While the global pandemic of 2020 threw a wrench in the plans of many commercial trucking and logistics organizations, things are definitely looking up in 2021.
According to Forrester’s 2021 predictions, the manufacturing and logistics industries are poised for significant growth over the next 12 months as things accelerate drastically to make up for the lost momentum of 2020. This means that carriers will need to step up recruiting operations to meet this new demand with qualified drivers.
While many recruiters’ first instinct may be to hit the phones and try to engage as many new driver applicants as possible, it’s important to ensure that you’re hiring the right drivers – aka the ones that will deliver the highest lifetime value to your organization – for your open positions. By tracking the right recruiting metrics, your team can see what’s working for your organization and what needs to be improved upon. With the right data, your recruiters can be more strategic and, ultimately, more successful.
Here are some key metrics your team needs to track this year:
- Applicant sources: Many CDL recruiters use online job sites, message boards, forums, and even word-of-mouth to hire new drivers. Tracking where your new leads are coming from can ensure you’re posting jobs in the right place. Things to remember here are tracking applicant and hire sources (aka one source may bring in more leads, but none of those ultimately lead to an actual hire) as well as any applicants with multiple lead sources who may need weighted or split credit across different sources.
- Cost per applicant: Part of tracking your lead sources is also measuring the cost per application. If you are paying for any online job sites or message boards, there will be a set cost associated with every new application that comes in.
- Touchpoints per hire: No driver is hired off of a single conversation alone. For this reason, your team should track the number of ‘touches’ – conversations, interviews, emails, calls, etc. – that are required to bring a new driver on board.
- Time to fill: When your team officially posts a new job opening on a job site, the clock starts ticking on time to fill. This metric can allow your team to see if these sources are actually working for you or if there need to be changes made in post placement or job descriptions.
- Time to hire: A companion metric to ‘time to fill’, time to hire is the time it takes for a new applicant to be hired. This metric tracks your internal processes, such as follow-ups, communication, and engagement to get drivers on the road faster.
- Cost per hire: How much did it cost to ultimately make this hire? Things to factor in here are your original cost per application (check back on the source for cost), the resource time, and other administrative costs that may apply.
Want to learn more? See how the DriverReach platform can help your recruiting team track these metrics and more 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
