Over the past year and a half, driver recruiters have become increasingly open to new ideas and are more willing to try new strategies than ever before. But throwing ideas at a wall and hoping something sticks isn’t always the best way to approach your recruiting strategy. After all, it’s been eighteen months for drivers, and refocusing on what drivers are looking for from their recruiting experience can help your team get more drivers on the road faster.
If you’re looking to up your driver recruiting strategy this year, here are three key things not to add in there:
- Driver recruiting workflows built for recruiters only. Not to sound like a broken record here at DriverReach, but the applicant driver experience should always be at the forefront of your recruiting strategy. While some workflows may make your recruiters happy, building your processes from the ground up with the drivers’ perspective in mind is critical. Flexibility can also be beneficial here if you need to tweak a process or two to meet the unique needs of your drivers. Flexibility and transparency in your workflows show that you put your drivers first and are confident in your recruiting abilities and processes.
- Manual or time-consuming processes. Let’s get this out in the open: manual work has no place in driver recruiting in 2021 or beyond. While that may seem straightforward, many driver recruiters are still relying on slow back-and-forth emails with drivers or are leaving messages that are going unheard. Your team can be more efficient, reach more drivers, and cultivate a higher response rate with the right technology in place.
- Soft or qualitative metrics. This year, stop saying, ‘I think this strategy worked’ or ‘I feel like we shouldn’t run this campaign anymore.’ Anytime a critical decision has to be made, such as investing in a new recruiting tool, setting up automated workflows, or drafting a follow-up template to a driver, data should be involved. Just make sure that as you’re building your new driver-first processes, you include a way to capture and track data at every point of the process.
Ready to get started?
By NOT focusing on the items above and instead turning all of your attention to your drivers and their recruiting experience, your team can be more effective at hiring the right drivers – and keeping them on the roads longer. You can learn more about building a driver-first recruiting process here.
Stay up to date on CDL trucking trends! Be sure to check out the DriverReach blog for other relevant articles and head over to our webinars page for an up-to-date list of upcoming events and on-demand recordings.
Listen to Taking the Hire Road podcast, hosted by Jeremy Reymer and in collaboration with FreightWaves, for timely conversations with industry experts. For more information, or to join a live group demo, visit www.driverreach.com/livedemo
