What happens, too often, is dealers hire types of people they’re already familiar with instead of branching out, Wells said.
“With men, they see potential,” Wells said. “They look and say ‘Aw, that guy reminds me of my son or my nephew or my cousin or somebody like me. They look like me. We can relate.'”
Wells said it was a different story as she sought jobs in the industry. With her, it was the same thing over and over: Tell me your background. What did you do? What have you done? What are your results?
She doesn’t think most dealers intentionally try to discriminate, but they might have unconscious bias when making hiring decisions, she said.
And dealerships also need to work on extending empathy to their employees if they want better retention rates, she added. A big chunk of that is accepting that employees have a fundamental right to family time, she said.
“To think that you have to choose every day — between doing what you love for your family and loving your family — is a hard choice,” said Wells, a mother of three. “Why do I have to give up giving my family 100 percent of me to come to work? Why can’t I understand that there’s a balance and that when I have that balance at work, I’m giving the best part of myself to my kids, as well?”
