Bruce Outridge

Recruiting with Social Media

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Bruce

In this day and age things change faster than you can shake a stick at it and if you don’t keep up on the latest fads you can feel left in the dust. Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few years you know that social media is not only the latest fad, but looks as though it is here to stay as well. The same people who a few years ago said I will never use those platforms are now hooked on them daily. I don’t exclude myself from that group at all, in fact a few years ago I couldn’t see the point of a Facebook page, tweeting the latest dinner menu, hooking up with old colleagues on LinkedIn or posting my foolishness on YouTube. Three years later not only do I have multiple Facebook business pages, people from all over the world following my tweets on Twitter, have hundreds of connections on LinkedIn, and am all over YouTube, but I teach it to other businesses to help them improve their marketing presence. Go figure! What made me switch to accepting the platforms? It wasn’t the latest menu of what someone had for dinner last night, or that I thought I was missing the party by not being on it, it just made sense. By using social media you have access to the whole world and that fact my friend is hard to ignore, especially if you are in business. Now you may think that is all well and good but how do I recruit using social media and more importantly why should I?

Like I said earlier the whole world is on it, and I bet you hundred dollars that your staff is on it as well whether they are on the road as drivers and owner operators or in the office and home every night. Heck my wife sits in a chair in our living room and watches her iphone send Facebook messages every two minutes. I told her she needs a life so she is checking that out with her friends on Facebook. The point is with the new technology out there people are using social media for more than communication, it’s their entertainment. Your drivers and staff are the same. They’re on the platforms and their friends are on the platforms. Think about it this way, if you ask someone for their phone number what happens? They used to write it on a piece of paper or a napkin and send it to you. Now when you ask someone for their phone number before you finish your sentence they have sent you an electronic business card via email or text. If you give someone your phone number they say hold on, pull out their phone, and set up a contact for you right away. Now let’s get back to recruiting, if two drivers are sitting in a truck stop restaurant and one asks the other who they work for and if they are looking for drivers what do you think the other driver does? He pulls out his phone, asks for the other persons email or phone number and sends them the business card for the company. Or if a driver says how can I find out more about your company I am interested in working there, you’re driver can say, “Oh you should check out our blog, or they always update Twitter with the latest information for us.” Everything is right there and if you’re not on social media then that information may not be getting passed on. It’s not about whether you want to use it or not, it’s about how the world is communicating in general. I tell people to try and look at the big picture, if the world is using social media to communicate, then you are part of the world and should be at least looking at using it to communicate!

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership coach from the Southern Ontario area of Canada. He can be reached through his website at http://www.outridge.ca

Are you leading by example?

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Bruce

1 Comment

Think hard about that question, are you leading by example? There is a thin line between walking the talk and walking the walk once you are in a supervisory position. Sometimes for new supervisors the position can go to their heads to the point that they manage themselves right out of a job. Now there are many schools of thought on this and they can all be right or wrong depending on the circumstances of the particular situation. In general however, you should be trying to lead by example and walking the walk. Now when I say the walk I am not talking about doing the job of your team, but doing your own job. Your job is managing your team, helping them solve performance problems, operational problems, and supporting them through training and advice. Where I see many supervisors missing the boat is in the support area. Think about it, when there is a performance issue your on top of it, when there is a problem with equipment your on it and have it fixed. What about support issues? What is happening when things are going good? How are you addressing training issues and supporting your team? Most supervisors wait until there is a problem and then start looking for training to fix the problem. At that point it is too late; you are working in emergency mode trying to put out the fires. When you should be looking for training is when things are going good and you want to improve your team. Doing it the other way is like showing up to the fire, and then having to search for a water source, by the time you find it you’re house is already burned down. By focusing on improvement you are looking for a water source at the fire station before the fire alarm goes off. Think about that scenario and now think about your team, where do you need to improve?

It may be that your team is running along fine, so it may be an issue of cross training people to make sure positions are covered should there be an illness. By cross training a person they can let go of some old habits, learns some new skills, and it makes your business more flexible should there be problems down the road. You may even find a diamond in the rough that better suits a position that you had not thought about. Entrepreneurs and quality team leaders are always looking for ways to make an operation better and not everything needs to cost an arm and a leg.

If you’re not sure of the interests of the people of your team then it’s time to have some interviews to review performance, goals, etc. To me training should be goal oriented. If you’re waiting for a problem to happen before you start training them something is wrong. Think preventative, there is a reason police and fireman are trained before they start work and not after. So how do you lead by example in this area, look to improve team performance before problems start? Suggest ways to improve the team and ask for input from the team members when no problems are apparent and you will find everyone will be more focused therefore making your business more efficient, focused, and profitable.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a leadership and business consultant specializing in the transportation industry. You can view information, programs, and services on his website at http://www.outridge.ca

Do I need customer service as an owner operator?

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Bruce

3 Comments

Most drivers and owner operators forget the importance of customer service because they don’t feel that they have to deal with the clients directly. They are very wrong and in a big way. If you are an owner operator have you thought about who your clients are in reality? Doing this exercise may surprise you if you take it seriously. So let’s look at how you affect the clients while conducting deliveries and communicating with clients. If you run the open board you may not concern yourself with customer service because many drivers don’t think they will return to that client unless they are on dedicated run. The truth is that any client that ships or receives goods with the company by truck deserves the best customer service available from every driver. In the industry we hear about customer service departments, business executives, and don’t see how we are involved in the important aspects of the client but the truth is that each customer has a number of points of contact that the company will be in contact with them. So what are those points?

Usually for any large contracts the top executives or appointed sales force will be involved and that will be the first point and most important in the beginning. That will be the point where all of the negotiations will take place to secure the customer’s freight contract. Once that point is completed it will diminish in contact to a point, but is still a critical point in the process. The next point will be the transport company internal client service department, such as customer service, order management, and so on. This point of contact is also critical and may or may not be in direct contact with the client depending on the order management system. This second point may also be done by a third party such as a load broker or load board service, but is still critical to great client service. The next point is you, the driver and may be the most critical point of all for the company. You are the live person dealing with another live person and basically could be the face of the company. Whether you are dealing with a receiver on the dock, a shipper in the yard, or phoning the front office for directions you are the face of the company and should be representing them as such. How you dress, the way you talk, and the ways you act are all important to how the client views your company. Are you pleasant to be around, are you patient when waiting for the load, is your trailer organized and clean? Or are you the opposite, have a filthy trailer, you haven’t showered in a few days, and are tired and grumpy, just a picture of professionalism to be sarcastic. Everyone has a part to play and you need to do yours.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a leadership and business consultant specializing in the transportation industry. He can be reached at http://www.outridge.ca

Patience is a virtue, do you have any?

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Bruce

Leave a Comment

If you read my post from last week you will see the 12 steps of professionalism that I think are important to becoming a professional driver. The steps also relate to anyone dealing with customers, coworkers, etc. Life on the road can be downright stressful to say the least, people who can’t drive or delays at companies, busy city centres and the like. Patience is critical to survival in the transportation industry. I am not sure who told certain drivers that if you yell, scream, and jump up and down you will get loaded faster, but that is common place on many docks across the country. So how do you handle the pressure of a delay?

First know what your policy is for delays. If you’re a driver do you know at what point your company starts to charge clients for delays? At what point is a co-worker, not replying back to a project detail causing your productivity to suffer? Most of us hound someone to get the results desired, but that doesn’t help team spirit, work relationships, or get that task finished to the standards required. First take a deep breath and remain calm. Educate the person on the importance of completing the task and that at a certain point the company will start charging for the delay. If that doesn’t start moving things any faster send them another reminder and inform your supervisor of the delay and the former discussion with the person involved. After that keep an eye on your time, move on with another project and make sure you note when the task was completed so you can inform your supervisor. Make sure to take down details of the person involved or department and any other particulars. Now I must stress that you don’t get hostile during this process, but keep your cool and explain that you have a job to do. The reason that it is important to document the situation is to give the company back up in order to either fix the delay or get compensated for the delay. I hear a lot of people complain about delays, but when you ask them specifics of the delay they can’t remember. Better yet is they complain to the boss but don’t have any particulars to back up their claim. If that’s the case it may as well not even happened. When I am managing projects from clients I mark down dates that they reply. It helps me gauge length of times for project estimates, but more important is when they come back to tell me the project took too long I can pull out a file showing the approval process and how long it took them to reply and so on.

Don’t let your productivity suffer because of someone else’s situation. Take ownership of your position.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a leadership consultant specializing in the transportation industry. More information on Bruce can be found at http://www.outridge.ca

12 Steps of Professionalism

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Bruce

1 Comment

A professional driver is more than someone who can just drive a big rig down the highway, there are regulations, hours of service and more to worry about. That’s not to mention the the load your carrying etc. Below are my 12 steps to being a professional driver. These are not in the order of importance, but there is a reason for outlining them this way, see if you can find out why:

Patience
Respect
Ownership
Friendly
Equipment
Safety
Strategic
Integrity
Orderly
Negotiable
Accountable
Licensed

I’ll go into the specific steps in future posts, but if you are professional driver see how many of these steps you need to improve on to make you the true professional that you are.

About the Author

Bruce outridge is a motivational speaker on leadership for the transportation industry. More information can be found at http://www.outridge.ca