Undoubtedly you recruit most of your drivers from online sources. This is inevitable. If you depend on any other medium to keep your trucks on the road, you have a world of hurt headed your way. But in this online-only world it is easy to forget that digital channels aren’t the only ways to find the truck drivers you need.
1. Choose your Events Carefully
Attending the wrong events is a great way to waste a massive amount of money very quickly. Exhibiting at an event can be expensive, especially when you consider the time invested in creating a booth/display and travel expenses.
Don’t just attend the largest shows you can find.
Attend shows where you think you will have the best chances to interact with drivers who are looking for the positions that you need to fill. How do you know who is most likely to attend each event?
2. Purchase Data
The consequences of walking into an event without the proper data can be significant. You might not have the right people at your booth to answer the questions that attendees will have. It is also possible that you won’t have the correct materials to hand out to potential applicants. But worst of all you might find yourself attending an event where no one is interested in stopping and talking to you. What does this mean?
Your company just wasted thousands of dollars and you just wasted a few days of your life that you will never get back.
3. Track Everything
How many people did you engage with at the last show you attended? How many of those people applied for an open position? How many of those applications turned into hires? How many of those hires stuck around and ended up being a huge asset to your fleet?
Chances are, you can’t answer all of those questions. But if you can’t answer most of them, you should be worried.
You may attend some very large shows where you talk to lots and lots of drivers. But when you look at the numbers you find that you didn’t actually get any applications. At the time it probably felt like this was a great investment, but numbers don’t lie. Tracking this data can be a lot of work, but in the end it will be worth it.
Hopefully this helps you make an informed decision about what events you attend this year. In a world where social media dominates many people’s social lives don’t forget that nothing replaces eye contact and a firm handshake.
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