Chad Hendricks, president of Brand Outcomes Inc., joined DriverReach founder and CEO Jeremy Reymer on this week’s episode of Taking the Hire Road to discuss the challenges of living up to your fleet’s mission statement, and far-out solutions for finding driver talent.
The first thing that Hendricks assesses with each company is whether it’s living up to its values, vision and mission statement. He said, “Is it true, or is it just something that was made up at some point to put on the wall? I then focus on operationalizing those values — how do you actually use those and get your teammates to use them day to day? It really creates a framework.” He added that many companies don’t even offer a framework for feedback, leaving issues unaddressed.
Hendricks asserts that recruiting departments often struggle with developing a culture of trust among the recruiters, drivers and the company itself. He suggests that many in the industry — especially those with carrier backgrounds — were brought up to value tenacity and hard work above all else. Although those are good traits to have, so many are dedicated to the grind that they’ve left soft skills and community building as an afterthought.
“There is a lack of trust there, and I think it relates to how you show that in your marketing to attract people,” Hendricks said, alluding to trust issues as a major driver of turnover.
Driver recruiting involves a great deal of strategy and ever-growing complexity. Recognizing the challenges that many face on a daily basis, Hendricks set about starting conversations to tackle these issues.
For the past eight years, Hendricks has hosted a weekly podcast, Recruit & Retain: Trucking Edition, highlighting thought leadership and practices of the industry’s leading recruiting and sales experts. In fact, its dialogue partly inspired Reymer to start his own podcast.
Hendricks tackles driver recruiting not just through a microphone; he also trains recruiters through his Recruiter Sales Training online courses with Phil M. Jones, best-selling author of “Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact” — a guidebook for CDL driver recruiters.
No company is immune from hiring struggles, even companies with exceptionally low driver turnover. Hendricks also plays a role in helping fleets find quality driving candidates, but directs them to an unexpected source for talent — South Africa.
Hendricks helps facilitate the immigration of South African truck drivers to the United States through employer-based visas for permanent employment stateside. Not only are these drivers more than willing to find work in America, but many have already accumulated years of experience, which Hendricks said makes them perfect candidates to recruit. If companies optimistically recruit new CDL drivers, he suggests, why not take a chance on a seasoned veteran as well?
“Is it a good decision for the country, for the carrier and consumers? Is it a good decision for the person that’s coming here? I overwhelmingly feel the answer to all of those questions is yes,” Hendricks said.
Check out Jeremy’s latest appearance on Chad’s podcast: Communicating and Adapting through a Crisis- Leadership lessons from DriverReach
To learn more about online training, visit Recruiter Sales Training to view the course curriculum.
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