3 Ways To Recruit and Retain Drivers: Employee Experience, Engagement & Branding

Increasing demand, a shortage of supply, and low engagement are three of the biggest challenges when it comes to hiring and keeping hold of drivers in the transport and logistics industry.

In this article, I’ll look at how a focus on the three Es – employer branding, employee engagement, and employee experience – can help with the recruitment and retention of drivers, with quick tips on each one.

Employer branding – standing out to attract drivers

As our global economy gets more interconnected by the second, demand for drivers shows no signs of slowing down. However, there is a chronic shortage of qualified drivers in the industry, which has been exacerbated by changes in workers’ expectations, lower than average levels of engagement, and high turnover rates.

Employer branding is how you attract (and to a lesser but still important extent, retain) people to come and work for your company. You do this by being clear about who you are as an organization (your purpose, culture, values, etc.) and how this makes you unique and different from your competition.

In an industry struggling to recruit drivers, having a clear and compelling message to job seekers is not a nice to have – it’s essential. Building a strong employer brand will significantly help you to:

• Raise awareness of job opportunities at your company 
• Attract qualified and culture-fit candidates 
• Help you stand out from the crowd
• Reduce your time and cost to hire 
• Keep your drivers engaged and productive
• Raise your overall corporate reputation

So, how do you do it? Well, it means majoring on those topics that you know are most important to drivers, especially those that have rocketed in importance in the last few years, for example:

• Work-life balance 
• Diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing 
• Supportive working environment
• Flexible scheduling options
• Job satisfaction
• Competitive salary 
• Good benefits

Now, it’s one thing to create an employer brand, it’s another to deploy it successfully. For your employer brand to be effective, you need to make sure that you know where your target candidates are. You need to be thinking about:

• What channels are drivers and potential drivers using to find out about opportunities? 
• Is your organization present on those channels? 
• If, for example, drivers are using a specific social media channel to search for jobs, do you have a presence, content, and resources ready to engage with them on there? 
• How does your recruitment process and candidate experience reflect your employer brand?

Creating and managing your employer brand is the only way you will sustainably attract and retain enough of the right people to grow your business and evolve or enhance your culture. In an industry facing an extreme shortage of skills, this one is a no-brainer.

Quick tip

Get your people to help you build your employer brand by asking them: What makes us a great company to work for? What are our unique cultural characteristics, benefits, and advantages that we offer?

Employee engagement – keeping your people happy at work

The transportation and logistics industry has one of the lowest engagement levels – with just 28% of employees feeling engaged at work. And 18% are actively disengaged, which means they’re unhappy, unmotivated, and unproductive, and their behavior is likely to be having a corrosive effect on team and organizational morale. 

There are many reasons for these eye-opening numbers – from long and unsociable working hours to a highly competitive job market where drivers are in high demand. The key to retaining them is employee engagement, which is a result of a combination of rational and emotional connections to your organization. 

The rational bond is formed by factors such as: 

• Pay
• Benefits 
• Clarity on role and responsibilities
• Communication 

These are hygiene factors, but must be in place for employees to feel engaged. The emotional connection can be less tangible, but is influenced by: 

• Working conditions 
• Organizational purpose and values.
• Wellbeing – physical, mental, and emotional 

To keep your drivers engaged, it’s essential that you focus on both sides simultaneously. For example, you can start by looking at:

• Listening – How are you gathering feedback on what your drivers think about working at your organization? You can do focus groups, interviews, anonymous surveys – there are so many quick and low-costs ways to get this data.
• Communication – What channels do you have to communicate with your drivers? How are you encouraging two-way feedback on these channels? How are you measuring the effectiveness of these channels? 
• Line manager communication training – How are your line managers trained to communicate with your drivers? What more support do they need?

Regular communication and feedback can identify driver concerns early, ensure they feel listened to and their views acted upon, and improve the flow of information throughout your organization. This will significantly boost engagement. If you add in regular recognition and other engagement-focused activities, this will reduce turnover rates even further. 

Every piece of research on this topic (such as this one) reveals the same core message – increasing engagement fuels higher productivity, reduces attrition, and improves business performance. That’s why it remains a high priority for CEOs the world over. 

Employee engagement is not fluffy, or something owned by HR. Everyone in your organization has a role to play in it. Having spent a lot of time, money, and energy to attract drivers, you need to focus just as much attention on their engagement if you want to keep hold of them. This would be true in any market, but in today’s world of high demand and short supply, it’s imperative that you look after your own. 

Quick tip

Listening is the key to employee engagement. Talk to your drivers on an ongoing basis, understand what they really need and value, and act based on what they say. Get that right, and your retention numbers will increase (as well as your top line).

Employee experience – delivering on the moments that matter

It may seem like employee experience (EX) has appeared out of nowhere on the corporate priority list in the last couple of years. In truth, it is a natural extension to much of the employee engagement work that was going on pre-pandemic, and has exploded since. 

EX is a broad term, but its intent is to capture in a holistic way the end-to-end journey that your employees go on before, during, and after their time with your company. To ensure that experience is as consistent, positive, and sustainable as possible, forward-thinking companies in this space are focusing on what’s commonly known as ‘moments that matter’. 

These are critical junctures in the employee lifecycle that provide an opportunity to send a powerful message about what it’s like to work at your company. 

For drivers in the transport and logistics industry, these moments could be:

• Onboarding 
• Performance review
• Training and development opportunities 

When deciding what area of EX you want to start with, it’s important to do your research. For example: 

• Ask your drivers what their biggest pain points about working for you are
• Review the feedback 
• Assess your next steps based on your resources. Where can you have the biggest impact with the budget and people you have? 
• Prioritize making small, incremental, tangible improvements in one area at a time
• Continuously ask for feedback, and course correct if you need to

If you think EX doesn’t matter, think again. It now figures highly on what candidates in all industries are looking for, with one survey reporting that 77% said EX is a deciding factor. 

That shouldn’t be a surprise. Drivers want to work for an employer with a positive, collaborative culture, which values their skills, listens to their views, and gives them job satisfaction. If you deliver this type of EX, then these drivers are more likely to stay with your company, and act as ambassadors in the job market. 

Employee advocacy and word of mouth can significantly reduce your recruitment costs, while also increasing your chances of hiring talent that will be a good fit with your organizational culture and values.

Quick tip

Use what you already have. You will be sitting on plenty of existing data from surveys, exit interviews etc. about what your drivers would like you to improve. Pick out the key themes, check back in with your drivers, and co-create your EX strategy and plan with them so they feel heard and have a sense of ownership for making it better – both of which will increase your chances of success.

Mastering the three Es with Workvivo

Standing out from the crowd, keeping your drivers happy, and building a work environment they love have never been more important. Employer brand, employee engagement, and employee experience are a powerful interconnected, reinforcing trio that, used in combination, can massively help you recruit and retain drivers in today’s ever-tightening market. 

That’s where an employee app like Workvivo, a mobile-first solution that’s accessible to workers wherever they are – makes all the difference. Book your demo to learn more.