Recruiting good drivers isn’t easy. And retaining them also proves to be a challenge. To
keep them in your company, you must keep them happy by providing them with a safe, fulfilling, and happy work environment. Unfortunately, many companies don’t offer their drivers with proper equipment and benefits. Then they end up losing their drivers.
With the increasing shortage of truck drivers, a nearly 100% turnover rate, and the pandemic throwing a wrench at everything, the trucking industry is struggling to keep its tires moving. So now, how do you keep the good ones in your company?
The answer is engagement. Creating engagement ensures your company runs smoothly. You can apply recruitment and retention strategies to keep your employees happy and loyal. In this post, I’ll give you insight into that.
Let’s take a look.
Why Should You Apply Good Recruitment Strategies?
Not having enough drivers can cause a lot more issues than delayed deliveries. First, you might end up losing customers. Driver shortage undermines the efficiency and productivity of the company. If drivers have to do intense work hours, they will be under immense pressure. So you need to have a backlog of skilled drivers.
Recruitment Strategies For Drivers
You must adopt effective recruitment strategies to compete and stay ahead of other companies. You need to attract skilled drivers to increase your company’s productivity and bring in profits.
Here are a few strategies you can apply to recruit drivers effectively. Let’s take a look.
Create Marketing Materials Aimed At Drivers
Companies put all their effort and money into making shiny marketing materials for investors, customers, and board members. But creating marketing materials targeted at truck drivers is equally important, if not more.
Your pamphlet with all of the achievements of your company written doesn’t mean anything to them. But a marketing material with all the possible benefits of working for your company might pique their interest.
When you create your marketing material for recruiting, give a compelling answer to the question, “What’s in it for me?” If you can’t find an answer to that question, then the drivers aren’t going to find a reason to work for you. So, create marketing material aimed at truck drivers that clarifies why your company offers the best benefits and why they should work for you.
Start A Referral Program
Referral programs can be a very powerful tool. The oldest and most effective marketing tool is word of mouth. If your drivers tell other drivers how good your company is and what benefits they get over the competition, you’ll likely get more applicants. Having a lot of options to choose from helps to get very skilled drivers.
But many drivers have a preconceived notion that if they refer other drivers, they have the chance of losing their job. But that’s not entirely true. More drivers mean you can take more jobs, meaning work for everybody.
Create A Website
With everything online, your web presence is significant for your company. A lot of professionals and young drivers look at a company’s site before applying for them. Therefore, it is vital to have all your information on a website for everyone to access. That way, drivers can look at the site, see what benefits your company provides over their current one, and then make the switch.
Here are a few things your site should have to give the truck drivers an idea of you as a company:
- A beautiful layout with all the essential information
- Landing pages highlighting your recruitment program, wages, benefits, whatever makes the company appealing
- Social media accounts that seize your company’s work culture and vibe
Optimize The Applications
The first thing you need to make sure of is to make the application mobile-friendly. The easier it is to access your applications, the more people will apply.
Make the application process as smooth as possible. If filling out the form feels like a hassle, you’ll lose some great qualified candidates. So, you need to streamline the process as well. Optimize the hiring process to make it more streamlined. You shouldn’t miss putting on a skilled candidate just because you responded late to his application.
Retention Strategies For Truck Drivers
Retaining drivers isn’t easy. Especially these days. You need to apply smart and effective strategies to retain your drivers and reduce turnovers to increase profit.
Below are a few strategies you can adapt to retain your drivers:
Providing Benefits And Proper Compensation
Keeping your drivers happy is the most effective way to keep your drivers in your company. And the best way to do that properly is to compensate them for their work and give them a lot of benefits. For example, providing them with well-maintained equipment and home-time policies. These all help them work proficiently and productively.
Open Communications
Having adequate and open communications with field managers is incredibly crucial. Helping them with training, problem resolution, and recognition requires open communication.
Effective and open communication also ensures your drivers get fair treatment, up-to-date equipment, and an income and working conditions that they can happily accept. All of these assure that your worker will stay happy and be with your company for days to come.
Have Proper Expectations
Find out what motivates them during the recruiting stage and set expectations accordingly. What do they place a higher value on? Can your wages meet his revenue expectations?
These questions will help both of you make an informed decision as to whether or not both parties are fit for each other. Both parties should deliver on each other’s expectations.
Prioritize Their Health And Safety
Prioritizing your driver’s safety is of the utmost importance as a company. Investing time and resources to ensure your driver’s safety and good health is crucial. They deal with a lot of pressure and maintain strict deadlines. With some drivers driving upward of 14 straight hours, they experience sleep apnea, fatigue, depression, and many more health issues.
Some companies have taken the initiative to help their drivers’ well-being. You can also implement a few of these in your company to promote the well-being of your employees. A few of them are:
- Meditation programs
- Truck drive-specific exercises
- Health insurance
- And mental health checkups
Closing Thoughts
Developing and maintaining effective strategies to recruit and retain skilled truck drivers isn’t easy. The key thing to ensure here is to gain their loyalty. Providing benefits makes them stay with you.
If you go through and follow the contents of the list, I’m sure you’ll be able to recruit and retain some talented drivers.