Leading safety management system that brings current industry news that your company to use to stay updated & informed in todays fast pace world.
New data on driver distraction amounts to what could be called an epidemic of unsafe, even deadly, driving behavior. Are you doing your due diligence in training drivers? Are you willing to even go above and beyond? Your business may depend on it. Lives may depend on it. Read more
Unemployment is at all time lows. Finding new employees and keeping good employees is more important today than at any other time in history.
Creating a high-quality new employee onboarding is critical to businesses that want:
Talya Bauer, Ph.D. (SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Series) states: “The faster new hires feel welcome and prepared for their jobs, the faster they will be able to successfully contribute to the firm’s mission.” (source)
Below is a checklist of ideas that will help you structure a great onboarding program. Click here to download a PDF version of this checklist.
Driver turnover is a significant issue in the trucking industry, with levels of turnover at 80% or higher across the industry. For many reasons, drivers are leaving companies or leaving the industry all together. Even high-paying companies struggle to keep drivers.
The reasons for drivers leaving range from poor communication to not feeling valued. The decision to stay or go can come down to a single make-or-break type problem, to a build up of frustrations over time.
There are tools you can put in place to reduce your company turnover though. Infinit-I Workforce Solutions can help you put those tools in place so you can go from playing defense to being proactive in gaining crucial insight into driver dissatisfaction.
Infinit-I also has the tools you need to implement real change immediately. This starts with six ways you can reduce driver turnover.
Do you know why drivers are leaving your company to go somewhere else? Getting the answers you need is as simple as asking. Asking these questions during exit interviews is an important first step to making real changes.
Share the information you get from these interviews with Infinit-I’s client success team to get help turning those issues around. You can use the system to host custom management training based on the issues that come up the most with drivers.
You can set up training solutions based on your reports to provide material based on driver questions and concerns. Take the guess work out of it. Get solutions immediately instead of waiting until you’ve lost twenty more drivers over these same issues.
While ready to use training material is useful, you will get more out of your training if you speak directly to the drivers in your company too. You can try individual or group meetings with drivers, but that means parked trucks and drivers unavailable for those meetings. To understand their needs, you must have real access to the drivers.
Infinit-I can work with you to develop custom content so you can speak directly to your drivers. With online communication and training tools, you can reach 100% of your drivers, no matter where they are, without disrupting their work schedules.
Using the information you gather to reduce driver turnover, you can develop content based on the issues important to your company, layout a timeframe to make changes, provide practical steps to meet these goals, and share what is needed from drivers and management.
With the tracking tools available, you can keep documentation of all training and communications provided. You can also access reports to show completion of employee training, so you know your message is getting to everyone.
Your dispatchers will have more interaction with drivers than anyone else in the company. This means it’s important to have positive communication between dispatchers and drivers to keep drivers happy and reduce driver turnover.
Your drivers come from diverse backgrounds, including a range from baby boomers to millennials. Dispatchers need to understand how to communicate across these diverse backgrounds, and Infinit-I allows you to provide the training necessary to improve those skills.
We can help you teach them the skills they need with practical tips, important dos and don’ts, and increasing their awareness of what drivers need to thrive.
Taking advantage of the communication and training tools provided through Infinit-I gives you better access and cross-communication between drivers, dispatchers, and management. Providing solutions that speak to real needs also shows that you:
Drivers who feel taken care of are drivers who will stay. Making it your goal for 100% of drivers to receive clear, effective communication will help reduce driver turnover. You show them your company is listening to your drivers and can meet their needs.
Training is never one size fits all. Every company has issues specific to them, and you need the tools to address these issues and needs. Many Infinit-I clients use our system address these specific needs.
For example, what do you do about delivery points at difficult locations?
Imagine you’ve got a driver making a delivery in downtown Manhattan. If you leave it up to the GPS, your driver may find themselves in difficult situations. If you end up needing to call the police and the city to help turn a truck around, you’ve got a stressed driver, wasted time on the road, and extra expenses.
If you know this can be a concern, you can create or source content to help navigate entering and exiting delivery points. This is one of many examples on how you can make the training specific. If you’re giving drivers tough jobs, you need to give them relevant training.
A good onboarding process gives you the best opportunity to determine which drivers will be a good fit for your company. While you can never guarantee every driver who pre-qualifies will work out, you can put some screening tools in place to help you and applicants determine if the employment is a good fit.
You can use the Infinit-I system in several ways to help you recruit the right fit:
Send training material to test preliminary knowledge and weed out those who aren’t serious. Some applicants may fail this test. Others may not even bother to complete the training.
Either way, you know ahead of time this isn’t the person you want. This step shows you’re serious about finding the right person. Getting the right fit in the beginning will reduce overall driver turnover.
Provide “A Day in the Life” videos or documents. This glimpse into your company will give potential drivers a realistic idea of what they can expect working for you. It reduces surprises and helps drivers determine if they will be up to completing the tasks specific to your company.
Just because a person has a CDL doesn’t mean they are going to fit in with the job you are providing. Keep driver turnover down by letting drivers come in prepared for what the job will look like.
Recruiting and nurturing drivers that are the right fit for your company from the beginning is the best way to reduce driver turnover and meet your goals. Infinit-I Workforce Solutions can provide the tools you need to ensure you get well-matched drivers.
Your drivers need support and connection. Strengthen this connection to your company by keeping everyone on the same page and working towards the same goals. Make the changes your trucking company needs.
To learn more about how Infinit-I can help you meet those goals, request a free demo. Get started getting the results you need.
The biggest savings for trucking companies begin with Safety and Compliance and Risk Management. And, better drivers depend on better training. Earlier this month we posted a blog to help you save time and money on your whole onboarding process. Today we’re going to focus on orientation itself. What’s the difference between onboarding and orientation? And why is it so important to target your savings here?
We’ll roll out the numbers in a second. But first, let’s say a word about the difference between onboarding and orientation. Some may use the terms interchangeably, and that’s OK—as long as you understand orientation as a key part of the onboarding process, setting you up for success or failure in retaining and training the right people.
Be strategic about how they work together: success in one affects success in the other.
How Infinit-I drives cost-savings in onboarding and orientation.
The entire onboarding process, from job posting to the last day of training, is one, long two-way interview. Drivers are assessing you; you’re assessing them. Looking at onboarding overall, your main area of savings is going to be in finding and hiring the right people. It can cost $1,000 or more to hire someone hastily, only to fire or lose them.
Orientation is one big piece of this puzzle. A sorry orientation is not going to impress new drivers or ensure safety, professionalism, or longevity with your company.
By the time employee orientation happens, a good onboarding process has already set it up for success. Job postings, website, pre-interview questionnaires, and communications have left in your applicant pool the people you want to invest in so you’re not wasting time and money.
Times are tough for finding drivers. But the costs are much higher for not hiring the right ones. Before orientation begins, you need to have determined, to the best of your ability, that these selected drivers are qualified, understand the job they’re being hired for, and understand the kind of company you are.
Orientation is the heart and soul of onboarding, and thus the heart and soul of your initial investment in employees. It’s where:
A typical orientation period lasts from 2-4 days. With online training tools at your fingertips, this is no longer necessary. Online orientation tools revolutionize savings potential without reducing effectiveness and cut orientation by days at a time. It does this by operating in three key savings areas: efficiency, consistency, and branding.
This is your savings target, with a giant bulls-eye. Your budget for every orientation day includes:
The biggest money drain of all? Keeping drivers off the road. Your trucks generate a certain amount of revenue per day per truck. Whatever that amount is, that’s what you’re losing per day by keeping drivers in a room going through in-person orientation they could have done online. Let’s say you orient 200 drivers annually. If online orientation can cut one day out of your in-person orientation, that’s 200 days of revenue being generated because the driver is on the road and not in an orientation class.
That doesn’t factor in the thousands of dollars in risk you take when a driver isn’t trained effectively in driving regulations, safety measures, legal protection, or company policy.
Drivers don’t come into the office to deal with every segment of orientation. Operations, maintenance, HR, and finance will thank you. Save their time and yours and put these trainings online. An online system allows drivers to complete these materials off-site before in person orientation begins. An online system also captures, dates, and archives all orientation materials so there’s no confusion, dropped communication, or paper shuffling.
One of the most challenging aspects of training truckers—whether orientation or ongoing training—is consistency. When can I get all my drivers here? Will Rob be teaching them this time, or Angela? Which drivers are doing the alternate orientation day? Who’s keeping track of the paperwork? Every inconsistency in orientation gives you room for costly slippage. Using an online training and orientation tool commits you to a single template and method for training. This ensures all your drivers are getting the same training, same quality of training, and identical information, every time.
You may not think drivers notice or care about the brand, but they do. Uniformity in branding supports familiarity with your company values and, if your company practices live up to the brand you display, it encourages driver loyalty, too. It also affects the kind of new employees you attract. Your brand stands for something. Online training is a great way to keep it coherent, synchronizing your messaging and technology.
Go ahead and start training modules off-site. Inifinit-I 5-7 minute training videos give complete, concise information and cover over 800 topics related to the trucking industry. Materials can be repeated as many times as necessary, and the short bursts of information have been proven to help with retention and driver performance.
An online system doesn’t eliminate in-person training. It never will. What it does is open up time and energy to make in-depth, in-person training efficient and excellent. Save time for what matters. And save money in the process.
Infinit-I’s online training system can be used to save up to $1,000 per new driver hired. Join us at our next Safety Boot Camp to learn more about how Infinit-I can save you time and money when it comes to training.
The primary reason you train your drivers is to achieve a specific outcome in behavior. This means changing habits. But habits can be hard to break. And if those habits are unsafe or unprofessional, they’re costing you money and putting your business at legal risk. They need to change. How do you easily and realistically change driver behavior? Read more
Onboarding is the initial and substantial investment you make in all of your drivers. But it’s also their initial investment in you. With a proliferation of driving jobs and a shortage of drivers, there’s a temptation to do whatever it takes just to fill positions. But in the long run, this wastes your (and your applicants’) valuable time and money. What really reduces onboarding time and costs? Remember: accuracy equals savings. Read more
Trucking is multi-generational. Drivers in their 60s and 70s are seasoned, have navigated hundreds of thousands of miles of road, and have a lot to teach. But a common issue facing trucking companies today is introducing new tech to older drivers. Why is this important, and how do you change minds successfully? Read more
How would you like to attend a free two-day seminar, custom-made for leaders and influencers in the trucking business?
At Infinit-I Workforce, we’d love to have you as a client. (We think you’d love it, too.) But whatever path you choose that’s best for keeping your transportation business on track, we’re dedicated to your success. That’s why we offer cost-free educational seminars specifically designed for safety advocates, safety directors, and company owners in the transportation industry. Read more
To reduce costs in your trucking company, you need to get practical, flexible, be generous to employees and train more. Here are eight top ways you can cut transportation costs in 2019 while improving your business model. Read more
When was the last time you updated your employee handbook? For many companies, the answer could mean bad news. If you are ever faced with litigation, an outdated employee handbook could make the hot water you’re in even hotter.
As Federal and state laws change each year, companies need to review their policies and procedures and update employee handbooks for compliance. Join us on October 23rd, as attorney Greg McAllister reviews new laws in multiple areas that you need to understand as you review policies and update your employee handbooks.
In this hour long webinar, you will learn:
About the Presenter:
Greg McAllister practices for Littler Mendelson in Dallas, Texas, where he advises employers regarding overtime, noncompetition/nonsolicitation, trade secrets, independent contractor classification, and executive compensation. He has been successful in responding to charges by the EEOC and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), including winning reversals. Among his many accomplishments, he has also obtained two unanimous defense jury verdicts in class/collective action lawsuits regarding overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
