Job Summary

The Continuous Improvement & Safety Manager leads company wide initiatives that improve safety, quality, efficiency, consistency, and customer service across Sales, Parts, Service, Rental, Warehouse, and administrative operations. This position partners with branch and department leaders to identify risk and waste, standardize effective practices, strengthen accountability, and sustain measurable improvements.

The manager serves as the company’s primary resource for workplace safety and operational improvement. The role develops practical systems that protect Team Members and customers while supporting reliable, profitable dealership operations and the company’s commitment to creating “Customers for Life.”

Key Accountabilities

• Build a proactive safety culture based on leadership commitment, Team Member participation, hazard identification, prevention, training, and ongoing program evaluation.
• Reduce workplace risk, injuries, near misses, rework, delays, and process variation.
• Improve operational performance through disciplined problem solving, standard work, visual management, and measurable follow-through.
• Provide leaders with accurate safety and improvement data, clear priorities, and timely recommendations.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Continuous Improvement

• Develop and maintain a company wide continuous improvement roadmap aligned with strategic and operational priorities.
• Partner with branch managers and department leaders to map processes, identify bottlenecks and waste, and implement solutions in Sales, Parts, Service, Rental, logistics, facilities, and administrative workflows.
• Lead structured problem-solving and root-cause analysis for recurring safety, quality, delivery, customer, and productivity concerns.
• Facilitate improvement events, cross-functional teams, and follow-up reviews; define owners, timelines, expected outcomes, and sustainment controls.
• Create and maintain standard work, checklists, visual controls, audit tools, and other practical documentation that improves consistency without creating unnecessary administrative burden.
• Establish meaningful leading and lagging indicators; maintain dashboards and communicate progress, barriers, savings, and next steps to leadership.
• Coach leaders and Team Members in continuous improvement methods, change management, and data-based decision making.
• Validate that improvements are adopted, effective, and sustained across locations.

Safety, Health, and Environmental Compliance

• Develop, implement, and continually improve the company’s safety and health management program, policies, procedures, and annual objectives.
• Maintain awareness of applicable federal, state, and local requirements and coordinate compliance activities, including required records, postings, inspections, reports, permits, and corrective actions.
• Conduct routine branch, shop, warehouse, yard, vehicle, and job-site safety assessments; document findings, assign corrective actions, and verify timely closure.
• Coordinate hazard assessments and controls for equipment service and repair, lifting and material handling, powered industrial trucks, lockout/tagout, machine guarding, electrical work, welding and hot work, compressed gases, chemicals, personal protective equipment, ergonomics, slips and falls, and vehicle operations.
• Oversee environmental practices applicable to dealership operations, including spill prevention and response, oil and fuel storage, waste handling, stormwater considerations, and required documentation.
• Manage safety data sheet access, hazard communication, emergency action planning, fire prevention, first-aid readiness, and evacuation drills.
• Coordinate OSHA-related and other regulatory inspections, responses, and abatement activities in partnership with leadership and Human Resources.

Incident Prevention, Investigation, and Claims Support

• Maintain clear processes for reporting injuries, near misses, property damage, vehicle incidents, spills, and unsafe conditions.
• Lead or support prompt, fact-based incident investigations using root-cause methods; develop corrective and preventive actions that address system causes.
• Track trends and recurring exposures and provide actionable recommendations to branch and executive leadership.
• Partner with Human Resources, Operations, insurance partners, and claims representatives on workers’ compensation, return-to-work coordination, loss-control recommendations, and related documentation while protecting confidentiality.
• Recognize and communicate positive safety performance, hazard reporting, and improvement participation.

Training and Communication

• Assess training needs and maintain an annual safety and continuous improvement training plan.
• Develop or coordinate effective onboarding, refresher, and task-specific training for Team Members, supervisors, and managers; maintain accurate completion records.
• Lead safety meetings, toolbox talks, committee meetings, and leadership updates that are relevant to dealership operations.
• Coordinate qualified internal or external resources for specialized training and certifications when required.
• Encourage Team Members to report hazards and improvement ideas without fear of retaliation and ensure concerns receive timely follow-up.

Leadership and Business Partnership

• Serve as a trusted, visible resource to branch and department leadership while reinforcing that safety and process ownership remain shared management responsibilities.
• Build collaborative relationships across locations and departments and adapt solutions to operational realities without compromising safety or compliance.
• Participate in facility changes, equipment purchases, new process reviews, and contractor planning to identify risk and improvement opportunities before implementation.
• Manage assigned vendors, consultants, training resources, and budgets responsibly.
• Perform other duties and lead special projects as assigned.