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There are many factors that can end up influencing your driver recruiting. We’ve covered several of them in the past few weeks. From building an efficient driver recruiting budget, to creating a driver-centric company culture, to figuring out what is really driving your cost-per-hire up; they’re all important, but there’s another aspect that is extremely impactful to how successful your overall driver recruiting pans out. The recruiters themselves.
Your recruiters are very likely the first contact a prospective driver has with your fleet. As such, how they conduct themselves and represent your company is extremely important. To the driver, a recruiter is the mouthpiece of a potential employer, which makes everything a recruiters says and asks…or fails to say and ask vital.
No matter how long a driver recruiter has been on the job, if they’ve never been properly trained how to have real meaningful conversations with prospective drivers, they’re likely not reaching their full potential. Recruiter training is easier said than done and it’s difficult to stay on top of every new hire coming in.
That’s why the Randall-Reilly driver recruiting experts have pooled their collective knowledge to come up with a sort of crash-course for driver recruiters. As of now it is still being fully realized and put together, but the hope is to make this on-site training available in the near future.
I can’t explain nor am I qualified to cover everything a visit like that would entail, but what I can do is go over one of the focal points of the proposed recruiter training. It’s what we would refer to as a general framework of how your recruiters should approach speaking to prospective drivers. I won’t be able to cover every single detail, but I’ll do my best to hit the basic gist of each step along the way. And since we’re talking about a framework of how to approach a recruiting conversation, they’ve gone ahead and cooked up a nice acronym to go along with it…FRAME. So, let’s jump in and get started.
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The Purpose of the FRAME Driver Recruiter Technique
In a broad sense I’ve already covered what FRAME is all about. It’s simply a way to help your driver recruiters better communicate with drivers and get the most out of every interaction. But more specifically each step or phase of the FRAME technique refers to a way for driver recruiters to move the conversation forward and tie everything together.
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The Phases of the FRAME Driver Recruiting Technique
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Fuel
The first step in the process is the “fuel” phase. This is when your team has the opportunity to introduce themselves and find out what it is the driver is looking for. For instance: pay, routes, pet policies, etc. could all be factors as to why they’ve chosen to call your fleet. Your recruiter has to find out what it was that moved the prospect to make the call.
Whatever that reason is must be covered, and any questions they may have about it or related areas answered. But don’t stop there. Your recruiters need to ask questions of the driver to further the interaction. A simple, “What else is important to you?” can do the trick. The responses and information provided by the prospective driver essentially outline an agenda of where your recruiter needs to take the conversation moving forward.
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Route
The next step in the process is what we call the “route” phase. Now recruiters need to go beyond finding out what prompted a driver to call and attempt to learn more about the driver themselves. And this isn’t just pointless banter.
Your recruiters need to ask and learn about the driver to not only make sure they are qualified for the position, but to also find out what the driver is looking for in the future. Meaning, what are their long-term goals. Having the knowledge of where a driver has been and where they are looking to go moving forward can again help steer the conversation as well as help recruiters in weeding out any applicants who may not meet the fleet’s standards or requirements.
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Align
After spending some time learning about the driver and their past experiences you can begin the “align” phase. Recruiters can now share relevant solutions to the driver’s problems or needs.
Now is the time to specifically call back to things the driver has shared and cover the benefits or pertinent information the driver will find valuable. Most recruiters simply start by spouting pay, benefits, etc. at the very beginning of the conversation without knowing what, if any of it is actually relevant. Using the FRAME technique and building the conversation by asking questions and learning about the driver before laying out perks or benefits help recruiters align the information with that driver’s specific needs or desires.
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Move
The next step is the “move” phase. After learning about why they’ve called and what’s important to them the recruiter has had the opportunity to share relevant answers or benefits that address the driver’s concerns or curiosities. Now it’s time to move them forward in your recruiting process.
If your fleet allows, this is a great time for your recruiter to begin a phone application. If that’s not something you do, the opportunity is still there for the recruiter to move the process forward. Instead of just directing them to a website or application, the recruiter should stay on the line to make sure they’re able to access it or log in (if necessary) and thereby eliminate the possibility of the driver never following-up with the next step in your fleet’s recruiting process.
Once they have access the recruiter can ask for a time frame. “How long do you think it will take you to finish this up?” Based on the driver’s response they can set a time line and follow-up accordingly. After an application has been completed and accepted they can facilitate setting the orientation. Again, the goal is to make sure the prospect never stops moving forward in the process and for your fleet to stay top of mind. Truck drivers have many fleet options after all.
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Earn
The final piece of the FRAME technique is the “earn” phase. Having learned why they’ve called, what’s important to them, providing relevant information, and moving them forward through the entire process, your recruiter should hopefully now have earned the right to ask for referrals.
This is an area many recruiters struggle with, but by shifting how they craft a recruiting conversation and creating a positive experience for a prospective driver they can earn the right to ask for referrals. This doesn’t have to be on the first call, but recruiters should strive to do all they can to earn the right on that first call by answering questions, providing relevant information, and overall just making the experience as painless as possible. If they are able to do this most drivers are more than willing to provide a referral for another driver they feel could benefit from the same treatment.
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Improve Your Recruiting Results by Improving Your Driver Recruiters
This has just been a brief overview of a small part of what our team has begun to put together. In time we will make the full training available. Until then, if you find yourself needing some guidance and need some help getting your driver recruiting back on track just reach out to us and one of our recruiting experts will help you find the best plan for your trucking fleet moving forward.
Remember, one of the fastest and most effective ways to improve your driver recruiting is to simply improve your driver recruiters themselves. No matter how long a recruiter has worked for you, there is always room to improve. Employing the FRAME recruiting technique gives your truck driver recruiters a firm road map forward on how to achieve success.
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