Another excellent addition to November's Service Dealer Conference has been announced today.

Following on from last week's news that former SAS-solider turned motivational speaker, Robin Horsfall, will be delivering the keynote - the organising team have shared a further name who will be addressing an area we know is of key concern to our dealer readers. Aside from the difficulties in obtaining stock, when we hear from our readers, it's the whole process surrounding recruitment of staff that appears to be a genuine bane to their business-lives.

Where to find new people?; how to attract their attention?; how to make joining the business desirable?; interviewing techniques - and then crucially once someone has been taken on - how to retain them for the long-haul? These are all facets of employing a fresh starter for the dealership that are typically both difficult and stressful. 

It's great news therefore, to confirm that the Conference will benefit from hearing from Stuart Goodinson, who is group managing director of De Lacy Executive Recruitment. He will be on hand to share with our dealer delegates his expertise in locating and keeping quality staff members for the dealership.

Stuart tells us today how he believes, " . . it is the right people who in businesses, can make all the difference."

I don't think anyone would dispute that statement. In a tight-knit work environment, such as a specialist dealership, having small teams comprised of exactly the correct mix of individuals couldn't be more important. The problem of course - that I'm sure many reading this today can attest to - is finding these 'right people' in the first place is precisely the problem.

In our upcoming edition of Service Dealer magazine, we feature an interview with a dealer who says something that I think epitomises the feelings of many of our readers. They tell us, "Although we don’t have a high staff turnover, I’m sure other companies in our industry will agree that it is difficult to recruit new staff that have the skills and experience."

In a recent issue another dealer addressed the recruitment problem offering thoughts as to what might be done to change matters for the better. Matthew Mulligan of RVT said, “I think the industry needs to promote the extensive opportunities and varied careers available in our sector more. By marketing this further, offering greater insight to those from outside the industry, this could help in increasing the desirability to come and work in our sector.”

As I expect our expert speaker will point out come November, the difficulties in attracting new blood to a specialist field, is common across many job markets. The land-based machinery industry is by no means unique in this regard. Just for example, I'm well aware that there's much hand-wringing currently in the professional groundsman / greenkeeper world over recruitment. Laurence Gale, the editor of our sister title TurfPro, has written extensively in recent months about how finding the next generation of practitioners is something that needs to be seriously addressed by the sector - and quickly.

Everybody knows it's a problem, but how to fix it is the million dollar question.

So whist there's nothing especially unique about the land-based machinery sector desperately needing new people to join it, what perhaps does have a degree of uniqueness is the approach that must be taken to successfully find these people.

At the Conference this year, Stuart will be able to share with our dealer delegates his years of experience as a specialist recruiter for the industry. He will impart useful, relatable, take-home advice that can be put into practical use back at the business.

There are further announcements to come of more experts who'll also be contributing to the Conference's theme of Sustaining Dealerships, so keep watching this Weekly Update and the magazine for news.

Also if you can, highlight Thursday November 24th in your diary as a day that could provide some genuine assistance for the business.