When You Should Consider Switching Systems for Recruiting, Compliance and Training

Do you know that feeling when you need to make a change, but you fear wasting the time, money or effort you’ve already invested?

It’s called the sunk cost fallacy. It’s the human brain’s tendency to continue down a path we’re on, even though the costs now outweigh the benefits. 

We’re here to tell you it’s absolutely OK to walk out on a bad movie, abandon a book you don’t like or — in your work life — change your recruiting, compliance and training system, even if you’ve been with the software for awhile. 

You might naturally consider switching systems if you realize your software is not keeping up with the times, you’re patching together multiple systems that don’t talk to each other, your labor costs for data entry are super high or your current contract is about to expire.

Those are all valid reasons. Add to the list considering these metric-driven factors: 

• Recruiting: Can one recruiter make 15 hires a month with your system?
• Compliance: Can one person manage 8,000 driver qualification files with your software?
• Training: Are your claims and reportable incidents moving in the right direction (down)?

If not, you’re experiencing some inefficiencies, and there’s a good chance your driver recruiting, compliance and training system is letting you down. 

If it sounds like you may need to cut your losses with your current system, here are some things to think about in each area of the business.

Recruiting

Are you still looking at every single candidate who applies for a job, and not relying on automatic screening to prioritize the good candidates from the bad? Your driver recruiting software should make it easy for you to do just that. It’s not just about lead volume. It’s about getting better quality leads and spending time with only the best.

It all goes back to the Core  4  metrics for recruiting and compliance: 

• Cost Per Hire: It should be less than $750.
• Lead-to-Hire Conversion Rate: Shoot for roughly 5%.
• Days to Hire: You’re going for as few as possible, ideally within two weeks.
• Drivers in Compliance: It must be 100%.

Your system should be set up to drive efficiencies in the four areas above, and it should be achieving that with integrations and automation. 

There should be as little data entry as possible because old-school keying information into spreadsheets is expensive and leads to errors. Data-entry errors create risk. Imagine you get one driver’s license expiration date wrong, then that driver gets into an accident and a plaintiff's attorney catches wind of the expired license. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault. Your company is liable because your driver should not have been on the road.

All unqualified leads should be screened out so you don’t waste your team’s time. The people applying should already have a great idea about what it’s like to work for you, thanks to your driver influencer program and well-branded Careers Page (formerly known as a Candidate Landing Page). 

Once you’re ready to hire, you should have a proven process that runs smoothly, keeping days to hire down and avoiding orientation ghosting.

And there is no reason you shouldn’t have 100% driver compliance (more on that below).

Does your current recruiting, compliance and training system allow you to achieve the Core 4? If not, it’s time to start shopping. 

A Word About Integrations: Don’t take the word “integration” at face value when it comes to driver recruiting, compliance and training systems. Some softwares say they integrate with third-party programs, but you may soon find out the integration is superficial. For instance, the integration may be only driver contact information, not fully syncing a record type, such as license expiration date. You need to understand what data is integrating and what data you will still need to rekey.

Compliance

As a manager on the compliance side of the business, you should only accept 100% compliance from your software.

Being fully compliant means the correct data is in your system immediately. It’s not on a piece of paper, sitting on someone’s desk until it can be scanned and uploaded into a file folder. It’s not being emailed to a third party, waiting for someone to enter it within a day or two (with the opportunity to get lost). Your data should be captured by and accessible in your software in real-time where you can see it immediately, and you should be able to receive automated alerts for upcoming deadlines or expirations. 

What if an accident or audit were to happen while you’re waiting for records to be emailed back to you? The clock starts ticking right away, and you must be able to prove you’re compliant instantly. If your software or outsourced managed service provider can’t ensure that’s the case and aren’t providing automated electronic onboarding vs. PDFs and emails and spreadsheets, it’s time to look elsewhere.

Training

When you hit the “hire” button, can you automatically assign drivers their orientation and safety training? And when they complete that training, do you immediately have a time-stamped record of their completion in your recruiting, compliance and training system? You should be able to do these things today. 

When thinking about changing systems, consider these additional questions. Is your training system: 

• Customizable? Your learning management system should be able to house your custom content, like how payroll works, how to operate your equipment and other important company-specific details. 
• Up to date? Many transportation companies know their training content is outdated, but it’s exactly what you need to teach. It shouldn’t be like this. If you’re embarrassed to show your drivers your ancient training videos, you need a new training system that you can easily update on the fly.
• Effective? Most importantly, if your training is ineffective, you definitely need a new system. Go poll 30 of your drivers to see if they can remember the content of your defensive driving training, for instance. Does the concept you’re using roll off the tongue? If not, it’s not working. 
• User-friendly? Drivers must be able to access the modules on a smartphone without having to log in. You don’t want them calling to say “I can’t get in.” They should have easy access. 

The ultimate training metric is whether the frequency of your insurance claims and your Department of Transportation reportable incidents are going down. Your training system must set you up to have a real-world impact. 

Taking recruiting, compliance and training into account, are you ready for a new all-in-one system that allows you to improve the Core 4 and keep your head count low as you grow? Get in touch with Avatar today to learn how we can help.