Check Out This Tip for Hiring and Keeping Quality Drivers for Trucking

Driver shortages. High turnover rates. These issues are making it increasingly difficult for carriers to hire and maintain drivers. Many companies find themselves in a constant time-consuming and expensive hiring cycle to keep their vehicles on the road. 

Companies have approached this issue by raising their pay and / or offering sign-on bonuses. This may be attractive to drivers, but it’s not always enough to keep quality driving employees for the long haul. Currently, this is becoming less of a perk, and more of an expected piece of the onboarding package.

Recruiting and retention experts have identified something they feel is much more important when it comes to hiring not only drivers, but employees in virtually field: the ability to empathize with their needs.

Take the time to truly understand your driver’s concerns. By doing so, you’ll be better situated to attract the interest and attention of drivers who are looking for a long-term career. Everybody wants to feel valued, as an employee and as a person.

Position Your Company as People-Centric

If you take any time looking through online job boards, you will find that most job postings focus specifically on the needs of the company – rather than the needs of prospective employees. This information, although necessary to include, can be conveyed more effectively by using different language that resonates with prospects.

When writing your job posting, here are a few things to consider:

• What are the core issues your drivers care about? Compensation, time at home, operations and training are often at the top of this list. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from your current employees. This will not only assist you with your job posting, but will make them feel valued as well. Exit interview data can be very insightful in learning what drivers do, and don’t, like about your company.
• Is the language in your ads reflecting those issues? Your job posting is essentially selling your company to prospective drivers. Keep this in mind when choosing your verbiage, and reflect things that are important to them – particularly home time and quality of life.

Be sure that if you position yourself as people-centric, that you are also embodying those values in your workplace. Ads should do more than just sound good; they should be an honest and accurate reflection of the culture of your company. You want to set proper expectations for prospective drivers about what it will be  like to work for your company. This will go a long way towards keeping them on board for years to come.

If you have any questions, or need any assistance with your DOT and FMCSA operation, give us a call at 877-352-1996.