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HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. —  The Dealer Services Group of Automatic Data Processing has rolled out a new program designed to help dealers make the best decisions when it comes to hiring employees.

ADP'S Hiring Services is an online tool that allows for:

—Ordering and managing candidate background, which includes candidate assessment tools such as job fit assessment and cognitive skills testing.

—Conducting thorough reference and criminal background checks.

—Helping dealerships comply with current laws and regulations through a comprehensive HR library and toolkit.

—Comparing background screening results against hiring policies provided by ADP or customized by the dealership through ADP's Decision Matrix feature.

Shedding some light on how important making the right hires can be for a dealership, Bob Murray, who is ADP Dealer Services' general manager of tax and employment services, said that for an average dealership, more than half of its total expense tally comes from personnel costs.

"On average, personnel costs represent over 50 percent of a dealership's total expense. Hiring the right people is one of the most important functions a dealership undertakes," Murray shared. "Having a proven solution provider can help dealers streamline talent acquisition workflow and mitigate compliance risk by providing a simple integrated hiring solution.

"Making the right hiring decisions arms dealers with long-term engaged employees which can be a competitive advantage in a largely commoditized industry," he added.

Continuing on, the tool also integrates its results from screening of candidates (to make sure they match hiring policies) with job fit assessment results.

Interestingly enough, the company said that 9 percent of the more than 5.4 million background checks reviewed in ADP's 2009 Screening Index were found to have a record.

Additionally, the Screening Index conducted a comparison of auto retailers against seven other industries for background checks and ADP found that "auto retailers had the highest percentage of screening records against the industries in the study."

In other words, dealers were the most likely to have a record turn up in screening than the other fields examined.

In fact, there were discrepancies in almost three-fifths (59 percent) of the candidate reference checks done by dealerships.

Not to mention, dealerships were the worst of the eight industries examined when it came to driving violations. Specifically, there were violations in almost half (43 percent) of the driving records for dealership job candidates, and 10 percent of candidates had four or more driving violations.

So, it is pivotal dealerships put in place a strong screening process.

"Making the right hiring decisions and reducing compliance exposure are critical success factors for any employer," Murray noted. "A dealership's employee's represents their greatest asset and at the same time can be their greatest risk. Assisting dealers in making this critical decision is critical for their long-term growth and success."