How To Build An Engaged Driver Workforce

Want drivers who not only stay with your company long-term, but also go the extra mile to make sure it succeeds? The key may be “employee engagement.”

Someone who is fully involved in and enthusiastic about his or her work is considered to be “engaged.” Engaged employees care about the future of the company and are willing to work harder to help the organization succeed, and research indicates engagement may be better at reducing driver turnover than pay and bonus programs.  

“If you can induce individuals to discover meaning in their work, then they are driven by an internal purpose to almost always do what needs to be done,” explain Cheryl Clark and Jay Green in a white paper on driver motivation from employee retention consultant Strategic Programs Inc.

The authors argue that pay is of limited value in driver retention. For one thing, not everyone is motivated in the same way. For another, they say, studies show “intrinsic motivation” – the kind that comes from within – works better than “extrinsic,” or exterior motivations, such as pay and bonuses.

Strategic Programs maintains an extensive database of the results of its driver surveys for clients. Data from more than 70 companies shows the high-performing fleets – with operating ratios at or below 90% and turnover percentages well below industry average – score high in areas that signify drivers’ likelihood to stay at the company. These are areas such as how the company evaluates their performance, the fairness of the company, and how certain they feel about their future at the organization.

Questions measuring engagement ask drivers to rate the level of agreement with statements such as:

-I am proud to work for X company.
I- trust the leadership at this company.
-The leadership supports my succeeding.If things go the way I expect I plan to be here a year from now.

“These are the questions that measure emotional anchoring and identification of who you are as a person and what you do for a living and who you do it for – also loyalty, pride, the things that drive discretionary effort,” explains Strategic Programs CEO and co-founder Rim Yurkus. “People are paid to do their job description, but the highly engaged person will go above and beyond the call of duty.”

So how do you create an engaged driver workforce at your company?  Well Then Read on!