A slow return to hiring

Following a successful boat show season, some companies are considering the addition of new employees for the first time in years.

While the U.S. economy has gradually begun to recover, most consumers have yet to rush out to buy a boat. Consequently, most marine businesses are taking a similar approach when it comes to expanding their workforce.

This conservative approach involves carefully adding an employee here and there, while focusing on best practices that enable companies to do more with less.

Hingham, Mass.-based 3A Marine Service sold 26 new powerboats last year – down from its 2004 peak of 120 new boat sales. Throughout the recession, 3A has leaned on its service department, which is common among dealers whose customers are holding onto, not buying, boats.

After years of placing a heavy load on the company’s technicians, Ed Lofgren, owner of 3A, says he will finally be hiring a technician this year, his eighth tech and first hire since 2007. The company will also be opening a new service building. Both of these decisions were a long time coming, according to Lofgren.

“We’ve needed the hands for quite a while, but we were counting our pennies,” he says.

Even with boat show results pointing to an improving sales landscape, many dealers are practicing the same caution that kept them in business throughout the downturn.

Yarmouth Boat Yard, based in Yarmouth, Maine, saw as much as a 70-percent increase in leads from its home state at the Boston Boat Show – a positive given the travel efforts required by the leads, according to Yarmouth Boat Yard Owner Steve Arnold.

However, Arnold will be adding a tech this summer to his backlogged service department and wait for those leads to turn into sales before hiring another salesperson.

“If I hired another salesperson tomorrow, my sales very well could increase significantly, but the risk to do that is still really high,” Arnold says.

However, some dealers are ready to take a risk in today’s marketplace.

Advantage Yacht Sales, a five-year-old dealership that specializes in sailboats, was not devastated by the recession, but boat sales — the dealer’s main revenue center —were erratic.

For the first time since the recession, Advantage Owner Douglyss Giuliana says the positive buying attitude at boat shows convinced him to hire two full-time salespeople for positions in the company’s brokerage division and pre-owned boat sales.

“We have wanted to make the additions for some time, but we wanted that person to be able to make a good living off it, which we feel now they can,” Giuliana says.

The hires are part of Advantage’s mission in recovery, which is to stay ahead of the bell curve and take advantage of the minimal competition left in the area.

“We feel there is momentum right now, and we needed to take more of a chance and be a little early [in hiring],” the Advantage owner says.

The alternative to hiring
Not all companies share Advantage’s aggressiveness. Instead, many are investing in improving their business practices.

Yarmouth Boat Yard, for example, recently replaced its marina-focused dealer management system with software that will help grow sales with better lead management.

In 2012, Fond du Lac, Wis.-based Mercury Marine will be making about 400 hires. However, many of those will be to facilitate the global growth of the company, including global distribution of its parts and accessories, as well as its non-marine Mercury PLM Services, says Denise Devereaux, Mercury vice president of human resources.

Mercury is planning for a flat market in 2012, says Devereaux, but throughout the recession, the company has worked to become lean and efficient, preparing it for any unexpected uptick.

Part of that model was to become more flexible in manufacturing. Starting in late 2008, Mercury trained 25 percent of its manufacturing workforce to be able to work in different plants within the company.

Mercury’s sister distribution company, Land ‘N’ Sea, has taken the same approach, consolidating its distribution centers while conservatively hiring what it needs, according to Devereaux.

“Just when you start seeing good, you start seeing issues like with the European Union and natural disasters,” she says. “So, you have to be smart about  the investments you make, and hiring is a large part of that.”

At Nautic Global Group, the downturn accelerated a transition to a build-to-order strategy and lean manufacturing that involved consolidating its different standalone facilities into one boat building factory.

Jim Orbik, chief operating officer at Nautic Global, says both pontoons and deck boats have seen early success at boat shows, but it is still unknown if that will create more jobs for the boat builder.

Although dealers remain cautious with inventory, Nautic Global has reduced the time necessary to satisfy orders with its build-to-order strategy and invested in dealer systems technology, Orbik says. As a result, it is ready for the future, regardless of what it brings.

A shrinking talent pool
As some companies have begun hiring, it has become apparent that there is a decreasing workforce in the manufacturing and service trades. Therefore, many dealers and manufacturers remain in close contact with trade schools as part of the recruiting process.

Devereaux, whose Mercury is close to losing nearly 60 percent of its workforce to retirement, feels the recruitment efforts need to begin at a much younger age.  Therefore, Mercury is a partner of the Fond du Lac STEM Academy. At the academy, Mercury and others work with children starting in third grade by encouraging science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

“[The percentage of future retirees] is a pretty common characteristic, and it is something that was a bit sobering and something we had to prepare for,” concludes Devereaux.