Opinion: Orientation’s Effect on Driver Retention
b> Joe Giangarra
i> Consultant
hor Designs
I once worked for a large carrier whose management brought in an efficiency team to analyze the company’s orientation process. Management’s goal was to determine if orientation could be made even shorter than the two days set aside for it. They were not happy to be told that not only should orientation not be cut, it should be increased by at least another day.
What that carrier’s management didn’t understand was that adding just one day would take weeks off a new hire’s learning curve and reduce the costs inevitably associated with having things done incorrectly.
And shortening the process is possible, depending on which of three classifications a new driver falls into:
Re-hires.
Experienced new hires.
Students.
Because each group has its own instructional needs, the best way of dealing with all three is to separate them for the entire orientation process. Yes, this will mean logistical complications — but they will be worth it.
Of the three groups, the re-hire is easiest to deal with, requiring little more than paperwork, drug screening, updates to basic information and possibly a physical exam. The re-hired driver already has a history with your company and meets its criteria for new hires. Re-hires can be expected to go through the orientation process in about half a day. Putting them in a same class with new hires and students will only slow things down and make them impatient.
The experienced new hire needs more instruction and testing than the re-hire, depending on your company’s size, culture and technological level.
When I drove for a large company, newly hired drivers often asked me how to use the satellite communication system — starting with how to sign onto it. The kind of frustration experienced by those new hires may be the first of many adding up to undermine retention. It’s rare for just one thing to cause driver loss. Usually there is an accumulation of annoyances; what you hear about if you sit in on an exit interview is usually just the proverbial last straw.
To keep that from happening, invest the time and money needed to thoroughly teach your system going in. One large company, for example, uses “dummy” software that simulates its operations to give new hires hands-on teaching, but in a situation where errors won’t affect the “real” system.
A two-day orientation period for newly hired, but experienced, drivers may be sufficient, depending on the complexity of your operations — and whether or not you keep the experienced new hires on a separate path from students, the last classification to be addressed.
Obviously, a newly hired student is going to need a lot of training. He or she has just learned how to operate the equipment and isn’t yet all that good at it. Student hires usually have little idea how to do the job, no idea of the lifestyle of an over-the-road driver, and very little idea of how your company does things.
The student driver is your biggest risk — the most likely for you to lose if you botch the job. But given the right approach, the student driver also can be the one with the greatest potential for long-term employment with your company. The more effort you put into making the student’s early experience positive, the greater will be your gain not only in retention, but also in generating a living employment testimonial for your company, drawing more drivers to you.
You will need to go through things more slowly with the student because most of what you normally cover in orientation is completely new to them. Many of their questions will seem “stupid” to experienced drivers — a major reason for isolating students from experienced drivers. Peer pressure is great, and not wanting to be singled out as a rookie, the student driver will almost certainly be reluctant to ask what are actually very important questions.
Teaching a group of drivers comprising only those who have finished road training in the prior three months, and therefore feel comfortable asking “dumb” questions, will clear up many misconceptions.
An important extension of the orientation process for students is road training, and a great deal depends on the quality of your road trainers. The road trainer needs to know company procedures thoroughly, have a good performance track record, be patient and be skilled in mentoring. To that end, road trainers must themselves have been well-taught in how to conduct field instruction most effectively.
Give new drivers a good foundation and help them to be successful, and you are far more likely to retain them.
And with today’s turnover rates, every driver you retain equals the savings for finding and hiring as many as two replacements.
Thor Designs is located in Omaha, Neb.
This Op-Ed appeared in the November 27 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
