Driver Retention Masterclass

As I’ve alluded to in the past few articles I have been working closely with Jim Papineau, a longtime industry friend and confidant. Jim and I have collaborated on a number of consulting projects over the past 10 years related to the transportation industry. So it was a natural for me to approach him when the opportunity arose to develop a series of instructional sessions called “Driver Retention Masterclass”, designed to address the topic of driver turnover. In collaboration with Vertical Alliance Group and H8 Media we have produced a series of 46 videos that are supported by a 155 page manual. For the next number of months I will be showcasing excerpts from the manual for your review and comment. I hope you find value in the subject matter we have assembled.

— Commitment —

OBJECTIVE: The importance of commitment to success in improving driver retention is vital – and it starts at the top. Here we look at what must be done to ensure that leadership is committed and that the entire company knows this.

Commitment throughout the organization will be important to the success of improving Driver Retention. But commitment is especially important among the senior management team as they are setting the example for all others in the company. To consider and then decide to embark on a project to improve Driver Retention means that senior management have looked at the problems of excessive costs associated with poor retention, they recognize that significant planning and effort affecting the entire company must be undertaken and that this effort is warranted by the significant savings and service benefits that will be the result.

Put this way it is very obvious that the work we are about to undertake is strategic in nature. It is Strategic because we will be investing time, confidence, and responsibility in company employees well beyond the driver team. In the process we will be transforming the company from one that has a victim mentality about high driver turnover into one that is a positive, supportive and service-oriented place to work – a winner. We will become a company where people, drivers included, want to work. A transition like this is obviously strategic in nature.

Commitment is one of the most critical ingredients to the success of any effort intended to bring long-term improvements to the way business is done. This commitment must come from the Directors of the Company and it must be very visible – and active. It must be genuine and it must be unwavering. After all, people throughout the company will have important roles to play and their commitment must be inspired and supported by the commitment they see in their leaders. In short, company leaders must be seen to walk the walk and make the same commitment that is being asked of the rest of the company departments.

In addition to fostering commitment among the staff, the senior-level commitment must be lasting, since this is a lengthy project. It must also be unanimous among the leaders. This last aspect is sometimes difficult to ensure, but it is important that the leadership team speak and act in unison on the need for the company to make the significant changes necessary to reduce Driver Turnover. At the senior management level this means that a personal commitment must be requested and delivered by each member of the management team. Like a lot of strategic planning initiatives, it would be a good idea to make positive and supportive engagement a part of the personal performance criteria for managers during this project.

Let’s acknowledge that achieving and maintaining commitment among the leadership team is not something that can be accomplished just by asking for it. There are very natural and predictable obstacles along the way and perhaps the most common is the difficulty we all have with adapting to change. This is natural – we all strive for stability and then along comes a new idea, a new process or a new direction and we naturally question and resist the change. But the management team has targeted real benefits for our company and our employees. We have agreed to undertake reasonable steps to achieve great results.

We have agreed to change.

Turn that agreement to change into a commitment to change. We have a commitment to reduce Driver Turnover. We are committed to making our drivers a Strategic Advantage for our company. Achieving and maintaining commitment will require us to periodically re-visit our plan and objectives to remind us that the change we are undertaking is worth it. Do this regularly to reinforce the commitment among the team. Do this so we do not fall back into old habits. In fact, be on the lookout for any wavering of commitment and the creeping in of those old habits.

So, what other benefits can we expect by recognizing the importance of commitment and then taking specific actions to achieve it? We will create a culture throughout the organization that sees and comes to expect a management team that means and does what it says. Secondly, it will deliver proof to the management team that they can achieve significant results by working supportively together – and they can use this approach to be successful in other important projects.

We are getting ready to draw a line in the sand. There was probably some bell weather or watershed moment that brought you to realize something must be done about your high Driver Turnover rate. Keep that motivational “trigger” in mind as we go forward – the one that drove home the need for us to do something serious to improve Driver Retention. This is important because the team must be in unison on this project for it to have sustainable impact, so make it a practice to occasionally remind ourselves of what motivated us in the beginning. For our company it was the fact that our safety and accident rate was getting out of control. Before we knew it our insurance costs were going up, our service was declining and we were constantly fighting fires. It had to stop – and improving the stability of our driver workforce was the obvious place to focus. Your motivation might be different. Perhaps you simply cannot find enough drivers to feed the turnover beast. Or maybe you are seeing your profits decline due to excessive costs associated with hiring and general inefficiencies. The ironic thing is that whatever caused you to start on this process, you will reap the same rewards – reduced accidents and their costs, lower recruitment needs and related savings and, finally, a general improvement in efficiency and quality that will drive better profits.

Safe Trucking

Ray J. Haight
Co-founder
tcaingauge.com