Retention Tactics - What Works For Different Groups?

A few weeks ago I was talking about the bell curve of driver quality and how any given fleet will have a bunch of "pretty good" drivers in the middle, a smaller group of star performers at the top and a matching small group of duds at the bottom. We talked about those different groups present different challenges, particularly relating to turnover issues, and how we need to do different things for each group to get the most out of them. I was speaking at a conference before Christmas and we got talking about different tactics that work well for the different groups. Here's a summary of that discussion.

Star Performers - Top 20% of the fleet
This group is responsible for about 80% of your profit (80/20 rule) so we want to keep them around as long as possible. The tricky thing here, though, is that money is almost never the answer. Why? Because if these are the top performers, chances are you're already paying them as much as you can afford to pay them, and they're probably not hurting in that department. Of course, everyone wants to make more money, but at this level no one quits because of money. They quit because of opportunity.

What these drivers crave, in the majority of cases, are opportunities to grow as individuals, business people, and leaders within the organization. These are the people for whom 'perks' work well. Coaching/mentoring programs, equipment spec'ing, collision review, etc. Educational opportunities are also good carrots for them. Setup an Education Assistance Program and pay for them to take distance learning college courses in whatever area interests them.

Duds - Bottom 20% of the fleet
This group is very much the opposite of the star performers. With poor performance, they're not making anywhere near as much money as the other group, so the best programs here are the ones that help them improve their performance and make more money. Note that we're not talking about a pay raise (which would have a negative effect in most of these cases) but rather giving them the tools to improve their job performance. Things like putting them into a coaching program, giving them more job-related training and skills development programs, and helping them figure out why they're struggling and how to fix the problems. If you can do that, you win double - you get a better performer that makes you money instead of costing you, and you get someone who's more loyal and less likely to quit.

Breakevens - Middle 60% of the fleet
This group is interesting because they include elements from both of the other groups. In general, if you cover the extreme ends of the spectrum, the middle 60% gets covered as well. That doesn't mean you don't have to do anything for them, just that the things you do for the top and bottom 20% combine to produce an effective set of solutions for the middle group. Some people in the middle 60% will benefit from job-related training, some will benefit from non-driving opportunities.

Training for everyone?
For all groups, training shows up as a solid retention tactic (big surprise that someone selling online training would find a way to mention it in a blog posting!). However, the training looks very different for both of those groups. For the bottom 20%, it's the job-specific stuff that gives the most return - regulatory, safety, best practices, that kind of thing. The top 20% is already demonstrating that they have a solid grasp of these issues so that kind of training is less critical. For top performers, taking the training up a level brings the real benefit - business management, customer service, leadership - those kinds of topics. This group responds well to that kind of training because it helps them to continue growing in their careers.

Okay, now what?
All that makes sense, but how do you implement it? Who's already doing it and how are they making it work? Good questions. Over the next little while we'll look at some companies that are doing this stuff really well and see if we can't "borrow" some of their ideas.

In the meantime, Happy New Year!