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“The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
– Colin Powell
Chairman, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1989-93
An Alternative to the Sink-or-Swim Strategy
By Rim Yurkus
The transportation industry press is full of stories about the "truck driver shortage." The focus is on filling vacancies, but the sustainable solution involves much more than that. There is an important issue to consider: the “Sink-or-Swim” strategy of onboarding new drivers by the truckload industry.
On average, it takes about four months before a new driver gives value to a company equal to what the company gives the driver. It takes about eight months before the company's investment in the driver is fully recovered. Yet, truckload carriers lose 60 percent of the drivers they hire before six months. This means that truckload carriers lose money on most of the drivers they hire. Why not consider a change in strategy?
The employer-driver relationship is a treacherous intersection of two volatile ingredients: the job with its opportunities and pitfalls, and the driver with his/her strengths and weaknesses. About 40 percent of the time, the driver's strengths match up with the job opportunities long enough to form a sustainable relationship. About 60 percent of the time, the job's pitfalls collide with the driver's weaknesses before the relationship is strong enough to withstand it.
Knowing this grim statistic, why not first form a game plan to properly manage the relationship in the first 90 days? Here’s how:
1) First impression of your job opportunity.
How do you position yourself in the cluttered marketplace? What are your solid values and what do you use to sizzle? If you use a picture of a beautiful woman in your ad, how is the new guy going to feel when he gets in your tractor and looks over to the passenger seat and sees Harry?
2) Screening out nomads, madmen and desperados.
What are red flags in your evaluation criteria?
Nomads: Drivers who move from job to job every few months. Do you really think your experience will be different?
Madmen: They take a job, something happens, they get mad, they quit. They take another job, something happens, they get mad, they quit again.
Desperados: They might be ducking child support, hiding from creditors, struggling with unsustainable lifestyle habits. How do you avoid hiring them?
3) Managing first impressions.
What do you do before the driver arrives for orientation? What is the meta-message you send and is it congruent? Do you say the environment is clean and professional and then put the driver up in a dirty and run-down place?
Jim Ward, president of D. M. Bowman, Inc., goes to great lengths to meet with new recruits toward the end of their first day. "By late afternoon of their first day, their heads are stuffed with new information, they're tired, and they haven't had time to think or form an opinion yet,” he says. “That's when I like to get in front of them and give them a boost. I try to get to know them and have them get to know me, and that seems to go a long way. Really, it's a small investment that drivers remember for a long time."
4) Expectations exchange.
What are some things you do to avoid early disappointment, bad surprises and misunderstandings? When you rent a car, you initial what conditions you accept and decline. Why not put something in place to avoid surprises? Is filling a vacancy worth having a 30-day employee who is angry, hates you and is driving your truck?
5) First day.
What does the first day look like from the driver's point of view? Mentally, walk through the first day as a driver. What seeds are you planting for the attitude the driver will develop? What is the driver likely feeling at the end of the first day? How do you manage the end of the first day impression?
6) End of the first week.
How does the first week end? What's been done? What are some ideas on how to check in and assure there have been no misunderstandings, disappointments, etc.?
7) 30-day check-in.
What conversations have taken place? How do you handle predictable issues? What is your issue resolution process?
8) 60-day milestone: successful assimilation.
What do you do to increase your chances?
9) 90-day milestone.
How can the relationship keep growing in a positive direction?
10) Cultivating a culture of mutual accountability.
What are some ongoing things we can do to re-enforce the partnership of driver and company?
Greg Koepel, vice president of Workforce Development and Administration, Roehl Transport, says: “We have to actively manage our culture. Whenever we act differently than we speak, we want to be called on it so that we quickly realign our 'walk to our talk'. The fleet manager is core to the relationship between Roehl and the driver, and part of their job description is to tell us when their drivers think we are not living up to our values."
One last question: What would be the economic impact to your bottom line if you changed the six-month (or less) turnover from 60 percent to 40 percent?
Rimas (Rim) Yurkus is president and CEO of Strategic Programs, Inc. (www.strategicprogramsinc.com), a research firm that provides computerized assessments for individuals and organizations. Rim spoke at the January 2007 Truckload Carriers Association's Recruitment and Retention Conference on “A Strategic Approach to Reducing Turnover.” This article is based on a presentation he made during a TCA teleconference in June 2007.
