Research
January 13, 2023
It's that time of the year. The time when we collectively reflect on the year behind us, and plan for the year ahead. Inevitably, setting goals for how we want to improve ourselves, our businesses, and relationships.
As a driver staffing and recruiting business, we are always focused on improving what's core to us: finding, hiring, and matching great drivers to the best jobs available. And in that spirit, we have recapped our key findings from 2022 into a comprehensive guide: 10 Tips for Improving Driver Recruitment and Retention. Take a glance below or download the full eBook now:
Tip 1: Efficiency is a critical success factor.
For more than a decade, companies have cited the driver shortage as a key inhibitor of their growth and ability to hire drivers. We've spent 2022 challenging the driver shortage narrative. And through interactive learning sessions with our carrier clients and our driver recruiters, we've learned some astounding things.
Primarily, citing a macro labor trend as the root cause of an organizational challenge often makes people feel hopeless about their ability to make an impact. In fact, instead of trying to overcome the challenge, the companies who can simply respond with money: more money in ad spend, sign-on bonuses, etc.
It's true that the un-equilibrated supply and demand creates competition and raises costs. But the disparity in the industry fuels cyclical challenges that negatively affect all sized carriers. For the large carriers, costs continue to rise. For the small carriers, buy-outs or going out of business is common. It's easy to understand that this response is not sustainable.
Instead of adopting a money first approach - we recommend focusing on efficiency at each stage of the recruitment funnel.
Tip 2: Keywords count.
When posting a driving job ad, the words you use are key to success. You might not be able to increase the talent pool in Wichita Kansas, but you can certainly become the most attractive job to the talent pool in Wichita -- if you work at it.
Most companies struggle to find and retain class A drivers. More challenging is regional and OTR jobs. So, if you need to increase your applicant flow -- then you need to highlight the best parts of what this job has to offer. And trust us, all drivers want great pay, so this can't be the only card you're competing with.
Key areas to highlight:
- Ultramodern equipment
- Flexible scheduling and time off
- A career path beyond the driving opportunity
- Work culture, training and certification programs
- Health vision and dental benefits
If you don’t have an attractive overall package for the driver, your application flow is going to be limited. And no matter how many ad dollars you pour into filling that role – you will struggle to attract the right drivers and perhaps more importantly: to keep them.
Tip 3: Try new channels, consistently.
There are a plethora of platforms and channels to find drivers: Indeed, Monster.com, ZipRecruiter, Craigslist, Facebook, Google - just to name a few. When we speak to our customers, we hear the following about these options:
- Communications are too ad-hoc and disparate: we do not respond timely; drivers don't know us by the time they pick up the phone.
- I lose 75% of the applicants I pay for on these platforms before they get to our applicant tracking system (ATS).
- I estimate 35% of these applicants don't even have a CDL.
And it's not uncommon for our customers to hire just 0.5-2% of the applicants they get on these channels.
While imperfect, if you have the budget and the need, we recommend trying them all - but not blindly, and not holistically. Instead, try a rotation program and limit yourself to a few prominent channels each quarter, and a few niche ones (more on this, later). Measure your throughput consistently to understand which platforms drive the most hires, the most effectively and where.
Unlock full access to our top 10 tips.
To access all of our top 10 tips for improved driver recruitment and retention download the eBook today.