Have you heard? Technicians are leaving faster than field service workforces can replace them. Trucking companies are faced with a shortage the likes of which they faced during the hay day of economic activity just a couple short years ago. But now it isn’t truck drivers they are worried about finding, it is shop technicians.
The thing is, we live in a new age. Today’s truck drivers have different needs and responses. This is all about what people refer to has “Millennial hiring.” To keep up with economic growth and customer demand, trucking companies must explore other talent pools and get creative when it comes to replacing retiring technicians.
Whether or not a fleet succeeds will depend on how well they seek out workers in unexplored and innovative places. If new, skilled technicians can be added to the team, trucking companies will have more flexibility to set their prices and choose which jobs they want to accept. When they don’t operate this way, fleets will be shorthanded and forced to charge higher prices, without reaping additional profits. This is a lose-lose situation.
What Should You Do?
The fact is, for trucking companies in the modern era, survival and success requires a serious rethinking of the kind of people that should be hired. Yet, that is only a part of the problem. Finding qualified technicians to fill workforce gaps is only half the battle. The people you hire must also be the right fit for a rapidly evolving industry.
The world is changing, and the data shows that. Consider the following:
- A full fifty-two percent of service organizations list soft skills as the most important things they look for when they are out recruiting. These include basic people skills and emotional intelligence.
- Eighty percent of technical experts in the field services industry believe that artificial intelligence (AI) enhances workforce skills and efficiency. What does this mean for your trucking company? That new recruits must be flexible and ready to adapt to new technologies.
- There is value in blended workforces. Trucking companies using this approach utilize the knowledge of retiring baby boomers to help train new millennial recruits. Solid coaching programs come from these pairings.
Technicians are now seen as trusted experts and become the face of the brand. The good news is that learning how to successfully engage new technicians is not an insurmountable challenge. Fleets must respond by learning to understand what millennials want.
Here is an exercise. Have you ever looked up your particular trucking company on Glassdoor? Did you even know there was a website called Glassdoor? Millennials are very familiar with that site, so if you’re not doing anything to control or manage it, you should be. It could be that your company name is being trashed on the internet because you aren’t properly paying attention to
While you can’t control what past employees say about your company, you do get the opportunity to respond to and address their comments. You should take the time to have a look at what employees are saying and attempt to reach out if there is any way to address or rectify the situation.
Are You Marketing the Brand?
The days are long gone when people used job boards alone. The younger generation does their due diligence. What are they going to look at? Your company’s website and social media feeds, of course. And the numbers don’t lie. Nearly two-thirds of millennials state that they visit company social media sites to obtain job information. This is how they learn if your company is a good fit for them.
Even more, trucking companies that are active, with a solid social media presence and a full digital marketing effort are 58% more likely to attract top talent. How active you are on social media also impacts how your employees view the organization. One out of every five employees report they are more likely to stay with a company that is engaged on social media.
It is critical to pay attention to the mood of the job market. A full third of millennials 33% believe that employers should enhance the livelihoods of employees. It should be a two-way street. A full fifty-six percent of millennials say “the people they work with” is the top workplace attribute that enables them to do be their best and turn in their best work. In the end, it is the people more than the actual work.
Smart trucking companies market the good things about their brand. In fact, showing how well your company takes care of its employees is one of the most successful ways to recruit millennial technicians. Do you offer things like comprehensive health benefits and vacation time? If so, you need to be trumpeting these efforts to potential recruits.
Do you offer professional development opportunities or comprehensive career ladders or career path options? If so, market your business with those initiatives front and center. Millennial workers also want to see that you are involved in your community and support social causes. From team building activities to safety and recognition programs, you want to talk about it all.
Once in the Door
It is great to have benefits that make employees happy. Marketing them properly is even better. The best is when you practice what you preach. Once in the door, what should your new truck drivers and other employees expect? Let’s start with the most basic motivation: Money.
Over half of millennials surveyed said earning a high salary was important to them. Trucking and field service companies that pay their technicians well are more likely to attract new technicians looking for a reputable company to work with. More workers are interested in hybrid pay structures. What are these? They are essentially pay schemes that offer both base pay plus incentives. This offers your workers income stability while rewarding extra effort
There are different ways trucking companies can approach this type hiring. First thing organizations do is financially incentivize technicians with team goals for billable hours. When a team hits their collective goal, each person on the team is rewarded based their contribution to the result.
Of course, it also goes beyond salary. Salary is not the sole motivator for millennials, but it does matter. If your company can offer attractive opportunities and competitive pay, you will likely see overall costs decrease for recruiting and marketing. In the end, as these costs drop, your bottom-line balances out.
Your trucking company should think outside the box. Do you have safety days where you highlight good driving behavior and reward the best operators? You should gather some videos that show positive events, then you can highlight good behavior.
From Beginning to End
Helping your workers start off right leaves a positive first impression. Almost two-thirds of newly hired employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding. From the moment they walk into the door through their initial training, companies need to pay special care to the first impression.
Guess what? New employees are more likely to stay if they go through a structured onboarding program. The least you can do is provide them with one. Even better, you will benefit from greater new hire productivity, which is observed when an organization has a standard onboarding process in place for them.
Next, you want to consider how much you have invested in ongoing development and technician training. It should be no great secret that continuous learning motivates your technicians and retains your best workforce. Nearly hundred percent of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development. People want to get paid, but they also want to gain new skills and knowledge.
Most technicians would agree that they would spend more time learning if their direct manager required them to complete a specific course. Out of most of the companies surveyed, “product repair and troubleshooting” is listed as their highest priority when it comes to training technicians. And they want to be rewarded for the good work they do. Managers should provide validation and positive reinforcement when necessary.
But really, while the technical aspects are important, the most successful fleets can build a culture that technicians feel they have a real stake in. When employees not only believe in the company and its policies but feel connected to those they work with very day, they are much more likely to stay for the long-haul.