In a Recruitment Marketing Magazine exclusive, we interviewed Damian Woelders, Group Training Manager at Motorama City Holden, who spoke about Motorama’s continued involvement in Tour de Office. Engaging in this philanthropic and charitable initiative has promoted their company values, one of which is having fun!
Motorama is one of Queensland’s most iconic privately-owned car dealerships with a vision to create customers for life. They have a number of initiatives in place to make that happen, one of which is positively engaging with every customer. From salespeople, car washers, mechanics, and administrators, every member of staff is responsible for smiling, making eye contact, asking customers open questions, and having a “can do” attitude.
“We’re big on customer service and making sure our customers are happy,” said Damian.
Damian describes Motorama work culture as staff living company values. Every second month is themed with a value, and dealerships try to make it visual and inclusive for their customers.
“For example, in June, the value we wanted to focus on was ‘team work’,” said Damian. “So we created initiatives and team goals, celebrating with barbeques. Different dealerships hosted different events and embraced the culture.”
In August, Motorama promoted “be green month”, where they cleaned up around their worksites and reinvigorated their recycling efforts.
Damian explained the importance of how Motorama’s people help them achieve their shared vision of creating customers for life. They invest in their people. Their Future Leaders program enables anyone with aspirations in improving their career to learn and progress. They also offer training, certificates, and diplomas.
“We just try to create a culture of teamwork and having fun. That creates a great environment where people love coming to work, and this rubs off on our customers. Everyone’s having a good time!”
A colleague of Damian’s presented the idea of participating in Tour de Office a few years ago. The charitable initiative provides stationary bikes to organisations as part of an annual week-long event, making it easy for staff to participate and raise money for their chosen charity. Motorama will conduct their Tour de Office event in October, which fits perfectly with their value theme for the month, “have fun”.
“For us it was a real winner because we love to support charity and Tour de Office has become the best vehicles – or bikes – to make that happen!”
Each member of staff takes a turn to ride and compete. Damian prefers Tour de Office’s interoffice relay event in comparison to other forms of fundraising, such as doing the Brisbane-to-Gold Coast ride or selling raffle tickets, which only seem to suit certain people. Since starting the annual event a few years ago, Motorama hasn’t looked back.
Tour de Office enables companies to choose their own charities, and Motorama has selected the Starlight Foundation.
“The Starlight Foundation has been a great, easy charity for everyone to connect with. The work they do to brighten the lives of sick kids and their families, who have such a tough time, is so impressive. It’s very inclusive. They invite us into their rooms and show us their work. They do such an excellent job.”
Damian explains how Tour de Office allows Motorama to fulfil its corporate philanthropic goals, and also engage their people.
“Tour de Office has been a winner from day one! Having the bike there creates this party atmosphere. We make it part of breakfast, lunch, or afternoon tea, with music and food. There’s someone on the bike and people encouraging them. It’s a team event and competition. All these elements make it such a fun time. Because one of our values is having fun, it’s just been perfect for us.”
Sitting down all day is not conducive to health, so the more Motorama can get people moving, the better. That message is always growing within the organisation. They have primarily been focused on charitable and philanthropic work, so the health benefits of Tour de Office are simply an added benefit.
“Being able to do something during work hours is a privilege. For our senior managers, it’s kudos to them to say we’re allowed to do something like this. It’s great they allow us to do that and feel good about ourselves.”
Motorama staff are focused on having fun at the event, taking pictures of staff dressed up and having a good time. The content has been excellent in terms of their employer branding, as they’ve used it on their Facebook page, and in blogs and forums, and received a lot of great engagement with both customers and potential candidates.
Tour de Office appeals to a wide audience, so for potential candidates to see pictures on the Motorama blog and website of staff having fun and raising money is highly beneficial in their talent attraction efforts.
Damian is particularly proud of their place on the Tour de Office website.
“There are a lot of big company names, so it is great to see Motorama among them as an organisation who cares about the community and having fun.”
Does your organisation conduct activities to engage customers, staff, and potential candidates? Tell us in the comments or get in touch with us to feature your story.