125 Years of People-First Leadership: What Shops Can Learn from Grote Industries

125 Years of People-First Leadership: What Shops Can Learn from Grote Industries Ratchet+Wrench Radio · Jul 15, 2026

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Company

grody industries

Grote Industries (transcribed here as “grody industries”) is a company known for lighting and visibility products used on commercial vehicles and equipment. The episode uses the company’s 125-year history as the backdrop for discussing how it keeps employees engaged.

Brand

John Deere

John Deere makes farm tractors and other agricultural machines. The host mentions it to show that Grote’s lights show up on equipment people see every day on highways and farms.

Brand

JCB

JCB makes heavy-duty equipment used in construction and industry. The point of the mention is that Grote’s lighting products are found on more than just trucks—they’re also on equipment like JCB machines.

Term

turn signals

Turn signals are the vehicle lights used to indicate a driver’s intended direction of travel, typically when changing lanes or making turns. In this segment, they’re cited as an example of the kinds of lighting Grote Industries makes for highway-visible vehicles and trailers.

Term

work lights

Work lights are auxiliary lights used to illuminate tasks or areas around a vehicle, especially in low-visibility conditions. The segment mentions them to show Grote’s lighting presence on equipment and trailers used on highways and worksites.

Term

reflective tape

Reflective tape is a retroreflective material that bounces light back toward the driver, improving visibility at night or in poor weather. It’s commonly used on trailers and equipment to make vehicles easier to spot on the road.

LIVE

Welcome to Ratchet and Wrench Radio, produced by Endeavour Business Media, a division of Endeavour B2B, bringing you strategies and inspiration for auto care success.

Why do employees stay at a company for 25, 40, even 50 years?

In this episode of Ratchet and Wrench Radio, Josh Wilberg discusses the hiring and retention lessons behind grody industries' 125-year legacy.

From identifying future leaders and navigating generational shifts to avoiding costly hiring compromises, Wilberg shares practical strategies shop owners can use right now to build stronger teams, improve retention, and create a workplace people genuinely want to be a part of.

Let's listen in.

Hi, Josh. Thanks for joining us today.

Glad to be here, Christine.

Well, today we are talking about a topic that I'm sure a lot of shop owners can relate to. First of all, Josh Wilberg, vice president, newly appointed vice president of human resources at grody industries.

Now, for those who aren't familiar or for those who say they are that name sounds familiar, where might our readers have seen some of grody's handiwork?

If you're out on the highway, you're going to see it. It's on tractor trailers all over the world, actually. So definitely there you could be on farm equipment and see it on a John Deere tractor or a JCB equipment.

So yeah, we are all over the place. So lighting for sure is where you're going to notice something grody for sure.

And we're talking turn signals, mirrors, even work lights.

Reflective tape.

Pretty much anything you come in contact with as you said on the highway and even trailers.

Yeah, even trailers, you know, for sure. You know, we are getting the networks now so it could be software that's on the tractor trailer as well. So it is a grody is all over.

Any, you know, anything that can move, I say it could have a grody light. You never know.

And this year grody is celebrating its 125th year anniversary, which is quite a milestone.

So naturally, I thought maybe the question might be how would 125 year old company keep people engaged growing and wanting to stay with the company. And that's what we're here to address today.

Because as we know shop owners and independent auto repair, there is a technician shortage. There's problem keeping, retaining, hiring, good quality employees. So we want to hear all your secrets, Josh.

I would if I had all the secrets, Christine, I would be on an island. You'd see palm trees and stuff and be my own island and everything.

You know, yeah, I think that one of the biggest things you can do and I think what grody has done through the years is keep to our values and treat others the same that we want to be treated and does go kind of back to the old good book and principles there.

But you know, you have to, you know, create your values. We have four values, which is integrity, trust, responsibility and respect. And we look for those and those that we hire and we maintain those in those that are here.

And so it's really important that those core values are in each of our team members and they are reflected across the organization.

And I think with that, that's your foundation. And that's what people want to know what you believe in and what you stand for. And they want to be a part of it or they don't, you know, and

And I think with these four values, it really helps us to it's our guiding guiding principle really. And so it is important that our employees understand that. And I think they do and they believe in it. Obviously, we have employees. We have one employee out on the floor. Actually, that's over 50 years of being with grody industries.

And and she is has no intention of retiring.

But it just goes to show they they want to be a part of what you are. And so they are the reflection of those values and that started, you know, back in 1901.

And grody has kind of stood by one of its principles that its people are the company's most valuable asset. So what does that look like in practice, not just as a catchphrase or a plaque on the wall. How does that apply operationally to an organization.

Yeah, we, you know, we really roll out a new culture last year because because of this and its best teams win. And, you know, to have the best team, it doesn't mean you go out there and try to go after the best players.

You want to have the best team members and to have the best team members operationally. You have to have developed people. You have to take an interest in them.

It is important that they understand how they fit into the greater role that, you know, is the company's mission to ultimately serve our customers. Right.

And so each person has a role to play and then how can they be successful. Everybody wants to be successful. They don't want to go somewhere and feel like they fell every day or just not having an idea, you know, what they do and how it really affects the final outcome.

So we're really trying to put a blitz on and trying to get people to understand how, you know, putting this part together on this line, how that plays to the ultimate success of the company.

And so every team member plays a role in that success. And we really push how their goals, their personal goals align to the organizational goals.

And when people can feel like, Hey, I have a goal that if I do this, the company can be successful. And if they do their part, the company can be successful. We can hold each other accountable. We hold ourselves accountable.

And believe it or not, high performance happens and people really enjoy being a part of that.

How do you identify internally people who might be a future leader or somebody who shows potential? What does that look like to you when spot that person? How do you know?

Well, we put in a, we've been implementing a talent management program and a big part of that is succession planning, the performance management process.

And then ultimately, when you identify people through those processes, you have to put development plans in place as something formal, right?

So you're going to the person saying, Hey, you have some real potential. You've been identified as someone that can be the future of our company in whatever role it is, whether it's management or technical.

I think most people think, man, I got to go management to make it somewhere in a company. And that is definitely not grotesque.

At Grotesque, we want to look at the most successful role for you so you can have success in our company to build success for the company.

And so it is important to identify those skills that are needed. So you look at the skills gaps, you look at the competencies needed for certain roles.

You look at the person themselves. Do they have potential to get better in those skills? Can they continue to grow in those?

If they match up, then of course, then that's a good fit. That can be a really good fit.

It takes both the company taking initiative, putting actions in place. It takes the employee taking initiatives, having the right behaviors and the right positive outlook on things.

And then when you have a good marriage like that, a lot of good things happen. And we've had a lot of good talent that has come in, started in entry level roles, and they've grown into much higher roles today. So it's working well.

Now, I don't know if this is something that you can speak to, but trying to bridge the gap between our shop owners and Grote, do you have any experience in these with technicians entering the workforce versus long time employees?

What's it look like? And why is that so hard to correlate in an organization?

You're almost kind of getting into the generational gaps where we have more generations in the workforce now than there ever has been altogether, right? That are working together from the very older generation to newer.

I hate really labeling the society once the label generations. And I think that's the wrong move just because not everybody fits under those umbrellas.

But definitely the younger workers coming in as technicians today, it is more of a challenge. It's not the same as dealing with workers that have been here already. They know who you are. They've been working for you.

Maybe their values are a little different. They were taught a little different from their parents. But the generation of workers now, they are eager to move up quick.

And if you don't have certain plans in place, if they don't see some good future with your company, your chances of retaining them is much less, right?

And so they want to see that they don't necessarily have the sense of loyalty that kind of what I'd say the older generation of worker had.

You know, they got a job. It's like, Hey, I'm going to stay in that job as long as I can stay in that job. I'm going to work for this company up really, you know, it's not that they don't have pride.

And it's not that loyalty is gone. It's just loyalty has changed. And it's changed probably on both the company side and the employee side.

So it's not fair to say that new generation employees don't have loyalty. They do. It's just different. And you have to find that for each and every one of them.

Because it's not just one nice mold that everyone can you can put them all in and go, Hey, if I do this, you're all going to be loyal to me.

It won't necessarily work like that because everyone's different. They want to be differentiated themselves as well.

And then the supply and demand in the market changes things too, because they understand the leverage they have. They're very smart in what career they've chosen, what path they've chosen.

And they know what the market is, you know, they know much better about where the market is from a wage comparison to what they can go out there and get where they need to live to make it.

So you have a much more informed workforce today that you didn't necessarily have 20 years ago, 15 years ago. And you have to understand they have that knowledge.

So if you both go into it like that, you have a much better chance of succeeding in it.

So safe to say that technicians coming in clearly know their value and they're highly desirable right now.

So they can come into it with an attitude of having having their choice instead of settling for, you know, being a newbie coming into a new industry.

Absolutely. And so that means you really have to pivot to saying, Okay, well, they know this.

So now I have to provide them an environment that's positive, that is goal oriented, that has challenges for them, helps them grow because they, you know, this is a generation doesn't want to grow.

They want to grow quick, right? But they need to, they need guidance with it without asking necessarily for that guidance, but they want that guidance because they want to know really what what does it take for me to become a tech three or, you know, a principal technician for this company,

or maybe even possibly go into management. What's that going to take? And they want to know that from the day they stepped out of college and got into your workplace, you're like, you haven't even started yet.

But that doesn't matter. That's what they want. And if you could put that plan together, and they can see how they fit into that plan. And then, you know, you're both talking and discussing this along the way.

You have a much greater chance of success in keeping that relationship going for the long haul.

What kind of mistakes do you see companies making when they're trying to grow a company or a shop, for example?

I will tell you, it's really one word for me. It's compromise. I think that a lot of companies make the mistake in this environment of compromising their values, or they compromise because they are desperate to just get a warm body in.

You know, you hear that if they can breathe and you can see the breath on the mirror, I'll take them. You know, we certainly are in a different labor market where there's not a plethora necessarily out there.

But that doesn't mean the better person, you know, for the position is not there. You have to have some patience with hiring. You don't want to necessarily, you definitely don't want to compromise your values, although companies will.

You don't want to compromise your strategy. In other words, if you have a wage, you know, strategy, and so forth, don't compromise it because one person's pushing on it.

You need to understand it. Maybe, you know, you have some issues there and you have to visit it, but you have to be careful of compromise.

I think that's the biggest mistake we make. And then most often, you look back and, you know, that person leaves or maybe it just didn't work out and you ask yourself, well, what did we do wrong?

What was something we could do better? And you go, well, if we would have just taken our time and not rushed it, remember, we said there was a couple red flags and we weren't sure about this.

Maybe you got to be more mature, right? And although interviewing is not a science completely, there, when you have those red flags, you definitely don't want to look over them.

You should have it where you don't have red flags. You may have caution flags. You might have that with anybody and somebody's, you know, you're not going to have unicorns every time.

That fill out everybody you're checking with. But you shouldn't have red flags and you shouldn't compromise who you are as a company just to fill a hole because, you know, I get it.

The demand is high. The pressure is on you to perform. The customer wants, you know, their product or their service that they're looking for.

And sometimes that pressure overcomes good decision making. And that's where we get into trouble.

I have to imagine in your position that sometimes good old fashioned intuition comes into play.

Yeah, you know, that's why interviewing is not a science, right? There's still always that, you know, you can get years of interviewing people and you still always have that, well,

I can't quite put my finger on it, but something doesn't seem right here. And somebody's like, well, can you quantify it?

I can't quantify that feeling. I can just tell you, I don't think it feels right. And sometimes you're wrong, right? It's always, it's intuition. It doesn't mean it's always right.

But many times it is. And but you got to look at all the facts when you're looking at someone. You got to make sure that they really tell you

a tale that they just give you a lot of stuff or where they're really specific in the things that they gave you and really do have the knowledge you're looking for.

They have, they also fit well with the team. The team could, you know, they're going to come in and if they're the smartest person in the room, that's great.

But if they can't work with the team, it won't help you. And so if you're just doing because they're smart, that's not going to be at either.

So there's all those things you have to look at. And it's tough. It's hard. I get it is not.

Hiring people shouldn't be easy. You know, if you do it right, it should be a tough exercise.

You want it to be because at the end, that's a person. Hopefully you're looking at, you know, to employ for 20 or more years, right?

So if there could be a part of this team to help you grow and be a part of your success, I want that to be hard.

And also, I would think, you know, you, you might have, and for example, let's say a young technician, he might not have the longest resume and you don't have much to go on based on,

you know, performance or those hard skills. And that's where those soft skills are going to come into play that you just have to get a feeling on

is this person a good fit based based on their values and our principles and are they going to mesh?

Well, yeah, and anymore, you know, AI can create the best resumes in the world for people who've never done the work.

So, you know, you got to be really careful with looking at a resume going, man, this is the great, great fit. Yeah, it kind of gets the ball rolling in the right place.

But you're right, you really got to pry for those soft skills and those technical skills to really get them to explain it.

And of course, that comes with effective communication, you know, but you really have to pry for it.

And if you got to dig the right way in the interviews, because it's also easy enough because with all the YouTube videos and so forth, that that's available out there,

it is easy for someone to, you know, listen to all that go, okay, if they ask this, this is how I answer it.

You know, even with that, that makes it really hard today to really find someone that for sure can do the job

and will be really successful in the work. So it's difficult because we do a lot of the virtual interviews and stuff and you don't know somebody's, you know,

reading up a screen over here. And that's why I really love the face to face, getting them right in front of you. And we are still

that way. We want to make sure we bring someone in, you know, for a final interview, face to face, you know, we want them to see our place as well.

We want them to make sure they understand what Groty is about. But I think that's the important part, you know, get them in here, get them face to face,

make sure that everything does a line and matches up.

As Groty celebrates 125 years, what lessons about people and leadership stand out most to you?

You know, with Groty, through my years, I've been with the company about 14 years. It'll be 14 years next month.

And people take care of each other. They really, truly care in this organization. You know, I know some organizations, they say this as a tagline for us.

It's every day. You know, we don't always have to get along, you know, to make things work and we don't always necessarily get along each day.

But we all spend a lot of time with each other and we all understand what the ultimate goal is. And that is truly taking care of our customer.

We know that's what we're here for. And although it is a family-owned company, we really do, as a whole, you know, feel like it's a family environment.

We take care of each other. When someone is in trouble or someone needs help, it is very rare you'd see somebody not help.

That they would just sit and watch someone. They're jumping in and doing what they need to. They may not even be an engineer or whatever.

They'll say, what do you want me to do? I'll help you. So it is just a great, great company when it comes to the people here.

And you can go to any location, Mexico, Germany, Canada. It doesn't matter what location you're at. You see that and you feel it when you're inside of it.

People are friendly. They come up to shake your hand. They smile at you. They're glad to see you.

So, you know, I love that about our company. It's always been a part of who we are.

Sometimes, you know, it gets taken for granted. But then when you go to other companies and they struggle with that and you go, man, we have something really special.

And, you know, it's just amazing to see that camaraderie that has been here since I've been here. I talked to people who are retired and are like, oh, man, it's always been such a fun company.

And yeah, all the things change. It's, you know, still a lot of good people. And I love working around the people I'm with every day.

That says a lot, especially when people have been here for 25 plus years.

Yeah, it definitely does. I actually saw your founder, somebody was asking him a question and his answer was, what's the right thing to do?

And I thought that said a lot just about the company and what it stands for. And it's not about the almighty dollar or the fast fix. It was what's the right thing to do. And I had such an appreciation for his answer.

Yeah, and that kind of just fits. It fits with our values. It fits with our culture and what we are. Because it's just do the right thing. You know, you don't have to think about it.

Everybody knows what the right thing is. And that's what we do, you know, and no matter what it is, if I walk out of here and somebody says, hey, Josh, I need you to help over here.

And that may not fit within, you know, what I would normally do. I don't think twice about it because it's the right thing to do.

And so I think it just gets ingrained in you and you don't much think through it. You just go do it. And that's kind of the beauty of what Grody's about.

We have a lot of customers that come in, they do site visits and they'll talk to the employees and many times they come out and they go, man, you know, people are just so friendly and they talk to you.

And I go to a lot of other companies and they're so afraid to talk with you, but they're so proud of what they do here and they want to tell you about it.

And that's just, that speaks volumes to our team members. They're who make who we are. And when you go to the floor, that's the people that make the bread.

So they're wonderful, wonderful people.

Now, for shop owners who are listening to this, who might be struggling with hiring or retention, what are three things you could recommend that they could do this month to improve employee retention?

You know, I think a lot of us think we talk to our team members, but do you really, you know, and many times it just takes, take the time to do one on ones.

Don't do it in front of people. Don't think that your informal conversations really truly are the big gains that you get with keeping someone.

You want to pull them aside and say, hey, you know, what are you, what do you want to be? What do you want to do? What's your aspirations?

Because many times they're never asked that. And that's part of the reason why they leave because they don't think anybody cares about what it is that they want.

And then when they tell you, follow up, keep following up with them. Hey, what did you do last month that really made a difference?

What can I do to help you reach what your goals are? You know, so be interested in them.

And I think that would make a big difference. But do it formally. Bring them into the office, bring them into a private setting.

Say, hey, I really want to talk to you about your career with us. I really like what you bring to us as a team member. I think you have potential to do more.

I want to help you reach that potential. Or somebody may say, hey, I love doing what I do and I just want to be better at it. Well, let me help you be better at it.

That's what they want. They want leaders that are interested in them. So take interest in them, not just their personal life, but in their career life as well.

And that's true. Not everybody wants to keep jumping from level to level to level. I know lots of people say, I don't want to manage people. I'm comfortable on my job. I like what I do.

I don't want to go to that next plateau where I have three people that I oversee and that's okay.

But like you said, just understanding exactly what their goals are can probably make all the difference in the world.

Yeah. And then just make sure you take some actions that help them. And if they see that, you would be surprised at how much you get in return for very little effort. You get a lot in return for that.

Well, Josh, thank you so much for stopping by and congratulations on your new role.

And congratulations to Groty for 125 years.

Well, thank you for having me, Christine. We are a proud organization. We love it. We enjoy being a part of really everyone's lives as we help make things brighter on the road. So thank you.

You are welcome.

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0:00

25:14

grody industries

John Deere

JCB

turn signals

work lights

reflective tape

About this episode

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