By Matthew R. Simpson and Steven Ferenczy Fisher & Phillips LLP

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Millennials and Generation Z employees are flooding applicant pools, forcing dealerships across the country to determine the best methods for effectively hiring and retaining a successful team. Active engagement, along with comprehensive training on interpersonal skills, will ensure your dealership success in engaging this new flood of employees.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Millennials (adults aged eighteen to thirty-four) now account for more than twenty-five percent of the U.S. population and are currently the largest generation in the American workforce. Additionally, individuals in Generation Z (those born in the mid-90’s to early 2000’s) are beginning to reach the working age and are expected to make up nearly twenty percent of the workforce within the next five years. Ready or not, dealerships must be prepared to evolve and adapt their practices to this changing environment.

Dealerships’ first step should be to place more emphasis on the hiring process. It is essential that dealerships take time to complete a comprehensive pre-employment evaluation, ensuring they are hiring the most qualified candidates. Additionally, dealerships should provide the applicant with full disclosure regarding the nature of the position. This may help decrease high levels of turnover, as Millennials often leave entry-level positions claiming the work was not what they expected.

Dealerships may also attract more Millennial talent by not only offering a competitively higher salary, but also by changing job titles. For example, why not call change Salesperson to Automotive Consultant? This title is much more attractive to younger generations, as it implies subject matter expertise and the requisite wisdom to consult others. Millennial and Generation Z employees present a unique situation, as most are less worried about their earning potential and more motivated by doing what makes them feel like a valuable asset to the community.

It is important to understand that Millennials adapt quickly to change and often encourage efficiency in the workplace, so they expect rapid progression, an engaging and meaningful career, recognition of their efforts, and constant feedback. Dealerships can meet such expectations by offering a strong professional development and mentoring program, providing flexible alternatives to facilitate work/life balance, and encouraging individuality within a team environment through recognition.

Traditionally, dealerships have required a substantial amount of experience working in either the automobile industry or customer service, but modern hiring trends no longer support this antiquated practice. Some dealerships prefer hiring applicants with no prior automobile experience to avoid retraining and refocusing them. Others rely on a steady pipeline through on-campus college recruitment to address Millennials’ willingness to change jobs so frequently.

Whatever model is adopted, innovation, flexibility, and constant engagement should be the main focus when hiring Millennials and Generation Z in the automobile dealership industry. The new wave of dealership employees are here to stay, so remember that the key to effectively hiring and retaining Millennial and Generation Z employees is to ENGAGE:

E – Evaluation
N – Notification of expectation
G – Give feedback
A – Advanced technology
G – Guidance and mentorship
E – Encouragement

Originally published Mar 13, 2016, by Plante Moran.

It’s tempting to imagine your computer systems as airtight vaults, impenetrable and immune to cyberattacks. But this would be a risky move. In reality, IT infrastructure is more like a sponge.

All organizations absorb and retain digital data. Like a sponge, IT infrastructure is porous, often with gaping holes. Data can leak out of these holes when things don’t go according to plan: a staff member might lose a laptop, a system might experience a configuration error, or sensitive information might accidentally be published online. But in today’s world, a more prevalent scenario is what happens when the sponge is squeezed — when a hacker causes a breach that results in a damaging data leak.

Here are five ways to contain your organization’s data.

1. Always encrypt sensitive information.

When a federal computer system was hacked in December 2014, the personal data of nearly 4 million current and former federal employees was compromised. Regardless of whether the hack itself could have been prevented, encrypting this sensitive information from the get-go could have limited the breach.
Due to the high cost of encrypting stored data, you may decide to be selective when it comes to what data to encrypt. You’ll want to consider the data’s sensitivity, as well as the level of security controls that limit access to it. But when data moves outside your control, encryption is a must for confidential information. A company relinquishes control of its data every time a staff member sends an email or takes a laptop, iPad, or other device out of the office. Encrypting these channels and devices protects the information they carry, so that the only consequence of a stolen laptop is a mere loss of hardware.

2. Take passwords with a grain of salt.

A major online retailer was the victim of a large data breach in 2014, when hackers gained access to 145 million user passwords. The company had encrypted the passwords on its network but still instructed customers to immediately change their passwords to further reduce the risk of unauthorized activity.

User-managed passwords are the most common form of authentication and also the biggest security weakness. Not only can passwords be cracked by hackers, but they also place an inordinate level of responsibility on users, both to create sufficiently strong passwords and to not reuse them across multiple systems or online sites. As the future moves toward multi-factor biometric verification — including fingerprint scanning — we’ll approach a stronger, enhanced form of authentication that reduces our reliance on user-managed passwords.

3. Monitor data diligently.

When a major retailer’s credit card terminals were breached in 2013, card data was transmitted to hackers each time a customer swiped his or her card. As a result, approximately 40 million credit and debit card records were stolen. If network monitoring had been focused on the right factors (including traffic volume and source/destination IP addresses), the unusual activity might have been discovered earlier, allowing for a faster response to the breach.

Many companies implement security controls to protect their information systems but forget to monitor them. This is a big mistake, as the porous nature of network infrastructure makes data monitoring a critical step. Fortunately, there are numerous network monitoring tools available that can help you effectively detect breaches on critical servers and databases. Alternatively, companies can also engage third-party vendors to monitor their networks 24/7.

4. Manage user access.

The 2014 breach at a global financial institution — which compromised more than 80 million accounts — was rooted in the improper management of administrative access. If a hacker gains access to high-level privileges, he or she will have the ability to bypass implemented controls, making it easy to enter and manipulate the system.

Regularly ask yourself who has access to your networks and to what degree. For instance, what level of access is given to third-party vendors? Has access been terminated for staff who have left the company? As a rule of thumb, about 10 percent of user access is not managed properly — an unsafe percentage when it comes to cybersecurity.

5. Re-evaluate your independent testing.

In December 2015, a digital toymaker experienced a breach that exposed the data of 6.4 million children and 4.9 million adults. Even more unsettling is that by linking the accounts of children to their parents, the data ultimately revealed children’s full names and addresses. They were alerted to the breach by a journalist from the technology news site Motherboard, who had been notified by an anonymous hacker.

This example is a testament to the importance of independent testing; you’ll never know how effective your security really is if you don’t have an outside party test it on a regular basis. Companies should schedule an independent test at least once a year, but infrastructure changes or regulatory compliance standards may require more frequent testing. Supplementing an annual test with smaller-scale monthly or quarterly tests of specific areas also reduces delay when it comes to finding and resolving issues. By continually making improvements throughout the year, you’ll have greater confidence that your multi-tiered cybersecurity strategy is protecting your customers, your staff, and — of course — your reputation.