Browsing Category Retention Strategies

Insights, innovative ideas, and best practices for Truck Driver Retention

Data that Strategic Programs has collected from new, current, and exited drivers is telling us that one of the dissatisfiers across the industry is a lack of promotional opportunities. More specifically, there seems to be a lack of communication regarding opportunities for advancement. I’ve met with several clients who have agreed that this is indeed the case, which leads to the obvious conversation – what do we do about it?

We hear from clients that they feel like they’re sufficiently communicating job opportunities. But often the case is that if you communicate a job opening three times in three places, you probably should have communicated it four times in four different places. Career advancement opportunities need to be over-communicated, especially if perception of a lack of career advancement is reason for drivers to become dissatisfied and disengaged. Here are a few of the ways that companies have effectively communicated job opportunities:

Telephone hold message – If a driver has to be put on hold to talk to the right person, why not let them know where they can go to review current job openings while they’re waiting?

Break rooms/terminal lounges – You don’t have to post actual job openings here, but again, let drivers know where they can go to find current openings, as well as how to apply and where to get help and support with the application process.

Social media – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are highly visible places to post opportunities. I’ve seen plenty of large trucking companies post job opportunities on Facebook, and they’re getting a lot of traction out of it.

Company newsletter – Placed in a prominent location, communication around job opportunities can be a successful way to get the word out to current drivers.

Surprisingly, our data shows that drivers who are the least satisfied with opportunities for advancement are those who have only been with the company 6 months or less. This is also a group that has one of the highest percentages of turnover within the trucking industry, lending weight to the importance of focusing on this group. Many clients ask why drivers who have only been around for a few months are already concerned with promotional opportunities, or blame the lack of satisfaction on the sense of entitlement that the younger generation seems to have. In all actuality, new employees just want to know that there are opportunities for them to advance down the road; that they can have a career, not just a job. It’s a fair concern, and one that should be addressed early with a new driver’s manager.

Having conversations with new and tenured drivers about the opportunities for advancement within the company, when a driver will become eligible for advancement, and what they need to do in order to qualify for advancement can go a long way toward improving perceptions regarding opportunities for advancement.

The Hot Topic of Driver Engagement

Driver retention remains a key success factor for a trucking company. Driver turnover is still high and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 330,000 new drivers will be needed by 2020¹ to fulfill the needs of trucking carriers and freight haulers – a 20% increase. This is the time when it is critical to develop and keep engaged employees. Let’s explore the difference between employee satisfaction and employee engagement to illustrate why engagement is so important to your business.

Jim is comfortable with his job. He has a good truck, he likes the customers, the company he works for keeps him moving enough to pay his bills, and their terminals are pretty nice too. So Jim comes to work, punches the clock, and gets his work done. As long as his needs are met and the pay is enough, he doesn’t care who he works for. Jim is satisfied.

Bob is satisfied with the same things as Jim, but he’s telling his fleet manager about possible problems before they happen. Bob’s telling everyone he meets what a great company he works for and tries to recruit the good drivers he’d like to work with. He works hard to exceed his customers’ and his fleet manager’s expectations. He’s loyal, committed, and doesn’t think about the job offers being thrown at him by other company’s recruiters. He feels valued and sees his part in the big picture. He understands why what he does is important and how his results affect the company as a whole.

Jim is satisfied, while Bob is engaged. Through these examples, you can see satisfaction and engagement are not the same thing. Satisfaction plays an important piece in engagement, but there is so much more. Satisfaction benefits the employee, but engagement drives business.

Do you want satisfied employees? Of course. Would you rather have engaged employees? Absolutely. Satisfaction is the “I’ll do this in exchange for that” mentality. Satisfied employees perform adequately, but do not give additional, discretionary effort. Employee engagement, on the other hand, is personal. It is grounded in emotions and part of an individual’s self image. An engaged employee feels connected to the company, and sees beyond how their own personal needs are met to how they can help their company reach its goals. When your employees are engaged, they have better safety scores, better job performance, reduced turnover and increased productivity. Employee engagement is a win-win.

Cultivating employee engagement is a competitive strategy. Measuring employee engagement and identifying factors that contribute to and detract from engagement is the first step. Key components of engagement are measured in organizational commitment, satisfaction, effort, and intention to stay.

When current employee engagement surveys are coupled with exit interviews, you get a 360 degree view of your company culture and inhibitors of employee engagement in your workforce. Here is where an experienced consulting firm like Strategic Programs, Inc. will help you establish benchmarks, obtain reliable metrics, and help you develop employee engagement best practices and strategies within your organization. It is key to not just get the data, but also be able to use the data to make effective business decisions. Discovering the reasons your high performers stay will help you in creating effective action plans.

As business costs in trucking continue to rise, you’ll have a competitive advantage with an engaged workforce. Not only will you spend less money filling vacancies, you will see increased productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Bottom line – keep your employees satisfied, but more importantly, keep them engaged.

¹ Source: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2012/01/art5full.pdf

What Are Drivers Hearing From Recruiters?

One of the current issues facing the transportation industry is the reality of a driving job not matching up with the driver’s expectations of the job. There is not one function or department to blame for this disconnect, but there are things that can be improved each step of the way. In this article, we will examine ways to improve the conversations between a prospective driver and the recruiter.

First, how up-to-date is the info that recruiters are sharing with prospective drivers? There needs to be frequent communication from operations about the experiences that current drivers are having. How many miles are drivers getting on average this month? How much home time are people getting? A few carriers I work with who are doing this well have frequent communication with recruiting, and recruiters are giving accurate, up-to-date information to recruits.

Another recommendation that I’ve shared with carriers is that recruiters follow up with the drivers they’ve recruited after they’ve been driving for a few months. Have recruiters check in with new drivers and ask them if what they’re experiencing matches what they expected and what experiences they’re having. Recruiters can then take those stories back to tell future recruits. Not only does it keep recruiters connected with what’s going on after drivers are hired, it shows prospective drivers that you’re not just a number toward a quota.

Everyone who’s been excited about the prospect of a new job can probably relate to the fact that you might not focus on all of the aspects of the new job. Perhaps you’re excited by the pay, but you don’t focus on the long commute, or you focus on the great work environment but choose to look past the paid time off policy. With this in mind, it’s important for recruiters to make sure prospective drivers are hearing and understanding all aspects of the job so that there are no surprises later.

If you are interested in learning more about how to ensure that a driver’s reality matches their expectations, I will be speaking at the TCA Recruiting & Retention convention in Nashville, January 29-31; Workshop 2 – Recruitment & Operations Alignment: Getting the Driver Relationship Started in the Right Gear.

Driver Engagement, Safety, and Productivity Relationships

The trucking industry is filled with vendors offering solutions for improving safety, retention, and productivity. The key component to having a successful program for any of these three big topics is to have an engaged group of drivers.

Engagement consists of two main factors; attitudes and beliefs. Engagement beliefs measure how an employee or driver thinks and feels about their company. Engagement beliefs measure an employee or driver’s level of effort towards their job. Based on research from the past 25 years at Strategic Programs and by others offering a variety of employee surveys, we all find there is a significant relationship between engagement and organizational outcomes. For example, a quick look at our trucking clients with high scores around engagement items and you see fleets that are known for great operating ratios, lower than average turnover percentages, and better-than-average CSA BASIC scores.

Strategic Programs has a big footprint in the healthcare industry as well, where studies have shown that increased turnover yields poor clinical outcomes and a greater increase in falls, infections, and medication errors. Our healthcare clients use our data to increase engagement to not only retain staff, but to improve the quality of care and their bottom line. Towers Watson found in 2012 that when employee engagement survey scores increase by 15%, there is a correlation to a 2% increase in operating margins. Regardless of the industry, engagement studies help companies and organizations understand where the level of commitment to the job begins to break and why.

The trucking clients who partner with Strategic Programs can effectively measure the levels of commitment, satisfaction, intention to stay, and effort their drivers put into their jobs. Most importantly, clients can measure improvement in these areas in real time and over a specific time period. When a new safety program is implemented or a new TMS platform is purchased to enhance productivity, what assurance do you have that there will be the same buy-in from the fleet that there is in the executive offices? How will engagement within your fleet expedite or impede the adoption of new items, ideas, or strategies?

Understanding attitudes and beliefs within the workforce before moving forward is the first step in getting a map and making a plan. Without a reliable understanding of engagement, you may end up lost or making the wrong turn.

You Have Data – Now What?

Last month, I talked about what you can do at the manager level with action planning and how important that is. Now let’s focus on 3 simple things senior leadership can do in response to employee feedback data.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of work recently with trucking clients on current employee feedback of a variety of populations – from the entire organization down to just the drivers, and sometimes even specific departments. This feedback provides valuable insights on employee morale and engagement. Whenever I meet with these companies to review their current employee feedback data, I come prepared with recommendations for next steps and action planning. Although each company’s action plan will differ based on their data, resources, and goals, one of the most effective things that senior leadership can do in any organization is to recognize and appreciate that employee feedback, and communicate what will be done with it. Here’s the how and why:

Recognize and value opinions – The response “My opinion is valued” often comes up as a low score for trucking organizations. Acknowledging your appreciation for peoples’ feedback and committing to do something with the data lets people know that their feedback is valuable.
Demonstrate Commitment to Action – People will be much more willing to give their feedback in the future if you do something with the feedback they’ve already given you. A complete plan isn’t necessary to communicate right now, but it’s important to at least touch upon some of the problem areas and one or two things that you’ll look into based on the data.
Show Appreciation – Employees took the time to give their feedback, and a simple “thank you” can go a long way.

A brief memo or letter sent from your organization’s CEO or president that covers these three bases can be an extremely effective way for senior leadership to get involved and make a difference with your current employee population.

Action Planning with Managers

So you have current and/or exited employee satisfaction and engagement data – now what? One of the biggest struggles that organizations have when faced with good data is what to do with it. How do you use the data you have to create important and sustainable changes in your organization?

Here are a few starting points to help you get started and get the most from your data:

Do whatever you need to do in order to get buy-in from managers. Most likely, effective action planning will happen at the Driver Manager or Fleet Manager level. This doesn’t mean that the problems are usually with the managers, but that there is already a relationship there and we’ve seen action planning at this level to be the most effective. If managers don’t understand the importance of employee satisfaction, engagement and retention, then you have some up-front work to do. Managers need to understand that they are not being punished or being thrown more work for no good reason. Let them know that their support and leadership are a key and necessary part of making positive changes. Emphasize the positive aspects of the manager putting some extra work in up front, such as a more productive fleet, less turnover, fewer empty trucks, and increased morale. All of these positives could lead to changes in your bottom line that can make managers take notice; fewer accidents, lower CSA scores, and less customer complaints can mean more profit.
Work with managers to choose the most important and actionable issues to address. Once you have buy-in from your managers, it’s time to choose the action item(s) on which to focus their efforts. Managers might need some help and guidance, and this can be the best way for senior leaders to help. Sit down with each manager and find the issues in the data for his/her fleet or board. Help the manager to determine the one or two things that they feel are important and actionable, based on organizational goals and needs. Again, the manager needs to know that it’s important or you could lose your buy-in, so let them choose.
Help managers to create an action plan. When the manager has identified the one or two most important and actionable issues to work on, an action plan should be created to keep the momentum going. An action plan includes decisions made on the following:
Determine follow-up for measuring the impact of action plans. When will the next round of data be available so that you can measure the impact that has occurred based on manager action planning? Having follow-up data available can help to keep action planning on track and can also be quite motivating if measurable change has occurred in the areas that have been targeted. If there is not a plan in place to gather follow-up feedback, at least have a “state of the action plan” meeting scheduled with each manager to review the timeline and measurable goals.

We at Strategic Programs, Inc. have worked with clients who have had great success with action planning at the manager level. It can help to make large amounts of data less overwhelming and can be just the thing to create positive, sustainable change in your organization.

How to Rehire Your Former Employees

Do you agree with the following statements on rehiring employees?

1) It is more cost-effective to rehire a good employee who already knows what they’re doing than to train someone new. 2) A rehired employee tends to be more engaged and appreciative to work for you if he/she has experienced first-hand what the rest of the job market looks like.

Transportation organizations that use our services for exit interviews agree that one of the most beneficial returns on investment (along with giving employees a voice and being able to get to the root of why people are dissatisfied and/or leaving) is the future potential list. In our surveys, we ask people how likely they would be to return to your organization. If someone tells us they’d be likely or highly likely to return to the organization they left, we ask for their permission to share their contact information with the organization.

All respondents who grant their permission are then provided to you in a list of everyone who would be highly likely or likely to return to your organization. You can then sort the data how you’d like and use it for re-recruiting purposes. Several of our clients who have used the Strategic TurnOver Program™ (STOP) exceed the return on their investment by re-recruiting a few good employees.

So what do you do if you agree with the opening statements, but you aren’t being provided with a list of former employees who would like to return to work for you?

When someone leaves your organization, I recommend coding them as eligible for rehire or ineligible for rehire. If you have the resources, have someone call those who are eligible for rehire after two or three months. Ask people how they’re doing in their new job, and if they would consider returning to work for you. If you don’t have the resources to call everyone who is eligible for rehire, at least give people a “return ticket” when they leave. Let them know that if they want to come back, you would be happy to have them. Some clients have actually made a paper “Return Ticket” that drivers have brought back with them when they returned to work! You could even consider a policy of allowing certain benefits to be reinstated if people return to work within a certain amount of time after leaving.

With the driver shortage not getting any better, having a pool of qualified and experienced employees to call on for rehire can be a valuable resource. Make sure the people you want to come back to work for you know they are welcome back.

Turbocharging Engagement and Performance For 1st Year Drivers

The days of basic orientation no longer meet the learning and engagement needs of new hires, or the operational needs of organizations. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, says that new hires decide about their likelihood of staying on the job in their first 72 hours.

Exited employees candidly describe the feelings of new hires who were not onboarded effectively. Examples of what they say in Strategic TurnOver Program™ (STOP) interviews are:

“The process to get my benefits and payroll information accurate was horrible. They couldn’t even get these ‘basics’ right!”
“I was expected to do a lot without any training. It was unsafe.”
“I quit after two days of orientation because they were completely unorganized and unprofessional.”
“I never had the same mentor. It was too difficult.”
“I felt unwelcome. Tenured employees did not talk to or help me.”
“I never felt like I belonged.”

New Hire Check-In and STOP data from first year employees reveals issues that reduce satisfaction, increase failure to engage, and cause early turnover. The data shows the following:

Disorganization in recruiting, hiring, and onboarding – New hires who have to wait or reschedule interviews, improper or missing resources, and an organization that does not seem to be ready for the new hire are huge dissatisfiers.
Unclear expectations – New hires who find the job different from what they expected are at risk for first year turnover. During recruiting, organizations often use outdated job descriptions, hold interviews in quiet conference rooms away from the hustle, bustle and real work experience, and understate the job demands.
Orientation and training issues – Many organizations rely on tenured staff to help orient new hires after general orientation. Helping new hires adjust and learn on the job requires willingness, technical and organizational savvy, feedback and coaching skills, and clear expectations.
Unwelcome environment and lack of feedback- Strategic Programs data shows that new hires do not receive the manager’s frequent performance feedback that they need and want. Many complain that long tenured staff are unfriendly, too busy to help, or want them to prove themselves before being considered part of the team.

To set up new hires for success, organizations need seamless recruiting. Realistic interactions with current staff provide a clear picture of the job, and orientation that shares values and information are necessary to a new hire’s success. Creating a detailed, individual development plan that is competency-based and open-ended will ensure that they get the training they need.

Best practice organizations study new hire data for both commonly shared and specific needs. Contact from the application stage through fully capable to perform status requires thought and effort from managers, staff, and Human Resources. Managers and trainers must give regular feedback. Updates on performance, achieving goals, progress in being a good team member, and next steps should be part of weekly conversations. Such improvements have the following benefits:

Positive feelings for new hires about their new job and the organization
Quick assimilation with peers and colleagues
Increased confidence in work performance abilities
Increased job satisfaction
Increased likelihood of staying, and faster decision to engage
Improved retention

The Importance of Driver Managers Checking in Early and Often

Starting a new job is a very stressful experience. I would imagine that starting a new driving job as a Professional Driver has a set of challenges that makes it more stressful than a lot of other professions. You’ve got all of your orientation information to remember, policies, procedures and government regulations to adhere to, deadlines to make and strange terminals/shippers/receivers to go to, all while safely and legally operating a very large moving vehicle.

One important piece that can make or break a new Driver’s engagement and success with your company is whether or not their Driver Manager (DM) is taking the time to check-in. The frequency and duration of DM check-ins can depend on the Driver’s needs and the DM’s workload, but having frequent and meaningful check-ins with Drivers early in their career is a necessity. For anyone who argues that their DMs don’t have time to check in with each new Driver or that it’s not that important, consider the following chart:

This is Strategic Programs data from one of our transportation clients. The chart shows a blue line for Drivers who said they did have meaningful check-ins with their DM (Yes) and a red line for those who said they did not have meaningful check-ins with their DM (No). You can see a noteworthy difference in the satisfaction with all categories based on whether or not a Driver perceived that they were checked-in on by their DM. Something interesting to note that isn’t apparent on this chart is that when I looked at the individual items that people were the most and least satisfied with, the “No” respondents had low scores around “The company was committed to my success as a Driver” and “The company values its Drivers.” The “Yes” respondents did not have these items as low scores.

We at Strategic Programs see the same results with every client that asks this question of their respondents and we encourage our clients to share this data with their DMs. This is hard evidence of the importance of a check-in with new Drivers, and the impact that a connection with a DM can have on a Driver’s overall experiences within an organization.

Successful & Sustainable Change Starts with Your Managers

For most organizations who partner with Strategic Programs, Inc., the most successful and sustainable change occurs at the direct manager level.

Is every action item within the control of the manager? No. But what I have seen lately is dissatisfaction around several items that are within the control of the direct manager, such as employees feeling like they’re being heard, knowing their opinions matter, perceiving opportunities for development (or lack thereof), and feeling like the company cares about them as a person. Furthermore, we’ve conducted several recent studies that show that a healthy relationship (that includes regular check-ins) between an employee and their direct supervisor leads to higher satisfaction across the board- even in areas that don’t seem to relate directly to the manager. To most professional drivers, their manager is the face of the entire organization. Because so many aspects of a driver’s engagement are directly related to the relationship with their direct manager, it is important that the managers be able to see the data that pertains to them.

In what ways have some of our clients promoted successful and sustainable change within their organizations? One client not only shares information with every manager who has enough data to report, they also have a meeting with each manager to review that manager’s opportunities for improvement and develop 90-day action plans. This obviously takes a lot of time and effort on the part of the managers and the leadership group who hold the meetings, but this client has seen positive change and an ROI that makes the pain well worth it.

Another client gives all of their direct managers access to our client portal, Strategic Insight, which allows them to see their data in real time and how it compares to the organization as a whole. Each manager is expected to log in to view their data on a regular basis in order to take action on their data. This creates a healthy sense of competition between the managers, as well as promoting responsibility and accountability. This idea works best if you have a healthy organization where people view feedback as helpful and constructive rather than threatening and punitive.

No matter how our clients choose to share data at the direct manager level, the common theme seems to be setting expectations with managers to take action and create change. Setting these expectations and giving managers the authority and autonomy to take action is one of the best ways that I’ve seen organizations create successful and sustainable change.

← Older

Newer →

Get articles like these sent right to your inbox