by partking » Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:20 pm
The most successful of us promote up from the support positions (driver, stock clerk, etc.). The time in the support role gives us a chance to evaluate the employee's work ethic, reliability, smarts and the ability to play well with others. The business that advances its people generates a good rep in the area for treating employees well and that attracts good applicants. Employees who have been promoted are generally more loyal and stick around. If they are smart, you can teach them the DMS and the catalog easily enough. Hire for attitude, teach skills.
Stealing people by offering more money generally pisses off your existing people when they find out you are paying the new guy more than them. And you just get into bidding wars with your competitors that hurt everyone.
On the other hand, other dealers' drivers are poachable. If one has been picking up or dropping off stuff and has made a good impression, why not try to grab him/her and move everyone else up one rung?