Top Trucking Trends From WorkHound

Mar 28, 2023 - 2 years ago

Annual feedback report analyzes 100K comments from drivers to identify central themes and opportunities to improve retention

WorkHound, a leader in employee feedback management for frontline workforce industries, has announced the results of its Annual Driver Trends report. The report compiles employee feedback data from 99,967 anonymous comments collected from 32,600 truck drivers across 109 carriers, providing an in-depth analysis of driver concerns, challenges, and key trends within the industry.

"The trucking industry continues to face inflationary pressures, record-high fuel prices, and ongoing supply chain disruptions," said Max Farrell, co-founder and CEO at WorkHound. "Coupled with the long hours and often stressful working conditions inherent to truck driving, burnout and turnover rates have reached an all-time high. On the heels of a year filled with unpredictability, retaining employees remains a top priority for carrier companies."

To simplify the data, the report categorized driver comments into 13 standard themes. Within the themes, researchers also measured sentiment. The top positive themes were Praise, People, and Home Time. This feedback included messages of gratitude, often recognizing the perks drivers appreciate, showing a clear indication that company culture is an important factor. For the first time in the report's history, Praise was the leading theme, accounting for 24,000+ comments, or about 24% of all feedback.

The top negative themes were Communication, Pay and Logistics. This type of feedback pointed to complex pay, unclear training, and other issues that made drivers' jobs more difficult. The top negative themes often overlap, highlighting confusion about compensation and job dynamics. This illustrates the need for carriers to improve communications, especially for new hires.

While anonymity is a pillar of the WorkHound platform, if employers believe they can resolve an issue through direct employee contact, they can reach out to request the driver's identity. If the driver chooses to reveal their identity, WorkHound data shows that fast action leads to better retention rates. In aggregate, companies using WorkHound retained 11,843 drivers last year for at least 30 days post-reveal, accounting for an 87.8% post-reveal retention rate.

WorkHound additionally found that companies who regularly contact their employees following a negative submission have higher overall satisfaction scores. This suggests empathetic engagement positively impacts relationships and, in turn, retention rates. With this in mind, the company is adding a 2-way anonymous messaging feature to its platform, allowing managers to chat with workers to resolve issues in real time.

Farrell continued, "WorkHound's Annual Trends Report sheds light on the critical issues faced by the industry's most valuable assets, its drivers, and the invaluable benefits reaped by providing your workforce with a platform to express their thoughts, concerns, and needs."

Click here to access the full WorkHound Annual Trends Report.

About WorkHound
WorkHound was founded with the mission of helping people love the work they do. Built specifically for the frontline workforce, WorkHound has given thousands of employees a voice with a real-time, anonymous feedback platform. Through insightful analytics that hone in on business issues, WorkHound has helped companies of all sizes retain frontline workers, boost profitability, and save money. Initially launched in the trucking industry where the average driver turnover rate is 95 percent, WorkHound has expanded its platform to support real-time feedback for all frontline and distributed workers.

Source: WorkHound