DealersEdge Professional Forums

First of all let me just say hi to all members. I'm new here and it looks like a lot of talent aboard. I have a question dealing with benchmarks. Lately, surprise surprise, my dealer has become enamored with benchmarks. For the most part we exceed most on the positive side, however we are way upside-down when it comes to employee expense. Now, I know that these are just guides and not laws. So I'm looking at my operation and I really don't see anybody out of line in quantity or pay. My question is do you think that a dealership with a large percentage of long term employees would be heavy on personnel?

Chris

Absolutely
If you dock pay and remove employees to meet that benchmark,
you might as well forget your other benchmarks because they will fall.
Good people need to be paid well and retained or all else will suffer.

Take a hard look at employee benefits....these can vary quite a bit from dealer-to-dealer and can really impact personell expense comparisons.

Also, how are clerical/admin employee expenses allocated to the different departments?

Cheers
DD

DD, I will look into bennys. As for admin and clerical, we still use the old dreaded "Z" acct.

Chris

Here are some guidelines that we use:

Gross profit/labor sales - 73%
Retained income after controllable expenses - 45%
Service advisor pay/gross profit - less than 10%
Support personnel to technician ratio - 1:3
Service gross per service employee - $6,000 per month
Policy expense/Service gross - 2% or less
Supply expense/Service gross - 3% or less

The only thing I would add to what Jim said is that Wages and salaries for ( Dodge) should be less than 31%. However this number is really controled by your Gross Profit. If it is down your % will be up and if it is up your % will be down. Also are you just looking at service or parts also. Good luck.

capsgs:
The guide in our industry for service is 45% of gross for personnel. The theory is the customer is paying for it up to 45%. After that, the store is paying for it. Parts should be around 42%. Hope this helps.

TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT WHO IS EXPENSED TO YOUR DEPARTMENT. THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE IS TO REVIEW WHERE ENTIRE STORE STAFF IS EXPENSED.
AND REMEMBER BENCHMARKS ARE TO BE STOOD ON NOT LOOKED UP TO.