Do You Have a Career Path for Your Employees?

Our industry continues to struggle with finding enough drivers and technicians to service and drive trucks. When is the last time you heard a young boy or girl say, “When I grow up, I want to be a truck driver or truck technician,"? Not one week goes by that someone isn't asking me what they can do to recruit new drivers and technicians. My first response to that question is, “What are you doingto keep the good drivers and techniciansthat you currently have?”

In today’s employment environment if you are not actively working to retain your employees someone else is actively recruiting them from you! There is no clear answer to driver and technician retention but there are a number of proven methods you can implement to reduce turnover. One is to develop a career path for all of your employees to follow. Another common term used for career path is driver or technician elevation program. If an employee does not have a clear vision of growth or what they can achieve with your company, they are likely to become dormant and will eventually leave for a better gig. Drivers and technicians will leave a company for a slightly higher wage than what they are currently receiving. I would recommend linking training and pay increases.

Idealease implemented a "Career Path program" in our Atlanta facility and have tied pay increases to the amount of training a technician has completed. The technician has the opportunity to increase their wages by completing training and passing examinations. This has proven to be beneficial to the employer and the employee. Idealease hires only technicians who are highly skilled and educated in maintenance and repairs to service our units most efficiently and professionally. We believe that due to required training, our technicians are able to better service customer vehicles with a lower occurrence of repeat repairs. Technicians are able to increase their pay and enhance their careers with the provided education. Imagine the talent and culture you would instill in your company and with your employees!