AMJ: Hey everyone! I’m Ann Marie with ASOTU, Director of Partner Relationships and I’ve got Lee Cavender here. I know who you are Lee, but do you wanna tell our audience a little bit more about yourself?
LC: Yeah so, my name is Lee Cavendar. I’m the Chief People Officer at Cavendar Auto Group. You know, the fourth generation in the business so really taking that title and responsibilities of a fourth generation to continue on with the business improving, modernizing the car business is what we’re all trying to do, in our different roles. But, just really having a good time doing it at this point.
AMJ: I’ve really appreciated spending the time with you guys today and hearing so much about that. I know that you mentioned that you’re really focusing on a work-life balance right now. So, what’s different about that, and why was that important to you?
LC: Growing up in the business, I’ve been in the business for 11 years now, and one of the main things we learned being in the trenches with our management team was the work-life balance and what our dad’s did before us was work bell-to-bell, work every Saturday. And, while we all appreciate that and respect that, times are changing and we really focus on having a work-life balance, having the spouses invited to certain events. Spouses are partners. They’re involved in coming to the dealership events, outside the dealerships, but also having more days off. Having a better vacation schedule. This last year, we were closed on the 24th, 25th and 26th of December which one was a Sunday, but having that Saturday/Monday on the other side of that was super important for our team, especially with all the family time. Another part is also getting that schedule of events for the entire year out to our team early so that they know their Thanksgiving plans and Christmas plans and all that kind of stuff. Because when we were growing up in the business, it seemed like they decided on the Fourth of July who was off on the last week of June. They couldn’t really put plans together. So, allowing people to plan vacations and stuff like that is super helpful and it goes a long way with attention we’ve seen.
AMJ: Oh, I can imagine that. I mean, you’re giving people the ability to still live their life and have a great career. I spent time too looking and reading about your Cavender Cares Program. I was really impressed. Can you tell me and everyone else more about that?
LC: We created Cavender Cares in October of 2021. Being in the community for over 80 years, we’ve done a lot. But, it becomes a lot, there’s a lot of people asking for certain things. And, to be more organized, we brought somebody in to be our corporate engagement specialist. We’ve partnered with over 100 groups in San Antonio where our dealerships are. We just joined up with Rockwall with their Chamber of Commerce. We set aside profits from the dealership to throw out there into our communities because the car business is a huge part of the community. As we talked about earlier, we’ve got 683 employees, which if we average 3 people in a family, that’s almost 2000 people we’ve got to take care of in our dealerships. But then we’re in the city of millions and millions of people that rely on us to inject with them backpacks for kids, or food drives, or toy drives. We’re really involved with pets. And on top of that we’re a military city USA, so we’re involved with a lot of military events as well. 2022 we won the corporate philanthropic group in San Antonio, we were awarded that. So that was huge. It’s super rewarding to be out there and really helping people through tough times because there are people having tough times in the stores, but also outside and it’s rewarding to be able to help them.
AMJ: I love that and I think that that says a lot to the responsibility for community, the community that you live in and that you work in, you know, that your dad worked in and cared for. I think it’s really great to see that continuing over 4 generations now. What advice would you have for someone that’s kind of new to retail automotive and just getting started?
LC: I think the main thing is to ask questions and if you’re not sure what’s going on to make sure you raise your hand. I know that in my new role, we’re trying to find ways where we’re losing people because human capital is so important. So, for these new guys, make sure you know who you’re reporting to that day and that you know where to park. At least, that’s what I’m trying to do. Make sure these people know where they’re going, what their clear expectations are, and assist and help. Going back to the old-school ways, it was kind of like, sink or swim. Get out there and sell cars or get out there and ride service, or fix a car or anything like that. We created a Cavender University so we’ve got some training to make sure that these guys are capable and tooled up in order to be successful. So, ask questions, don’t be afraid to raise your hand, give it all you’ve got. This is such a rewarding career that can take off in a month. You know, we live a month at a time, but over 12 months, we see a lot of really good progress with our new people and that’s what we’re really proud of.
AMJ: Well, it definitely shows. It shows in the way that you care for your people and provide that. Provide those experiences, provide the time off, provide the time with their family too. I noticed, it seems like a lot of your employees’ families come out to help with volunteer efforts too, which I think is proof that they appreciate coming into work every and what you guys are doing.
LC: We really encourage that family aspect. We climbed the Tower of Americas the other day for a cystic fibrosis event and there were kids, families, wives, cousins, partners. This is a family business and so we encourage, and I say this at every orientation, you’re part of our family now and we really hope that you allow us to be part of your family. Because with family you can hold each other responsible, we can have those honest conversations, but at the end of the day we love each other and really care about each other. It’s really important to keep that driven (?) to our people.
AMJ: Absolutely! Well, any other advice you have or anything else you’d like to share?
LC: I think what I have experienced the most is modernizing this business. It changes every day. It’s going to be different tomorrow. So, never be surprised, always be prepared, and keep your head up. And keep your feet going forward and it really can be a career for everybody.
AMJ: I think so too. Thanks so much, Lee. I’ve had a great time.
LC: Appreciate it! Thank you so much!