In Truck Driver Recruiting, Print Advertising Is Alive And Well.

June 19, 2013

photo
Why Rumors Of Its Death Are Greatly Exaggerated 

As we saw in last week’s post, the exodus in recent years among recruiters to interactive and mobile advertising is nothing short of a media-spending revolution—and one that’s delivered, for any number of companies, unprecedented success. Nevertheless, to conclude that print is a medium that’s outlived its place in your own media budget would be a serious mistake.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Consider, for instance, these statistics provided by David Guthrie: Among the 750 truck stops that carry Randall Reilly’s publications, the average number of truck drivers visiting each month is 18,000 to 20,000. Moreover, among their seven or eight primary publications, pickup rates average 85 to 90%.

“As long as drivers have to stop for gas, print advertising is going to be effective for recruiters. For one reason, because those publications are free. When drivers are seriously looking for job, it’s not uncommon for them to grab a copy of every available publication.”

DON’T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS…
Joel Holliday, who represents Randall Reilly’s interactive offerings, is himself a huge supporter of print. “Look, it benefits me personally for people to spend their money with my properties, but I’ve seen companies drop their print advertising, and go from 400 to 500 calls a month to nearly zero. A smart media buy has both.”

PRINT’S INDISPUTABLE ADVANTAGE
Target Media Partner’s Meg Larcinese, a former ad agency media planning supervisor, first points to the medium’s one indisputable advantage: Print enables companies to deliver a complete brand message—incorporating copy and images in dimensions that simply aren’t available with job boards and mobile. It creates a stronger sense of involvement with the reader.

“Not only that, print demands more personal commitment in the response it generates. Think about it: Plenty of job boards enable drivers to broadcast an application to dozens of companies with a single click. When a driver sees your ad in print, then picks up the phone to call, they’re making a genuine commitment to you.

“And if an ad leads someone to visit your website or landing page, your time with them during that visit is yours exclusively. That’s why our print publications are still flying off the racks every month.” As a side note, Larcinese points-out how much easier it is to save pages out of a publication than it is to bookmark multiple online ads—particularly on a cell phone.

STAYING POWER
Which is exactly what has made Ken Schaffer’s Pocket Card Networks such an effective buy for so many recruiters. “Like the name says, our cards literally fit in a driver’s pocket. Or in their wallet. Because of that, drivers tend to keep those cards longer.

“As a result, we routinely hear from clients making hires off cards we’d placed for them three to six months earlier. You’re certainly not going to get that kind of long-term benefit from job boards or mobile.”

Granted, there are still recruiters out there who’ll tell you print simply doesn’t work—to which I’d respond: Maybe the problem isn’t the medium, but the message. After all, if you tell a joke and nobody laughs, it could be that your joke just isn’t funny.


FOR FURTHER READING

Driver Recruiting Ads Should Focus On What Matters To Truckers

Better Branding Maximizes Truck Driver Recruiting

What Do O.B. Tampons Have To Do With Truck Driver Recruiting?

Leave a Comment » | Advertising, Branding, Communications, Driver Recruitment, Media Advertising | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Truck Driver Recruiting: Four Tips For Boosting Referrals

May 14, 2013

Create an effective referral pipeline by making your drivers believers.

It All Starts With Effective Messaging.
Selling a qualified candidate on your company is the end goal of any recruiting interaction. If your message isn’t compelling enough, you’re losing sales.

Yes, each driver has his or her own unique perspective on the company. But every driver should be aware of, and believe, your core selling points. And those points should be listed on the referral cards your drivers carry.

Four Steps To A More Effective Referral Program:

  1. Involve drivers in message development: Have you ever asked your drivers what attracted them to the company, and why they like working with you? You may be surprised what you hear. And if what you hear from your drivers bears scant resemblance to what you (and your recruiters) are telling prospects, you need to change your message.
  2. Make sure you have driver Buy-In: A client of ours once told us Referral Programs were useless, because their drivers were convinced more drivers meant less work for them. The truth was, the company had never effectively communicated the fact that more drivers enabled them to take that many more loads—which meant more work for everybody. We helped them develop convincing communications to that effect—and guess what: Referrals are now the company’s top source of new drivers.
  3. Hold periodic referral contests: Set specific beginning and end dates. Two or three months is a reasonable period. And remember: Prizes and rewards are only part of the formula for success. A genuinely effective referral contest keeps drivers engaged.
  4. Give drivers personalized referral cards. Sure, personalized cards (custom-printed with drivers’ names) cost more than mass-produced cards. But your drivers will  be a lot likelier to hand them out. Which means, in the long run, those cards are a lot likelier to pay for themselves.

Finally: An Important Warning
I hinted at it earlier: Drivers have to believe in the company’s selling points. Which means they have to believe in the company. If you’ve earned a reputation for treating drivers poorly, you don’t need to worry about improving your selling points. You need worry about improving your company. Otherwise, that great referral campaign will just become a pipeline fueling your turnover rate.


For Further Reading:

Driver Recruiting Ads Should Focus On What Matters To Truckers

How To Competitively Recruit Truck Drivers Without Appearing Negative

4 Ways Oakley Maximizes Driver Recruiting AND Retention

2 Comments | Branding, Communications, Driver Incentives, Driver Recruitment, Driver Referrals, Driver Retention, Recruiters | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Better Branding Maximizes Truck Driver Recruiting

April 11, 2013

branding_iron

A compelling brand strategy is the most cost-effective weapon you can have in your driver recruiting arsenal.

Ever ask yourself how Apple can charge $1500 for a $750 laptop? Because it’s worth it to the people who buy them. That’s the power of a great brand. Ever ask yourself why the typical self-respecting Southerner would sooner take a bullet than serve Pepsi at a party? Because it’s not Coke. That’s the power of a great brand.

So how can you ensure that your brand is as strong as it can be, and effectively supporting your company’s recruiting goals?

Start With A Thorough Brand Review.
A brand is a lot more than the slogan of the month. It’s who you are, from your people to your service processes. It’s what comes into people’s minds when they think of your company or product. So what comes to mind when people think about you? It’s a good question to start the ball rolling. And don’t just ask yourself that question. Ask others.

Develop A Positioning Statement And Brandline.
Your positioning statement (or elevator pitch) should reflect the central benefits your company offers a driver or team. And a memorable, strategically-sound brandline (IE, Apple: Think Different.) can serve as the foundation for all of your marketing communications.

Make The Necessary Internal Adjustments.
If your brand review indicates others perceive you differently from how you perceive yourself (or how you hope others perceive you), simply re-working you brand message is only the start. You’ll also need to make changes in the company itself.

Be Consistent.
Once you’ve identified all the necessary changes, you’ll need to deploy your new brand strategy through all your communications channels. Driver recruiting ads are important. But they’re only part of a truly effective plan—which should encompass everything from your Social Media strategy to the way your recruiters handle incoming calls.

Stick With It.
Study after study has demonstrated that businesses who maintain a consistent advertising investment average significantly higher sales growth than those who don’t. The same applies to driver recruitment. Particularly during recessions. After all, if your competitors are cutting their ad budgets, what better time to reach-out to their drivers and prospects?

Think of it this way: If you’re in a room with 20 people talking at once, all you hear is noise. But if 19 go silent, suddenly the one person who’s still talking can be heard loud and clear. Now that’s taking advantage of opportunity.

FOR FURTHER READING:

3 Tips For Making Your Driver Recruiters’ Calls More Effective

Recruiters: Is your company keeping the promises you’re making?

Three Lessons From MATS For Truck Driver Recruiting

Leave a Comment » | Advertising, Branding, Communications, Driver Recruitment, Social Media, Trade Shows | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by francishare

How NOT To Recruit Owner Operator Drivers (Part 1)

March 19, 2013

Truck Driver in Semi Truck

Six Tips From Three Experts

It’s no secret that recruiting Owner Operators is harder than ever. By some industry estimates, the total number of Owner Operators in the market is 1/3 what it was just before the recession began in 2008.

Not only that, says CareersInGear.com’s Carol Gibson, Owner Operators are less likely to switch companies now than they were just last year. “Freight’s good for Owner Operators now, so why would they leave—particularly if they’re with companies who took care of them when freight was down?”

Which made me think that now might be a good time to ask a few experts (including yours truly) for specific lessons they’ve learned—either from others, or from experience—in recruiting Owner Operators over the years.


FRANCIS HARE - TalkingTruckers.com

1)  Don’t underestimate the challenge. You have to invest more to attract Owner Operators than you do to recruit Company Drivers. Particularly if you’re just now entering the Owner Operator market. That starts with developing a powerful brand message that sets you apart from the competition. A message that’s communicated consistently, from your print and online ads to the “talking points” your recruiters use during telephone interviews.

If your brand isn’t well-established, the only way to overcome that disadvantage in the short term is with a truly superior offer, IE: Significantly higher pay or sign-on bonuses; or maybe an especially competitive Lease Purchase program. And don’t even think about recruiting Owner Operators without a solid referral program.

2)  Don’t change your message in mid-stream. One of the most important reasons to think through your messaging strategy is because it takes time to establish that message in the market.

Common ad-world wisdom holds that someone has to see your message three times before it sinks in—so if you change your message, it’s like starting over from scratch. Particularly with online job boards—where every content change drops you down the queue in maximizing your job posts’ prominence on the web, and frequent changes will pretty much keep you stuck at the back of the line.

Bottom line: Develop a strong selling message and offer. Then give it enough time to start working. And don’t panic if it doesn’t generate immediate results. You’ll only make the situation worse.


JEFF GRAY - Randall Reilly

3)  Don’t limit your advertising to one medium. Different generations access information differently. While there’s been a decided movement in spending toward online job boards, Gray notes that the truck driving population is aging. “The youngest Boomers will be 50 by the end of 2004, and studies clearly indicate that older drivers (who are typically not computer savvy) are much more apt to seek job info from print sources.”

4)  Don’t under-spend on your ad budget. Gray notes that when Randall launched the Owner Operator Network in 2011, the company committed a huge investment in search advertising to reach Owner Operators. “And remember,” Gray says, “that was two years ago, when the pool of Owner Operators was larger than it is now.”


JEREMY KELLETT - Oakley Trucking

5)  Don’t “sell”. More importantly, don’t over-sell. No company is right for every driver, says Kellett—so it’s important to determine first if there’s a good match between a prospect and your company. “If you try to make an opportunity sound better than it really is, or if you try to place a driver in a position he won’t like, you’ll end-up losing that driver. And you’ll probably hurt your reputation in the process.”

6)  Don’t expect to hire drivers on the first call. Hiring Owner Operators is like any business sales cycle, Kellet notes: It takes multiple contacts. “It’s a process of building a relationship, and mutual trust—and that takes time.” Conversely, Kellett cautions against hiring drivers who are ready to start work with you immediately. “Whenever we hear from a caller like that, a red flag goes up. And we almost always find-out there’s a good reason we were suspicious in the first place.” 

COMING SOON: PART TWO

FOR FURTHER READING:
Five Steps For Recruiting Owner Operator Truck Drivers

Better Branding Maximizes Truck Driver Recruiting Effectiveness

4 Ways Oakley Maximizes Driver Recruiting And Retention

2 Comments | Advertising, Benefits, Branding, Communications, Driver Incentives, Driver Pay, Driver Recruitment, Driver Referrals, Driver Retention, Media Advertising, Owner Operators, Recruiters, SEO | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Three Lessons From MATS For Truck Driver Recruiting

January 24, 2013

Image courtesy truckingshow.com

Recruiting is still about establishing relationships, and the most effective recruiting combines new solutions with old truths.

My yearly experience at MATS always confirms something I’ve said about the trucking business for about two decades now: There’s no industry or profession where people are more consistently, and genuinely, friendly. Which leads to my first, and most important, point:

1. Being Friendly Is Not Enough.
I know that sounds obvious to folks who’ve seen longtime drivers switch companies for what amounts to a few extra bucks a week. But my point is this: When you’re competing against organizations whose people are every bit as friendly and persuasive as yours, your brand is all you have to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Let’s put it this way: If I’m being perfectly honest, there really is little difference between Coke and Pepsi. So why would the typical self-respecting Southerner (like myself) take a bullet before serving Pepsi at a party? Because it’s not Coke. That’s the power of branding. And from the look of most booth displays and marketing materials I see at MATS, very few trucking companies fully understand the power that a well-defined brand (and brand message) can have in recruiting.

2. Technology Is Not Always The Answer.
There’s a reason the leading publishing companies have embraced online marketing as an extension of their traditional print magazines: It works. And its effectiveness is only going to grow as time passes. The same goes for social media—which, if some pundits are to believed, could ultimately become the single most powerful medium for effective recruiting.

Yes, PPC search-marketing, job boards, click-through banners and social media can be extremely effective tactics for attracting good candidates. But those tactics rarely ever close a deal for you. That takes person-to-person contact. Somebody on the phone speaking the same language as a driver—and asking for the sale.

Again, that seems like a pretty obvious point. So how do you explain recruiting departments who deal with incoming calls by directing drivers to their online application forms. “Why in the world,” a longtime veteran once asked me, “would you send someone to a website, when you have them on the phone?”

3. Recruiters Need To Be Recruiting.
After all, recruiting is what recruiters do best. So why are so many recruiters spending large chunks of their valuable time creating and managing their ad campaigns? “It costs less.” A claim to which I would responded, “Yep, and it costs less to buy fabric and sew your own suits. But if you’re looking for a job on Wall Street, that ain’t gonna cut it .”

Not only that, when you consider the percentage of a recruiter’s salary that’s lost on those activities, some companies are actually spending more to produce pathetic creative work (and make terribly-inefficient media investments) than they’d pay to have professionals do it right.

To summarize:

  • Define what makes you different. Clearly, compellingly and professionally.
  • Never forget what’s really important.
  • Focus on what you do best.
  • Spend wisely.

And yes, keep being friendly. Outside of keeping our nation’s economy rolling, it’s the one thing no industry does better.


For Further Reading:

Leave a Comment » | Advertising, Branding, Digital Marketing, Driver Recruitment, Trade Shows | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by francishare

What Can College Football Teach Us About Recruiting Truck Drivers?

January 8, 2013

EDITOR’S NOTE, JANUARY 8, 2013: After last night’s BCS game, I
thought the following article—originally published November,
2011—might be worth re-posting. Hope you enjoy it!

Build recruiting success on your organization’s greatest strengths—starting with great recruiters.

For an easy example of how two decidedly different programs recruit with success, let’s consider the University of Alabama and its cross-state rival, Auburn.

Alabama: Star Quality, Brand Recognition.
It’s no secret among knowledgeable football fans that the Crimson Tide’s coaching staff is a 12-man, turbocharged recruiting machine. But to the casual fan, the face of Alabama Football today is Nick Saban. That’s star quality. The kind that, all by itself, attracts star players.

That said, it’s no coincidence that Saban has enjoyed his greatest career success at Alabama. Why? Speaking strictly in terms of Brand Identity, because it’s Alabama: the program which, with its 1926 Rose Bowl victory over Washington, put Southern football on the map. And which has claimed 13 additional national championships since then.

Simply stated, the Alabama mystique is why some of college football’s best players have always played for the Tide. Even when it posted a 4–24–2 record from 1955 to 1957 under “Ears” Whitworth, Alabama managed to recruit a Hall Of Famer by the name of Bart Starr. That’s brand power.

Auburn: It’s A Family Affair.
Truth is, Auburn may never command Alabama’s mystique on a national level. Yet for the past three years, head coach Gene Chizik has scored several notable victories in head-to-head recruiting battles with Saban. His staff has hauled-in three straight Top Ten recruiting classes by consistently focusing their pitch on the program’s greatest attraction: The Auburn Family tradition.

My daughter is a Senior at Auburn, and I can tell you from personal experience that there truly is a family atmosphere at Auburn that you won’t find at Alabama. That means a lot to some players. Including at least two of the best who’ve ever played the game—Bo Jackson and Cam Newton.

So What’s Your Company’s Single Greatest Strength?
That’s where you need to focus your core recruiting message. If  (for instance) you’re considered among the industry’s elite, say it with pride. And make sure your messaging, and the quality of your marketing materials—from your print ads to your website—genuinely reflects your brand. If you produce anything that’s less than first-rate, you’re doing your organization—and your brand—a serious disservice.

Maybe you’re more of a family-oriented company. If so, make sure your recruiting, and your messaging, reflects that attitude. Particularly in the way your recruiters deal with prospects on a personal level—from the friendly tone of their voice during phone calls to the personalized wording of follow-up messages after calls.

But no matter what your company’s strength is, hire great recruiters: The kind of professionals who live and breathe the job. Because at the end of the day, they’re the ones who convert prospects into hires.

JANUARY, 2013 POST-SCRIPT
Auburn’s disastrous 2012 season (they went 3-9 just two years after winning the national championship), should offer us all another extremely important recruiting lesson: No matter how much you need drivers, and no matter how well your closest competitors are doing, you can’t compromise on character. That’s pretty much what happened at Auburn: They recruited a lot of super-talented athletes with bad attitudes, bad habits and bad character—and it ultimately cost Chizik his job, and Auburn fans one of the worst seasons in that proud program’s history.

For Further Reading:

Build On Your Strengths To Improve Truck Driver Recruiting

What’s Brand Got To Do With Truck Driver Recruiting? Everything.

Truck Driver Recruiting: Speaking To The Wives

Three Lessons Learned From MATS 2011 For Truck Driver Recruiting

What the Super Bowl Teaches Us About Truck Driver Recruiting Ads

Leave a Comment » | Branding, Driver Recruitment, Recruiters | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Build Your Facebook Following For Truck Driver Recruiting.

September 26, 2012

How One Small Company Made A Big Splash In Social Media.

(Photo from Baggett’s Facebook albums)

Now in its third generation, Birmingham’s Baggett Transportation is a family-owned company specializing in military transport. When Director of Recruiting Daniel Buckhannan joined Baggett in mid-2011, he knew he wanted to increase the company’s Facebook following; he just wasn’t quite sure how. That’s where his agency came in.

Where To Begin? Where Else?
“The agency had already done an exceptional job of re-establishing Baggett’s brand identity in the driver market, so their first piece of advice was: Whatever we do, it has to be true to the company brand.”

Why?

1) Your brand is, by definition, what comes into people’s minds when they think of your company. It’s the foundation on which you build loyalty, with everyone from drivers and customers to office employees.

2) Social is the place where your company should engage fans and drivers in open conversations—not tin-eared sales pitches.

3) Any conversations you initiate, or (much worse) tin-eared sales pitches you make that are inconsistent with your core brand will ultimately weaken loyalty to your brand—and, therefore, to your company.

In short, the most effective Facebook pages consistently speak with a voice that matches their company brand. Which is why (to use an extreme example) promoting a daily diet of Colt 45 and primo weed is perfectly consistent with your brand if you’re Snoop Dogg, not Justin Bieber.

Baggett’s Brand: Family Oriented, Military Pride.
“We knew we wanted a campaign that would boost our fan base and strengthen our brand identity,“ Buckhannan continues, “and our agency came-up with a perfect strategy: For every new person who Liked us, we contributed $1 to National Veterans Homeless Support for the 2011 Christmas Holidays.

“We strategically launched our campaign on Veterans Day (November 11)—with the goal of generating 2000 Likes before Christmas. The agency had already helped us build-up a significant fan base over the previous few months [from roughly 39 to 1839], but the results of this campaign were beyond anything we’d anticipated.”

Exceeding Expectations Weeks Ahead Of Schedule.
Baggett reached its goal of 3889 Fans by December 6—less than three weeks after launch, and nearly three weeks ahead of schedule. Just as importantly, during the campaign, Baggett’s “People Talking About” rate averaged nearly 19%. And, Buckhannan notes, the “talk” was overwhelmingly supportive.

To put that 19% rate in perspective, industry blog Social Media Today has said, “A decent ‘People Talking About’ number works out to be anywhere between .5% and 2% of your total fans. More than 2%, and you’re a rock star.”

Strengthening Retention With A Private Page.
Baggett’s latest Social success is a private Facebook group—established in March of 2012, and open only to existing drivers. “So far,” Buckhannan reports, “about 40% of our fleet has joined the group. Driver posts on the page range from friendly small talk to serious discussions of safety rules.”

Since Baggett doesn’t publicly promote the private page, it’s not a draw for attracting new drivers. But it’s certainly proving effective at boosting retention. While the company’s annualized turnover rate for 2012 is roughly half the industry average (47%), turnover among its private Facebook group is an almost-unheard-of 3.5%.

And that’s a number you can deposit in your bank of brand goodwill any day.

2 Comments | Advertising, Branding, Communications, Driver Recruitment, Driver Retention, Facebook, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by francishare

When All Else Fails, Recruit Truck Drivers By Word Of Mouth.

September 19, 2012


For Yarbrough Transfer Company, the most effective driver recruiting campaigns involve word of mouth.

“In fact,” notes Yarbrough Executive Vice President David Yarbrough, “I’d go so far as to say that nothing works for us like word of mouth. We’re in the specialized heavy haul business. Which means that, in addition to their CDL, our drivers also have to be qualified to operate the construction equipment we haul. There are plenty of occasions when there’s nobody on the pickup or delivery sites who can move it.”

Which, needless to say, severely limits Yarbrough’s pool of qualified driver candidates—placing even more pressure on the company’s recruiters.

So What’s The Solution?
You guessed it: Word of mouth. “Our number one source of new hires is the exposure we get from our trucks going up and down the road. The heavy haul community is tight-knit, and most heavy-haul drivers along the East Coast are familiar with Yarbrough Transfer Company. And we support that exposure with a generous referral program for our drivers.”

Why Not Recruit Directly From The Construction Industry?
“We’ve considered that idea,” says VP Sales Mike Chaudron, “but if we recruit drivers from our customers, they’re not going to be our customers any more!”

So maybe the solution for Yarbrough would be to create a referral program for customers—offering them discounts or credits for driver referrals that lead to new hires. I mentioned the idea to Yarbrough and Chaudron, and they thought it might just work.

Long-Term Solution: Think Brand-Wise
At the same time, an effective campaign promoting the company brand would certainly pay long-term dividends in attracting new drivers. And that starts with effectively defining the company brand in a way that resonates with drivers—both existing and prospective.

In any event, the folks at Yarbrough are doing one critical job very well: “We’ve always enjoyed a strong retention rate.” And there’s no better way to recruit drivers than to keep the ones you already have. And that, my friends, is how to build Word Of Mouth.

Get your company profiled in an article! Just send me an email outlining any recruiting and/or retention issues you deal with. CLICK HERE for contact info.

Leave a Comment » | Branding, Communications, Driver Recruitment, Driver Referrals, Driver Retention, Recruiters | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Recruiters: Is your company keeping the promises you’re making?

June 6, 2012


If not, maybe it’s time you were honest with yourself.

What was I doing talking to the Boilermakers Union?
Several years ago, my agency was invited to offer the International Brotherhood Of Boilermakers a proposal for a statewide campaign promoting organized labor in Alabama.

Being Southern, and a business owner, I’d naturally been conditioned to harbor deep suspicions about unions. However, the opportunity was too good to dismiss it outright—so I agreed to an initial meeting with Boilermakers president DeWayne Parker.

What Parker told me in that meeting entirely changed my way of thinking. “We want to help the companies we supply labor to,” he told me. “We want to help them succeed and prosper by delivering value—both in terms of superior skills and a better workplace attitude.”

That certainly didn’t sound like any union I’d ever read about. That was a message we could sell to Alabama businesses. Still, I told him, a PR campaign was doomed to fail unless the entire Union was committed to making the changes needed live-up to those ideals. Without hesitation he replied, “Then that’s exactly what we’ll do.”

Two months later, Parker was soundly defeated in his bid for re-election. And as far as I know, the union never made any of the changes he envisioned.

What’s The Boilermakers Union got to do with driver recruiting?
That experience came to mind recently, after a trucking company invited my agency to analyze its recruiting problems, then offer a plan for addressing those problems. In researching the company, we discovered there was a massive disconnect between its stated mission and the reality drivers were experiencing once they joined the company.

In short, the company wasn’t keeping the promises found in its mission statement, or in its recruitment advertising. Consequently, overall driver turnover was significantly higher than the industry average; among younger drivers, it was literally double the industry average.

Which is why our recommendations focused on what we saw as their top three needs: 1) Making the changes necessary to get the company back in line with its founders’ mission, 2) Realigning its brand promises with reality, wherever organizational changes couldn’t be made, and 3) Elevating the role of Driver Retention to its proper place in supporting Recruiting’s goals. After all, we reasoned, what’s the point of increasing your flow of new recruits if you’re just pouring water into a fishnet?

They knew we were right. They said as much. So what did they decide to do? They implemented a program for increasing the flow of incoming recruits.

Now, I fully understand how important it is to maintain a steady flow of incoming drivers. But the sad truth is, the company simply wasn’t willing to address its real problems, or make the real changes they needed so badly. Changes that certainly involved short-term costs—not to mention pain and suffering—but which would have ultimately led to long-term improvements in the health (and cost-effectiveness) of their recruiting and retention programs.

The sadder truth is, that company is far from alone in this industry. So how about you: Is your recruiting campaign making promises your company can’t keep? If so, at the very least, you need to change one of two things: Your promise, or your company. For best long-term results, I’d recommend taking a good long look at changing both.

2 Comments | Advertising, Branding, Communications, Dispatchers, Driver Recruitment, Driver Retention, Recruiters | Permalink
Posted by francishare

Recruiters: Is Your Agency Taking You For Granted?

May 18, 2012


If you asked me, all too often the answer is Yes.

In the years since my firm has been serving the trucking industry, I’ve talked with a lot of recruiters who were referred to me by friends and contacts. Referrals which, more often than not, included some variation on this suggestion: “You should call them because they’re not happy with their agency.”

I honestly can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had that sounded a lot, or entirely, like this:

Do you and the agency regularly review your numbers together?
—No.

When was the last time they made adjustments to your plan?
—Months ago.

Are they aware that your numbers are way down in the past few months?
—Yes.

And they haven’t suggested any adjustments?
—No

Tell me about your Social Media strategy.
—We don’t have one.

How does your turnover compare to the industry average?
—It’s actually a lot higher.

So what steps has your agency suggested to help you bring that down?
—We’ve never talked about retention.

I notice the website they did for you doesn’t really say anything about what makes your company unique.
—No, I guess it doesn’t.

Why not?
—They’ve never really explored what makes us unique.

Have they ever interviewed any of your drivers, to determine your strengths and weaknesses in recruiting and retention?
—No.

So how do they determine the strategy and content of your messaging?
—That pretty much comes from me.

(And finally, the pièce de résistance—which, admittedly, I’ve heard only once): Who’s your account rep at the agency?
—I don’t know.

Friends, if you have the same answer to any one of the questions above, your agency is not doing everything it can to support your recruiting goals. Granted, there are often legitimate reasons for that; for starters, you may be handling a lot of those responsibilities in house.

But if your agency relationship sounds a lot like the conversation above, and they have more than a bare-bones budget to work with, chances are you’re being taken for granted. In which case, there’s no two ways about it: you’re not getting your money’s worth. That’s wrong.

One of our long-time clients had virtually the same experience with their previous agency. (Click Here if you’d like to read about it). Needless to say, they saw a need for change, and they made it.

So if your agency relationship sounds a lot like the conversation above, here’s my question: Why haven’t you made a change?

Leave a Comment » | Advertising, Branding, Communications, Driver Incentives, Driver Recruitment, Driver Retention, Media Advertising, Recruiters, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by francishare

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