Hiring and retaining qualified truck drivers has never been more challenging. With a driver shortage and high turnover rates, cutting through the noise of the job market to attract the right candidates is crucial. The best way to achieve this goal is to make a driver recruitment plan.
A recruitment plan helps your hiring managers prioritize, save time, and land more qualified candidates. Rather than the “post and pray” approach (where you throw your job description on a job board and hope the right person will see it), defining your recruiting plan as an organization keeps costs in control and expedites the hiring process. A good plan will cover every aspect of hiring, from setting goals and outreach to working with recruiting firms. While every plan will be unique to each organization, this explores the general elements every recruitment plan should have.
1. Define Goals
Your recruitment plan needs to work on two levels—macro and micro. The macro-level plan steps back and examines your overall hiring processes, forecasts hiring needs in the months and years ahead, and analyzes your current workforce for any missing skills. The micro plan drills down to create a strategy for hiring individual roles.
2. Setting the Hiring Budget and Timeline
In the wider labor market, hiring a new employee costs an average of $4700 per employee. That number is on top of the role’s wages, benefits, or bonuses and is known as cost per hire (CPH). However, CPH is typically much more significant in the trucking industry, with costs averaging between $5000 – $10,000 per driver. This increased cost is due to the added expenses of training and mandatory compliance items like drug testing. Specialized drivers, like those who drive a hazardous materials (hazmat) rig, can cost a company upwards of $25,000 per role.
It’s essential to set a realistic budget for each role and account for things like:
- Job board fees
- Recruiter costs
- LinkedIn ads
- Background checks
- Drug testing
Working with a recruiting company like Pace Drivers can decrease costs while streamlining the hiring process. The Harvard Business Review estimates that a company can save up to 30% by outsourcing “non-core business functions” like recruiting. Working with specialized recruiters enables you to improve the overall productivity of your internal recruiting team by freeing them up to focus on filling your traditional positions.
It’s also essential to set a realistic timeline for hiring, as many specialized trucking jobs could take 12 weeks or more to fill.
Learn more: Why a Speedy Recruiting and Hiring Process is Your Lifeline
3. Sourcing and Outreach
Gone are the days when you could post a job to Indeed or Craigslist and expect hundreds of replies (from quality candidates, at least). You’ve got to get your job descriptions in front of the right people, which means making a plan for how you will promote it.
Good options for sourcing candidates include:
- Social media: Social media is a free or cheap way of getting the word out about hiring roles.
- Job boards: Test out a mix of reputable general and industry job boards to see where you get the most return.
- Employee referral programs: Referrals from current or former employers can often make up the bulk of new hires, with some estimates as high as 70%. Incentivizing a referral program gives your employees even more reason to spread the word about open positions.
- Recruiters: Working with recruiters can take much of the legwork out of hiring. An excellent recruiting firm helps you get pre-screened, qualified candidate resumes on your screen faster.
4. Writing the Job Description
Write a job description that hits on all the things drivers want and need from a job:
- Work-life balance
- Competitive pay
- Benefits
- Career opportunities and training
- Culture
While you want to convey how fantastic your company is to work for, keep the job description “driver-centered” and avoid exaggerations, bragging, or half-truths.
5. Have a Communication Plan
Ineffective communication during the truck driver recruitment process results in approximately 54% of potential candidates losing interest and abandoning the process. That’s why it is urgent to create a communication plan to keep interested candidates engaged. Response time to candidate applications and questions is crucial (which is why Pace aims to respond to all communications as quickly as possible, at least within 24 hours).
Additionally, it’s vital to keep previous candidates on file. While a candidate passed over for a role may not have been a good fit at that precise moment, they may grow into the role and become a top candidate down the road.
Learn more: How to Keep Candidates Interested During the Hiring Process
6. Simplify Applications
An application should be easy to fill out and have a version compatible with smartphones. One recent study found that two-thirds of all job seekers apply to jobs on a mobile device, as do 72% of all applicants in the transportation industry.
7. Interviewing
Remember, interviewing is a two-way street. You aren’t just screening drivers; you’re auditioning as their potential boss or colleague. Plan out how many interview rounds you will have and strive to keep them short and to the point.
8. Onboarding and Retention
A good onboarding process helps new drivers get up to speed faster. This cuts down on the time and resources spent on training, which saves money on hiring. When onboarding is effective, drivers are happier and stay longer, which means lower turnover and the costs that come with it.
9. Measure and Improve
If you are not measuring your hiring efforts, how do you know if you are improving, declining, or treading water? Track important metrics like time-to-hire, quality of hire, and early turnover rates. Use data analysis and new hire feedback to find areas for improvement. Regularly update your recruitment strategy to stay competitive and aligned with company goals. Or work with a recruiter who keeps track of this critical data for you.
Don’t Let Qualified Candidates Slip Through the Cracks
Pace makes hiring quality drivers easier.
We offer a single point of contact for clients and candidates, make quality calls to minimize hiring drop-offs and boost employee retention, and provide quarterly reports showing candidate submissions, interviews, and hiring rates. Additionally, Pace provides automated reminders to engage the talent pool, ensures DOT compliance with drug tests, license reports, and background checks, and provides essential employee training programs.
Ready to learn how we can help you advance your recruitment plan? Fill out our contact form to get started.
