It’s a tale as old as time in the driver recruiting world: a new driver visits your website, starts an application, may reach out to a current driver or two, and then poof! Disappears into thin air. What went wrong? Where did the driver go? And why did they abandon the position altogether?
Unfortunately, the above scenario is all too common for CDL driver recruiters, especially now as competition has become even fiercer and the race to attract and win top driving talent is at an all-time high. Drivers are likely to abandon the recruiting process at any stage, whether they’ve applied, completed an interview, or are even days away from in-person onboarding.
Here are five common reasons why CDL drivers abandon the recruiting process – and what you can do to help prevent them from going dark.
- Your website doesn’t say why they should drive for you. The first place a new driver will typically look for information about your organization is online. If your website is not entirely optimized for SEO, keywords, and also hitting the big ‘why’ for drivers, then potential drivers will likely move on to greener pastures. Give your website a good once-over to ensure you’re hitting all the high points and optimizing for modern search parameters.
- The actual application is too long or not mobile-friendly. Another common reason drivers abandon the recruiting process is because the application isn’t easy to fill out. If your application includes long free answers, in-depth questions, or requires a printer/scanner for the driver to fill out and send back, then it’s time to re-do things.
- The recruiting process is too tedious. With so much competition in the industry, recruiters don’t have the luxury of a long, drawn-out recruiting process with multiple steps, in-person conversations, and more. Instead, this is the time to make the most of the touchpoints you do have with drivers, such as interviews or the application. This is why every single touchpoint must be optimized for the maximum value on both sides.
- There is too much downtime between touchpoints. However, even if your recruiting process is streamlined, there still needs to be some accountability and follow-up to make sure drivers don’t slip through the cracks. It’s not uncommon for a recruiter to wait too long to follow up, only to reach out and find the driver went with a competitor. Timeliness and transparency are vital to keeping drivers around.
- Your reputation in the industry precedes you. Because drivers have such a big say in where they take their talents, they can afford to be picky with where they drive. This means that if you have a negative reputation in the industry – bad reviews, drivers saying negative things on forums, etc. – it will be hard to get new drivers to stick around. Work with your current drivers to add positive feedback that may offset the negative to get things back on track.
How is your team preventing drivers from going dark during the recruiting process? You can get more CDL driver recruiting tips and tricks from DriverReach here.
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