This piecemeal approach to developing a human resources (HR) stack results in disjointed HR operational practices and processes, which can hurt business performance. However, there are solutions to help dealerships create an integrated network of HR technologies that improve efficiency in hiring and recruiting.

What is an HR Stack?

Your HR stack is a combination of different technologies that play a unique role in recruitment, hiring and human capital management processes. A 2015 report by Key Interval Research highlighted more than a dozen unique HR areas that typically make up your HR technology stack, including:

• Hiring and Onboarding — Likely the most common tool dealerships use to source talent is a hiring platform — typically an applicant tracking system, or ATS. Recruiting and hiring software is fundamental to attracting, screening and evaluating candidates. This type of tool aggregates data about applicants into a centralized dashboard that helps automate numerous steps, including verifying skills, cultural fit, references and helping ask the right questions during the interview stages. Onboarding software helps eliminate many paper-based processes and gives new hires the chance to fill out paperwork on their own time — instead of dedicating a good chunk of their first day to filling out forms.

• Payroll and Human Capital Management — These categories of HR technology help dealerships comply with state and federal requirements for timely and accurate compensation, including taxes and bonuses. At the same time, you’re able to comply with, schedule and report employee benefits, including health care, insurance and retirement funds. They also help the employer keep track of time and attendance, whether the company uses computer or paper-based tracking.

• Performance Tracking and Management — A tool that helps organizations track and analyze the performance of both individual employees and teams, HR analytics and performance management platforms are keys to identifying red flags in the hiring process, as well as the ROI of individual hires. Meanwhile, performance management standardizes the review process and helps dealerships create more accurate, strategic and customized career development plans.

• Employer Benefits and Wellness Programs — Especially in the retail automotive industry, employer incentive programs, such as sales-driven rewards and compensation, are keys to motivating staff. Accurately tracking and reporting these activities can be done with HR tools, helping both the employer and employee comply with tax obligations. Additionally, employer-provided wellness programs are increasingly important to attract and engage talent. Administering, communicating program details, tracking impact and reporting can be done with specific HR software.

• Talent Management — In an era when older employees are retiring and younger generations are taking their place, talent and succession management software has never been more important. Talent management tools help organizations stay nimble and able to adapt to changes in the workforce with structured, strategic workflows.

HR departments may use none, some or all of these tools — often called a Human Resources Information System (HRIS), which helps manage all the elements listed above. However, the HR tech market is filled with multiple solutions providers vying to provide businesses with individual tools to fit very specific needs.

What Does the Current HR Tech Landscape Look Like?

Right now, the HR tech market is fragmented, meaning dealerships have to pick and choose what technologies they want to use, with different logins and processes for each.

For instance, there are tools for flexible hiring that target companies looking to hire part-time employees, freelancers and consultants. Meanwhile, companies looking for ways to train and develop their staff often turn to learning management systems, which structure career development courses and knowledge management systems. Finally, businesses may opt for staffing and scheduling software that helps them keep, arrange and track employees’ time on the clock.

The upside for dealerships is they potentially have access to a massive amount of data that can help them create more efficient and profitable organizations. The downside is they may not be getting the complete picture if they’re not integrating their HR technologies in one unified stack.

Why Develop a Fully Integrated HR Stack and Workflow?

Streamlining these technologies can increase the efficiency of a dealership’s hiring process. Recruiting, hiring and onboarding can be both time and cost intensive without the right systems and tools in place — and making sure they’re integrated. Dealerships should take the steps to streamline their approach to hiring efforts, new employee onboarding, payroll and HR administration.

The connection between your onboarding processes, payroll and human capital management is clear: Feeding employee data directly from formal documentation into your payroll system will eliminate redundancies, increase productivity and reduce errors.

The additional benefits of a unified HR stack include:
• Decreased time to hire
• Higher-quality candidates
• A greater depth of knowledge of employee performance
• Measuring employee ROI and profitability
• Insight into department performance
• Tracking the ROI of wellness and benefits programs
• Mitigating disruptions during organizational change (buy/sells, management changes)

Dealerships have a growing list of HR technology options. When it comes down to it, as a dealer you have to understand whether the individual tools and processes you have in place are generating accurate, actionable data that will help you create a more successful business. Creating a unified system of HR software can help you improve your hiring practices, build stronger teams and make your dealership more productive.

Adam Robinson