Recruit & Retain: Trucking Edition

Just how important are pay and company culture when recruiting and retaining drivers?  Joining Chad to discuss these hot topics are three very special guests from the Iowa Motor Truck Association - Leah Shaver, President and CEO of the National Transportation Institute; Brad Jones, President and CEO of Saige Partners, a driver talent acquisition firm; and Beth Potratz, CEO for Drive My Way.  If you’re struggling to recruit or retain drivers, it’s usually to do with one of three things: pay, marketing or company culture, with pay being the number one driver pain point.  But just what is the most impactful thing carriers can do when it comes to pay to get drivers to come on board? Pay market rate, consistently. Drivers want to know how much they’re going to get paid, when they’re going to get paid, and when they’re going to get a pay rise.  “I feel like most companies think if I just had the highest pay, I would get the drivers. But we know there are companies out there that are the highest payers, but the drivers are not necessarily just flocking to those companies.” And it’s not just pay that helps retain drivers. The driver’s relationship with the organization and their dispatcher, how they’re shown respect at work, whether the carrier puts their core values into actions. These aspects of workplace culture are vital to recruiting and retaining drivers.  “If you were to send a mass email out to your entire organization and ask what your core values are, how many people would have to Google those to determine what they are?” To hear all this and more, don’t miss this latest episode of Recruit and Retain.  What you’ll learn about in this episode: Why consistent pay is essential The lower the pay, the higher the turnover High pay does not guarantee drivers The driver/dispatcher relationship What respect in the workplace looks like How to connect with the guests: Leah Shaver Brad Jones Drive My Way

One of the things that comes up time and again when we talk about the challenges and the struggles that carriers and recruiters are having with recruiting and retaining drivers, is communication.  From issues between the executive team and the recruiters, inter-departmental issues, issues between dispatchers and drivers - it all comes down to communication and culture.  If you’re wondering what your carrier can do differently to attract and retain better drivers, thinking about what you can do that’s better for your drivers, don’t miss this latest episode.  While there is no magic job or magic marketing technique to improve driver recruiter and retention, what you can do is focus your attention on communication problems. And it’s communication that we’re talking about with our two guests: Jordan Wagner, founder of WJW Consulting, and Tim Hindes, former CEO of Stay Metrics, now the General Manager of Retention at Ten Street. “I truly believe that communication solves all problems. And it can [from] marriages, all the way to the workplace. In marriage, the number one and two issues are money and sex. And then the number three is communication. And guess what? Number three can solve number two and number one.” What communication actually means The different forms of driver communication Importance of non-verbal communication  Poor communication comes from the top down How to train on communication and put it into practice How to connect with Jordan Wagner & Tim Hindes: Jordan Wagner 419-583-9139 www.wjwconsulting.com Tim Hindes

Don’t miss Jeremy Reymer, founder and CEO of CDL driver applicant tracking system, DriverReach, and Wendy Bartz, Director of Sales and Services at DriverReach, discuss how your carrier can solve its driver shortage issues on this week’s episode of Recruit and Retain.  DriverReach helps carriers figure out what the solution to their driver recruiting challenge is. They utilize the latest technology to streamline your recruitment process, prioritizing driver engagement. “It's so important that you're engaging and nurturing all the leads coming in. We spend so much money on advertising and getting leads into the system. We really need to put the effort in towards building relationships.” Download and listen as Jeremy and Wendy share their thoughts on DriverReach, why more and more carriers are investing in driver technology, what’s making drivers change the way they research carriers, why outside investors are looking to invest in the HR and the driver recruiting technology space, why you need to invest in your recruiters, how carriers are improving driver training, and why you should be creating driver-focused content. What you’ll learn about in this episode: How DriverReach can help your carrier Why your carrier needs to invest in driver technology How to appeal to drivers Outside investment in trucking Why you should invest in your recruiters Create driver focused content How to connect with Jeremy Reymer & Wendy Bartz: Taking the Hire Road podcast  DriverReach

If, like us, you love hearing how industries outside of trucking are handling recruitment and retention, then you aren’t going to want to miss this latest episode of Recruit and Retain.  Joining Chad today is Joretta Nelson, vice chairman and owner of Credo, a company dedicated to helping higher education establishments thrive in order to impact the success of students. “Credo has been around for 25 years. We started out as a campus planning and architecture firm, specifically working with Independent Colleges. And we quickly realised that our work would have to be informed by good strategy and an understanding of student success, to get campuses to spend their resources wisely.” Much of this conversation revolves around Credo's retention model and how what the higher education industry is doing to retain students, to encourage them to stick with their education, directly relates to trucking and what carriers can do to provide a better experience for their drivers, encouraging retention.  Credo has taken 50 years of research into what it takes to retain students in education and distilled it down to how the entire campus, as a whole, could really focus on student success, because what it boils down to at the end of the day is this - if students don’t graduate, that impacts the whole world.  “We developed a framework to think about it. And we've been out doing this work now, grabbing a campus as a whole and saying, let's stand alongside the leadership both at the top and in the middle, and really transform the way the campus thinks about [student retention].” To find out more about how retention in trucking aligns with retention in higher education, and to learn new ways for your carrier to retain drivers, download and listen to this fascinating episode.  What you’ll learn about in this episode: Why retention in higher education is so complicated How higher education and trucking align The universal dilemma of retention Why you want fulfilled human beings as drivers What carriers can do to help drivers thrive How to connect with Joretta Nelson: Joretta Nelson - Credo Higher Education Consulting Team

Do your drivers have a good quality of life?  After 22 years in trucking, going into carriers and helping them achieve a drastic overhaul, Roy Craigen knows how to improve driver quality of life, and in the process, improve your carrier, and improve driver recruitment and retention.  Roy established TRANSCOM Fleet Services in 1991 and today they develop unique programs aimed at improving trucking operations across North America by shifting culture, attitude, and ultimately performance. Roy and his team will come into your organization, they’ll literally embed themselves in your carrier in order to bring about the change you need. They aren’t consultants, they roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, making drastic changes. Don’t miss this latest episode of Recruit and Retain where Roy not only discusses the most common issues he helps carriers with, but also shares top ways to improve the quality of life for drivers - spoiler alert, drivers are all different.  The key takeaway from today’s episode?  “I had the honor and privilege of working with over 3000 drivers in my life. And I know, they're not all the same. But I do know this, if we don't force quality of life, for all of our drivers, somewhere between seven and 11 years, something bad is gonna happen.” To find out more, download and listen to this latest episode.  What you’ll learn about in this episode: Key takeaways How Transcom Fleet can help your carrier How to have a good relationship with drivers Find new drivers at Walmart How to improve driver quality of life The ideal bonus program How to connect with Roy Craigen: https://transcomfleetservices.com/ Roy@transcomfleetservices.com 780-449-7200

Driver retention is tough, everyone is talking about it. Of course, recruitment is tough too - how do you get leads coming in? How do you get drivers on the phone? But it’s retention that’s the big topic of conversation - once you’ve got drivers, how do you make them stay? Rachel Lovell is Vice President of People Operations at Milan Supply Chain Solutions. She started with them 15 years ago, with no driver’s licence, straight out of high school, and worked her way up through the ranks to where she is now, handling recruitment and HR. “I'm like the Milan cheerleader, I love the company, I bleed blue is what I tell people because that's one of our main colours. I want everybody's experience to be like mine, I want this to be a hire to retire company.” But the biggest challenge she’s up against is retention. “Retention is so important because we need to retain them not just in our own company, we need to retain them in the industry. That's why it's an industry wide effort and why you hear it happen so much.” From the messaging from leadership, to adding to their driver experience team, to utilizing the data from Workhound, to the biggest feedback they’ve received, don’t miss this latest episode of Recruit and Retain with Rachel, and learn what Milan have done to operationalize retention. What you’ll learn about in this episode: Why Milan is a hire to retire company The biggest changes in driver retention Becoming driver obsessed Utilizing Workhound Why communication is key to retention Driver retention manager How to connect with Rachel Lovell:LinkedIn - Rachel Lovell Milan Supply Chain Solutions

If you want to know how to always hire great drivers, not just any drivers, but the ones who are going to be the right fit for your culture and organization, who’ll do their job well and love working for your carrier, then don’t miss Rob Friday on this week’s episode of Recruit and Retain.  “One of the neat things about the Predictive Index is that you can layer this into your org chart and understand all the different positions within the company. And then you start to know how to hire the right person for the role, how to groom future leaders for future roles, create those succession paths, and identify different individuals.” Rob is Managing Principal at Predictive Success, an official partner of Predictive Index, and author of Talent Optimizer: Why Some Companies Always Get Great People, making him ideally placed to help you hire the best drivers. “Really what we do is help companies understand and unlock the true potential of their people through analytics.” From the genesis of the Predictive Index in the 1950s, to how it can help you identify the right drivers for your carrier, to how it can save you money and improve the safety aspect of your business, to how it benefits at both the individual and team level, download and listen today. What you’ll learn about in this episode: Genesis of the Predictive Index How pre-employment assessments can help you hire better drivers Saving money and improving the safety aspect Operationalizing PI into your organization How PI can improve your teams How to connect with Rob Friday: URL - www.robfriday.com Book - Talent Optimizer LinkedIn - Rob Friday Twitter - @RobFriday

One of the things that we’ve started to bring onto the show is ideas about how a trucking company might control their costs. You might wonder what controlling costs has to do with the recruitment and retention of drivers. But hear us out.  Anything, and we mean anything, you can do to save money elsewhere, to plough into the recruitment and retention of drivers, is going to benefit your carrier.  Drivers cost money, and in order to recruit and retain the best drivers, you need to allocate resources to it. But rather than find additional money, it makes sense to redistribute money that you’re needlessly spending elsewhere.  In a previous episode, we discussed how you could switch up your insurance coverage to save money. In today’s episode we’re joined by experienced attorney Mark Pierce of Cloud Peak Law, who shares how restructuring your carrier could help free up much needed resources.  From separating out entities to improve your margins, to why you might want to split your assets to reduce insurance liabilities, to how Cloud Peak Law can restructure your business at about 20-25% of the cost of what other attorneys might charge. Don’t miss this insightful episode.  What you’ll learn about in this episode: The issue of under insurance Splitting assets to reduce insurance liabilities The benefits of having a mentor Get a third party to do your payroll Choose a corporate structure that fits you How Cloud Peak can save you money How to connect with Mark Pierce: www.cloudpeaklaw.com LinkedIn - MARK PIERCE Twitter - @WYtrustattorney

If you’re wondering how you can gather driver feedback and driver testimonials to improve your driver recruitment and retention, even when your drivers are remote. Mark Wayner from Wayfind Creative has come up with an incredible solution - he helps skilled trades attract best-fit candidates with remote employee video testimonials. While cutting his teeth working as a video producer for an HR organization, Mark interviewed a ton of drivers to understand why they liked working for their company and what their companies were doing for them to help keep them safe.  “I was starting to understand the pain in trucking in terms of, they're really struggling to attract and retain truck drivers. [I thought] How can I provide a service that does this 100% remotely?” And so Wayfind Creative was born.  From cost effectively getting driver testimonials, to the benefits of why you might use driver videos to help you recruit, to how driver feedback (both positive and negative) can help increase driver retention, to how Wayfind Creative works. Mark is incredibly candid about helping carriers recruit and retain through driver feedback, straight from their cell phones.  “Everyone has a cell phone, don't blame a lack of initiative or lack of a video person or we don't have the equipment or we don't have good ideas. It's all right there in front of you. It's just a matter of can you pull it all together and make it happen.” What you’ll learn about in this episode: The genesis of Wayfind Creative The difficulty of getting remote driver testimonials The benefits of video driver feedback How Wayfind Creative works How to use driver feedback for recruiting How to connect with Mark Wayner: LinkedIn - Mark Wayner www.wayfindcreative.com

You might wonder what insurance has to do with recruiting and retaining drivers. Hear us out. Recruiting and retaining drivers costs money. Your insurance premium also costs money. But here’s the thing, you aren’t stuck with your expensive insurance premium, you can shop around, take on more risk, and reduce costs. Freeing you up to spend more on recruiting and retaining drivers.  So what can you do to drive down insurance costs? What deductibles should you pick? How do you know what your risk tolerance is?  In today’s episode, Peyton Richardson, VP of Commercial Lines at McGriff insurance gives us an inside look at insurance, from the other side of the table. More importantly, he shares how companies can save unnecessary costs on their insurance premiums. “The biggest thing I would say to [carriers] is make sure that you've got a plan. That's where it starts. An agent or broker relationship with who you're working with is important. Having an agent that knows the marketplace, who the carriers are, what their long term objectives look like.” From the importance of finding an insurance agent with experience in trucking, to knowing how to pick the proper deductible for your structure, Peyton (and ultimately McGriff) are here to help carrier owners get a better insurance deal.  If you want to understand insurance better, download and listen to this latest episode.  What you’ll learn about in this episode: The importance of having a plan Find agents with expertise in trucking The value of risk transfer How to pick the right deductible Frequency doesn’t lead to severity What is your risk tolerance? How to connect with Peyton Richardson: Cell Phone Number - 765-450-2681 Email - peyton.richardson@mcgriff.com www.mcgriff.com

In this slightly different episode, the tables are turned and Chad becomes the interviewee for Taking The Hire Road, a podcast hosted by Jeremy Reymer. This episode was originally aired via the Taking The Hire Road podcast, and they’ve kindly let us share it.  For those of you who have been avid listeners for the last three years, it’s probably time you learned a little more about the guy behind the mic, and why the Recruit and Retain podcast came to fruition.  For anyone who doesn’t know, Chad is president of Brand Outcomes Inc, a company that partners with carriers to help them with their branding and marketing.  “It's also company culture, workplace changes, operational changes, training for dispatchers and recruiters and all these things. I don't think you can get the marketing correct nowadays, without understanding a company at a deeper level.” In this episode, Chad shares how Brand Outcomes works with companies, and why the first thing he does when he goes into work with a company is ask if they’re living up to their values, vision and missions statement.  He also talks about how he trains recruiters through his Recruiter Sales Training online courses with Phil M. Jones, best-selling author of “Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact” — a guidebook for CDL driver recruiters.  Before finally discussing how he’s helping fleets find quality driving candidates from an unexpected source - South Africa.  “Is it a good decision for the country, for the carrier and consumers? Is it a good decision for the person that’s coming here? I overwhelmingly feel the answer to all of those questions is yes.” What you’ll learn about in this episode: About Brand Outcomes How carriers can stand out from the competition Recruiter sales training with Phil M. Jones Why carriers should hire international drivers The cost of hiring South African drivers How to connect with Chad: Brand Outcomes Inc Recruiter Sales Training

What if you could increase driver recruitment and retention by focusing on getting and keeping drivers fit?  There are so many carriers out there claiming they’re the number one for safety, they have the best signing bonuses, they have the highest CPM, but what if you could differentiate your carrier by putting driver health first? In today’s episode, Chad talks to Mark Manera, founder of The Trucking Fitness Company - the ultimate health and wellness experience for drivers. “I help trucking companies make more money by decreasing work comp/health insurance costs, improving retention, and creating safer drivers.” Mark’s a-ha moment came to him when he was working with a driver in a physical therapy clinic. The driver had had a total knee replacement, and on diving into what a 40 year career in trucking and life on the road looked like, Mark was able to see the good and bad aspects of the industry.  “When I started talking to him about, ‘hey, how often are you exercising? What are you eating out there on the road?’ I could tell there was a mindset of, ‘I'm a truck driver. That's not what we do. We don't exercise, that's part of the job description.” It struck Mark, what if there was a way to workout without leaving your truck? If you could simply pull your phone out and workout wherever you are, anywhere in the world, without needing equipment or a gym membership?  And so the idea for The Trucking Fitness Company was born.  To find out how The Trucking Fitness Company could help you better recruit and retain drivers, download and listen to this episode. “What we've found is that the exercise piece is really a domino. That when we can get drivers to exercise on a consistent basis and make exercise a part of their daily routine, every other aspect of their life becomes healthier.” What you’ll learn about in this episode: When drivers are healthier, everyone wins The problem with short term programs Accountability and community Restaurant guides How to connect with Mark Manera: LinkedIn: Mark Manera www.truckinfit.com

If you want to reduce turnover in your carrier, don’t miss Díana Palmera, recruiting manager at Farmland Fresh Dairies, based out of New York, share how they maintain a driver turnover rate of just 10-15%.  Farmland Fresh Dairies isn’t a carrier for every driver, they have different divisions for different customer needs. For some customers, they provide a service called ‘customized distribution’, which requires drivers to do a little more work than merely backing up the lorry into the unloading dock.  In this role, drivers typically need to work through the night, delivering their high touch freight directly into designated areas within the individual retail stores, letting themselves in with their own key.  You’d think therefore, Farmland would have a high turnover rate, but they don’t. From their impressive driver benefits package, through to their driver bonus program, as well as instilling loyalty through their driver apprenticeship program, download and listen to this latest episode to learn more.  What you’ll learn about in this episode: Customized distribution Pre-employment assessments Driver pay and benefits Metrics for their weekly bonus program The driver apprenticeship program How to connect with Díana Palmera: LinkedIn - Díana Palmera

Welcome to another episode of Recruit and Retain Trucking Edition. Today’s episode focuses around content, as in digital marketing. Content is an area that a high percentage - more than 90% of trucking companies, are not doing enough with. They’re just not doing the right content.  There’s a fair amount of misunderstanding around content with folks thinking you need to have a big budget, you need to have a video shoot, asking what does content look like? What can I do? There’s just so many questions around content!  And so we’ve invited the hugely insightful Lisa Lawrence onto the podcast to lift the lid on content and share best practices with us, not to mention creating a trucking company’s dream content strategy.  “I think that companies should sit down and discuss a content strategy and not just try to pull it together without a plan.” Why Lisa? Well, she's the digital strategist at Digital Mark Group, or DMG for short, but she’s also married to a truck driver recruiter, so she not only knows all things content marketing, but she also understands the trucking industry and our specific issues, in particular the drama around recruiting truck drivers.  So if you’re wondering what you can do to improve your content strategy, download this latest episode, subscribe or follow Recruit and Retain wherever you get your podcasts.  What you’ll learn about in this episode: Why create a story of your company How to create a content strategy The importance of backlinks Video is a great content piece How to create an ad strategy Repurposing your content Where to post your content How to connect with Lisa Lawrence: LinkedIn: Lisa Lawrence lisa.lawrence@digitalmarkgroup.com

Welcome to another episode of Recruit & Retain Trucking Edition. Chad loves to talk to carriers, to find out what they’re doing to help boost driver retention and attract new drivers onboard.  In today’s episode he’s chatting to Yajaira Martin, a remote recruiter for Unlimited Carrier, a carrier that operates nationwide.  Recruiters are on the front line in trucking, they understand exactly what's going on in the industry. They're hearing what drivers are saying. But more importantly, Chad is really interested in their background, their history, how did they get into the industry? What was their training? What are they finding success with? And he wants to share that knowledge with other recruiters in other carriers to improve the industry for everyone.  Yajaira’s experience of becoming a driver recruiter is all too common in the industry - she had no trucking experience prior to becoming a recruiter instead of being given specific training, she learned on the job sitting side by side with somebody, picking up their information.  “I think that's how a lot of carriers train, right, sit next to this person, listen to them, then do what they did. There's flaws with that kind of training.” From getting into driver recruiting with no background in trucking, to receiving dedicated recruiter training, learning the best practices for driver retention, and how to recruit remotely, download and listen to this latest episode today.  “Together with Kelly, a driver retention solution, they helped us immensely with hiring drivers, a day to day kind of thing and how to keep our drivers and [how to] work within ourselves and individually.” What you’ll learn about in this episode: Hiring driver retention solution specialists   The math piece of driver recruiting The driver recruiting spreadsheet The driver needs and wants The closing technique Being a remote recruiter How to connect with Yajaira Martin: https://www.unlimitedcarrier.com/