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The Logistics of Logistics

The Right Talent - Recruiting Training and Retaining with Ryan Schreiber

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The Right Talent – Recruiting, Training, and Retaining with Ryan Schreiber

Ryan Schreiber and Joe Lynch discuss what it takes to recruit the right talent in the transportation and logistics industry. While Ryan is very much a techie, he believes that people are the ultimate competitive advantage. In the interview, Ryan shares his perspective on recruiting, training and retaining the right talent.

About Ryan Schreiber

Ryan is the Director of Engagement at CarrierDirect in Chicago. Ryan was born and raised in Tampa Florida. Ryan earned a degree in History from the University of South Florida and then a Law degree from Michigan State University.  Prior to joining CarrierDirect, Ryan worked at a variety of logistics companies and even started and exited a few tech-enabled freight brokerage start-ups. Ryan is a skilled technologist and strategist who has helped transform many leading transportation and logistics companies. In Ryan’s experience great technology is important but finding and keeping the right people is the key to success in the 3PL business.

About CarrierDirect

Since 2011 carriers, 3PLs, shippers, and logistics technology vendors have looked to CarrierDirect to deliver the efficiency, strategy, go-to-market plans, and technology that will elevate their business above their competition. CarrierDirect builds organizations and relationships, providing strategy and technology designed to maximize efficiency, reduce cost and make your business stand out. CarrierDirect advises clients on the elements of their business most vital to success: strategy, organizational structure, compensation, technology, training, recruiting, workflows, processes, and more. CarrierDirect clients include Werner, J.B. Hunt, Covenant, CRST, and FedEx.

The Right Talent

  • The right talent is the talent that will succeed in your organization, not just look good on a resume. To recruit the right talent, recruiters must understand the organization, industry, job responsibilities, and company culture.
  • Turnover is very high in the transportation and logistics industry, which indicates that the people that get recruited to the company are not the people who ultimately succeed at the company. High turnover is demoralizing, upsetting to customers, costly, and negatively impacts company culture.

Recruiting the Right Talent

  • Many companies in the logistics and transportation business are “winging it” when it comes to recruiting and it shows. This is particularly true with start-ups where the founders and early hires do most of the work. The informal recruiting process works well when the company is new, and the founders hire their contacts and friends, but the informal process breaks down as the company grows. Just as the company is scaling, they realize that their recruiting process isn’t working anymore.
  • Ryan compares the recruiting process to the sales process and believes the right candidate can be hired by following a sales process:
    • Lean generation: Target and attract the right talent. Make sure your recruiters really have their finger on the pulse of the organization and the industry. They should also do their homework so they know exactly the type of person they would like to interview and eventually hire.
    • Qualifying: Standardize the interviewing process and develop interview guidelines so there is consistency. In order to develop the guidelines, you must understand what type of people succeed in the organization.
    • Closing: Recruitment is the precursor to the experience a candidate will have with your organization. Provide the candidate the best experience possible so that when you find the right talent, you get them.
  • Design a recruiting process much as you would design a customer’s experience. Consider each step in the process to ensure the candidate is treated properly. Communication throughout the process is crucial. Don’t oversell, keep your commitments and treat the candidate like you would treat your best customer.

Training the Right Talent

  • Ryan believes that many logistics companies do a poor job of training and development. The nature of the industry makes it difficult to pull employees away from day-to-day operations. While this may be true, the lack of training becomes evident in the business. Untrained and under-trained employees are not performing at their highest levels and they may never completely understand the job they were hired to do.
  • Training is not just for new hires, everyone in the organization should be trained, coached and developed to ensure that everyone is getting better at their job. The right training will have a good return on investment, improve customer satisfaction, and deepen the ties to the employees who get trained.
  • Companies should have the following training: 1. New hire training and development. 2. Ongoing training to reinforce learning while incorporating new software features, new processes, and lessons learned. 3. Developmental training for employees who are promoted into leadership positions and or lateral moves to expand their knowledge.
  • People in leadership positions should be coaching their people on a regular basis. To ensure that the coaching is constructive and positive, leaders should be training in effective coaching techniques.
  • Training should include supply chain topics, so employees learn about the whole supply chain, from end to end and not just their small piece of the process.

Key Takeaways

  • Even in the technology-obsessed logistics industry, people matter. The talent war is real. To succeed companies, need to: recruit, train, and retain the right talent.
  • Invest in the right talent and build a culture that attracts the right people to your company.

Learn More

Ryan Schreiber LinkedIn

CarrierDirect

CarrierDirect Office Hours (please subscribe on Youtube)

Understanding Your Sales Personality with Ryan Schreiber and Ann Holm (podcast interview coming soon)

The Logistics of Logistics Podcast