{"id":11697,"date":"2021-07-03T12:16:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T10:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=11697"},"modified":"2021-07-03T12:16:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T10:16:24","slug":"drivers-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2021\/07\/03\/drivers-21\/","title":{"rendered":"How a unified front can help recruit, retain drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
When internal departments are not on the same page, it can present a bad impression to potential new drivers. Here are some steps fleets can take today toward more effective recruiting and retention strategies.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The transportation industry comprises\u00a0hundreds of thousands of people<\/a>: executives, managers, technicians, drivers, and more. To have a successful company within the industry, it takes a combined effort from everyone involved. And to ensure this well-oiled machine can sustain itself in an extremely competitive market, a company needs the right recruitment and retention strategies.<\/p>\n

In a June FleetOwner<\/i> webinar sponsored by Idelic<\/a>, Jeremy Reymer, founder and CEO of DriverReach<\/a>, and Rachel Lovell, vice president of people operations at Milan Express<\/a>, shared their insights and some best practices to help transportation companies find the right talent and keep it in house.<\/p>\n

To achieve this, the first rule is to foster inter-departmental communication, which creates consistency and confidence, according to Lovell. When those departments within a transportation company are not on the same page, that\u2019s going to be evident to prospective and existing employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the absence of a well-communicated, streamlined process, not a well-oiled machine, the driver is going to see that,\u201d Lovell explained. \u201cIf there\u2019s volatility and things that don\u2019t add up, it\u2019s going to turn a driver away. During recruitment, we make sure to sell drivers the right job, saying the same thing throughout the whole process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden Cardiff, founder and co-CEO of Idelic, agreed that all departments must have the same strong and well-informed message to avoid being labeled as dishonest. For example, if human resources define a position within the company with specific job responsibilities, but the operations department doesn\u2019t believe that person should be performing those tasks, there will be a clear disconnect, leaving the employee in the dark.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you have a lack of clarity and purpose, if that\u2019s not cleared up across departments, you\u2019ll start to see people growing in different directions,\u201d Reymer said. \u201cLeveraging technology can help make sure that there\u2019s open communication across the company. Whether its through internal communications systems such as Slack, Teams, Zoom, etcetera, or having an open dialogue within departments when positions are being created\u2014these strategies play a huge role in smoothing out those operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Internal communications don\u2019t just happen overnight. It takes company leaders to make the concerted effort in unifying those departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first part is taking the leaders in those departments and saying, \u2018We have to work together toward this common goal \u2013 how can we improve on this communication,\u2019\u201d Lovell explained. \u201cLet\u2019s over-communicate about the job responsibilities, so that every department knows what is expected from drivers and how to best answer the drivers\u2019 questions.”<\/p>\n

Reymer also stressed the importance of clearly defining the company culture and answering the \u201cwhy\u201d of the company goals: \u201cThat makes it explicitly clear to all employees about the standard of the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the safety aspect of it, over-communicating allows every department to be on the same page about what the company expectations are,\u201d Lovell added. \u201cHaving operations involved in the process when hiring the driver allows all departments to be aware of who is being hired and what is being discussed with that driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as important as a company knowing itself is understanding its new drivers and what their needs are. To do that, simply see things through their eyes,\u00a0 Reymer advised.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk yourself: What is the hiring process like for them, from beginning to end?\u201d Reymer said. \u201cGetting the driver manager involved at the beginning allows a cadence of communication throughout the driver\u2019s first 90 days with the company and developing a better long-term relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lovell explained that Milan Express has implemented an offer letter to drivers to be given before orientation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe offer letter states everything that the recruiter discussed with the driver about what is expected about the job,\u201d Lovell said. \u201cIt stays in their file and keeps the recruiting team responsible as well as staying transparent with the driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what steps can fleets take to retain those drivers once they are successfully recruited?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much data within the industry regarding driver retention,\u201d Lovell said. \u201cWe use WorkHound to get real-time, daily data to see where we need to improve, that comes right from the driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Reymer, the answer is to start simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much data out there, but if you narrow down really simple data points about what is really impacting the hiring decisions, you\u2019ll be better prepared in real-world scenarios,\u201d Reymer explained. \u201cSometimes, it can be as simple as you just didn\u2019t move fast enough. If a driver is ready to move, and another company moved faster than you did in hiring that qualified driver, you\u2019ve lost out. Sometimes, companies spend so much time developing data to build retention and recruiting strategies, that they are actually wasting time and missing out on drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

By Catharine Conway<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.fleetowner.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

KNOW WHO WE ARE<\/strong><\/a><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When internal departments are not on the same page, it can present a bad impression to potential new drivers. Here are some steps fleets can take today toward more effective recruiting and retention strategies. The transportation industry comprises\u00a0hundreds of thousands of people: executives, managers, technicians, drivers, and more. To have a successful company within the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[133],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11699,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11697\/revisions\/11699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}