By Lancer Insurance

Everyone is talking these days about the problem of driver shortages. It's a very troublesome situation.

Your business operates through your driver force; drivers are your partners in getting and keeping business; drivers are the face of your company to your customers. You work hard to create new business but the driver retains or loses it for you. At the same time, recruiting and retaining qualified, enthusiastic drivers can be a frustrating, often exasperating, experience.

How do you go about finding qualified people to add to your driver force? Often, you begin your search by seeking people who are experienced drivers. But when you rely on experience as the No. 1 qualification, you can miss some potentially talented candidates. You need to devise ways to hire high-quality people with good attitudes, and then teach them to be good drivers. And that involves training.

Tap local resources
Outside resources can be a good source for employees. In many areas, community colleges conduct driver training schools; they train candidates to obtain CDLs and they teach them safe driving. If they are good schools with skilled professionals doing the training, this is a viable option. If you have a school like this near you, speak to the administrators about their training program and how you might be able to help each other. This can be an immense help with your recruiting efforts, and you will no longer be a slave to the "experienced" driver profile you have historically sought.

There are other techniques to help your recruiting. Try using a finder's fee. Pay employees to bring in qualified friends, neighbors and acquaintances. You won't be sorry because, in the majority of these cases, the applicants brought in are pre-screened for you. That should be worth whatever you spend. But you will need to do a couple of things to make a program like this work.

First, the amount of money you pay should be large enough to attract the attention of your employees. After all, they are putting themselves and their reputations at risk, so you need to offer adequate compensation to entice them. Second, you should pay the fee in installments. Pay a portion at the time of hire, and more later -- after the new employee has been successfully on the job for a predetermined amount of time (i.e. 90 days). Finally, you need to give this type of approach time to work. It might take months to get your employees interested and, in the meanwhile, you need to continually promote participation.

If a finder's fee doesn't help right away, recruit from sources that work for you. Where have you found drivers in the past? Are your drivers' full time or part time? Are they local or did you recruit them from distant points? Think about what has worked in the past, and go back to those sources. And don't just blanket your operational area with ads in newspapers; think carefully about who you want working for you, then advertise directly to them.

Vets are excellent candidates
Have you thought about the military as a source of employees? There are many qualified drivers coming out of the military every day -- and most are looking for work. The military runs an outplacement service and it offers you a chance to list your job for review by those coming out of the service. Call your local military base or recruitment center to learn more about this unique opportunity to get your driving jobs filled.

Once you've hired your drivers, your problem becomes retention. Driver turnover is a very serious problem. It will determine whether you spend your day looking for new opportunities or filling holes in your workforce. And it can affect your safety record. New drivers have more crashes. That's a fact. If you always have new drivers coming into your workforce, you'll always have a higher crash rate and the high insurance costs that go along with it.

Once you've gone through the trouble and expense of finding someone, you don't want to lose them. While you can't stop turnover completely, you can affect it, slow it down and, in many cases, significantly minimize the problem. First, understand why people leave. While there may be dozens of reasons, studies have shown that what managers and supervisors view as the reasons are very different from what the drivers themselves describe.

Managers always think it's about money and they attribute turnover to drivers finding other higher paying jobs. But finding higher pay at another job is a result of a job search, not the reason for leaving. Something else put that driver in a state of mind to want to leave, and that is what you have to understand if you want to make an impact on turnover rates.

It's not always money
Drivers leave jobs for the same reasons you would leave a job. It begins with expectations. Is the job they have the same job you described during the interview? Did you explain the rough things about the job? The late hours, multi-day trips, long layovers, or other negatives that hurt attitude and morale? If an employee expects certain things, he or she can handle it better and your credibility doesn't suffer when they learn the truth. So, honesty in interviewing is the first step in cutting turnover because you'll probably avoid hiring someone who is destined to quit.

What are some of the other reasons drivers leave? Every study on turnover points to the Human Resources/Personnel Department issues as critical to keeping employees. Fairness, respect, courtesy, family and lifestyle issues all come into play. Do you have a system in place that maximizes the positives for these driver concerns?

Drivers want to know that you are keeping up with the latest developments in the industry, and that you're helping them do the same. Education helps everyone be better at their job. So make an effort to make those safety meetings and training sessions as relevant, informative and interesting as possible.

Driver recognition pays big dividends
Every employee wants recognition. The simplest and easiest way to single someone out is to say "thank you" for a job well done. A safety recognition and awards program is a terrific way to reward drivers. Don't just hand out awards; create a ceremony around the presentation. Invite the driver recipients' spouse and children, give everyone a meal and give your employee a chance to be in the spotlight for a job well done.

Driver shortages can be addressed. Good recruiting techniques, opening yourself and your company up to training and using your employees as recruiters can all help. To retain drivers, do what you can to increase employee satisfaction with the job. Employ truth in hiring, and try to recognize and meet the ongoing needs of your drivers.

If you put some effort into thinking about how you can better manage this issue, you can put an end to the driver shortage problem dominating the operation of your business.