The more an individual can picture working for your company, the more exciting your recruiting efforts will seem to others.” - Shane Keller
Finding reliable and loyal talent to work for a business is a struggle for any industry, and the stakes are even higher when talking about the trucking industry. Companies are looking to recruit younger drivers to replace their outgoing workers. Several industry subject matter experts offer their advice on how to optimize driver recruiting results.
has connected more than 50,000 professional drivers with Fortune 1000 and mid-sized companies since its founding in 1975. According to the company’s annual State of the Trucking Survey, 72% of employers last year said they’re having a harder time recruiting drivers, according to Managing Director of Recruiting Shane Keller.
“That’s a significant increase from the previous year, when only 57% said they were having a hard time,” Keller says. “We learned during that survey that the problem may really lie in a lack of outside-the-box thinking. Less than 25% of companies surveyed reported doing anything creative when it came to recruiting drivers. Even among those 25% seem to be doing kind of the same old things.”
“A large part of that has to do with the length of the process, and the time to hire that carriers have in keeping drivers interested and engaged during that process as well,” Jewell says. “On the process side of things, I always recommend at least monthly sitting down and looking at what your process is from a driver’s perspective and being a little bit more empathetic there.”
The way drivers are drawn into the industry has to change. Strategies for engagement initiatives have evolved over time. Jewell says Fusion Now is taking the approach of telling stories to highlight driver efforts and offer them more acknowledgment for their successes.
“һƷ̽ 90% of companies are going to say that they have industry leading pay, or that they treat drivers like a family member. That’s something that drivers have been fed for their entire career, even dating back to when truckstops were very popular for recruiting purposes,” Jewell says. “Instead of carriers really highlighting what those benefits are… they should let their driver’s success sell the position for them.”
Jewell mentions sharing pictures, videos, interviews, and celebrating the success of drivers based upon what companies have to offer is a new and creative way to grab potential drivers’ attention.
“If you do have industry-leading pay…show that a driver just purchased their first home because they’ve been driving with you for six months,” she says. “Show an example of where you’ve treated the driver like a family and really bring that home because if a consumer, or in this case a driver, is going to apply for a position…they’re going to see and want to see why that’s going to affect them and how that’s going to affect them.”
“The more an individual can picture working for your company, the more exciting your recruiting efforts will seem to others,” adds Keller and suggests that non-traditional demographics can provide additional sources of candidates.
“As you’re positioning your advertising, think about who’s in your ads,” Keller says. “Use a variety of genders, use a variety of nationalities, use whatever diversity representation you can that will generate the candidates you’re looking for. This helps everyone see themselves at your company.”
This article was originally featured in Edition 1 of 2023 in our official magazine, Redefining The Road. Download the latest edition here.
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