2022 Trailblazer Award Winner
ELEVATOR PITCH:
Part of our marketing team’s responsibilities is leading all of our Warehouse Partners' marketing efforts. RLS Warehouse Partners is a nationwide network of family-owned cold storage and transportation providers. One of the Warehouse Partners, RLS Gress, owns and operates a fleet of trucks and needed assistance with driver recruiting to hire two regional drivers. As a company that has never done driver recruiting before, we started the process with an exploratory call. RLS Gress and the marketing team held a meeting to learn about their application process, the tactics they have been using for recruiting, and their biggest challenges. The marketing and HR teams collaborated to create a plan from the findings of the call. The strategy began with streamlining RLS Gress’ application process, revising the Indeed application to reflect the company culture, and updating the website to include recruiting content and a direct link to the Indeed job. Furthermore, we created hiring decals for the fleet of trailers, stickers for the driver check-in windows at our warehouses with QR codes, and flyers for grassroots efforts. Lastly, we ran a Facebook ad for a month to attract driver applications. The ad received 284 clicks and 15 applicants. Ultimately, RLS Gress hired two drivers, reaching our goal for the project. Since this campaign for RLS Gress, we have implemented this adaptable strategy process for hiring all positions with our other Warehouse Partners to understand their process for hiring and how we can best help them. We explore all marketing avenues based on the Partner’s budget and goals (i.e., billboards, digital ads, Sirius XM radio ads, etc.).
MEASURABLE RESULTS AND OBJECTIVES ACHIEVEMENT:
The main channel that helped us achieve our goal of hiring two regional drivers for RLS Gress was our Facebook ad campaign. Since this was our first driver recruitment campaign, we were unsure what to expect but were thrilled with the number of clicks and inbound applications resulting from our efforts. While we were only hiring a few drivers, the RLS Gress team had not had much of a recruitment strategy beforehand. By collaborating on best practices with our HR team, we formulated a process to better onboard drivers. Before joining RLS’ Warehouse Partners, RLS Gress did not have an Indeed account and utilized an in-person paper application process;thus, collaborating with them on digital recruiting aspects such as Indeed and the website efforts was a step in the right direction for the team. Furthermore, we maintained consistent communication with the RLS Gress team to see how their applicant progress was going and if there were any inbound calls from our grassroots avenues of marketing (check-in windows decals, flyers locally, and trailer decals).
BLAZING A TRAIL!:
As a marketing team unfamiliar with driver recruiting, we used our TMSA network and research to understand the current driver job market. We sought advice from colleagues we met through TMSA to learn the best driver recruiting practices and research the best media for ad placement, while we ultimately rested on the collective decision of the Warehouse Partner on where they wanted to advertise. We believe that the results from RLS Gress and our two-person marketing team with zero driver recruiting experience are blazing a trail in itself! We now use this strategy layout for all recruitment marketing:
1) understanding how the Warehouse Partner currently recruits and their pain points
2) reviewing the job listing to see if it properly reflects the company and role we are trying to advertise
3) developing a strategic and appealing marketing plan 4) deploy through proper channels and measure results.
