3B Analysis: The Truck Driver Crisis
How the lorry driver shortage in the UK impacts the recruitment sector
Due to a combination of Covid, Brexit, and other factors, the UK is suffering a driver shortage that has affected petrol stations, supermarkets, and left containers piled up at the ports. For those of you wondering how serious the problem is, we can recap — very. More than 100,000 qualified drivers are now needed in the UK, according to a survey conducted by the Road Haulage Association (RHA). This includes thousands of drivers from European Union (EU) members who previously lived and worked in the UK.
Despite concerns over the delivery of food, fuel and other items in the run-up to Christmas, the government is taking a number of steps to address the shortage of HGV drivers, which they believe should at the very least minimize the harmful impact over the British economy. One of those steps is issuing more than 10,000 work visas for foreigners in the hopes that this will stabilize the situation.
Most Britons have already experienced some of the negative effects under the form of shortage of petrol at some petrol stations and increased price on the consumer goods. However, around Christmas the situation may become a lot more complex with the increase of online and in-store purchases while the number of people who can get those products to the stores and warehouses is highly insufficient. According to Andrew Openy of the British Retail Consortium, the plans for 10,500 work visas will not be enough, as supermarkets alone require at least 15,000 drivers to fill their shelves by Christmas.
So how HGV driver shortages affects the logistics recruitment? The big companies are already reacting to this change by fiercely trying to attract and retain HGV drivers almost at all costs. For example, Tesco offers a £1000 signing bonus, Aldi increased wages for their drivers and Waitrose has done both.
Staffing and recruiting companies now have the unique opportunity to show what they are made of. Those with impeccable software, advanced features and well-designed systems in place will be able to set themselves as leaders and get more work than ever before. Like most other sectors, we believe that less than 20% of the staffing companies on the market will get more than 80% of the available work. Businesses are either made or broken in adverse moments, and we are here to help you be on the winning side.
At 3B Onboarding we can offer a wide range of highly customizable and advanced tools which will help you source potential employees through job portals and offline channels. Candidate onboarding is made incredibly simple, allowing you to further classify applications, check compliance documents and do the screening almost automatically. Needless to say, this saves you time and money, making it a highly cost-effective solution for which you don’t have to give much thought. We provide you with the tools to offer your clients better candidates faster than anyone else.
But we didn’t stop there. Any recruiter worth his salt knows that the only thing more difficult than attracting the right talents is retaining them in the business. A study from 2012 by H. Aguinis and E. O’Boyle Jr. called “The best and the rest: Revisiting the norm of normality in individual performance,” showed that high performers are 400% more productive than average ones.
One of the greatest companies in the world knew this and fully embraced it. In one of his interviews Steve Jobs summed up talent’s importance with this advice: “Go after the cream of the cream. A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.”. Management guru Jim Collins said: “… the single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and to hang on to enough of the right people.”
So yes, talent is sacarce and this leads to fierce competition to attract and retain the best employees who can give the maximum output. You may have come across an exceptional individual, but luck will not keep that person in your company. In order for you to get to the top of your field (if you are not already there) and stay on the top, you need to have a system in place.
This is why we, at 3B Onboarding, decided to take it a step further. We’ve engineered a unique set of solutions that will help you develop the talent you have, increase managing performance and ultimately create leadership teams that make decisions and organize the company’s resources quickly and efficiently in order to seize valuable opportunities. We want to give you the opportunity to aspire your teams, assess their capabilities correctly and be proactive in this fast-paced environment. At the end of the day, those who stay relevant and stay in business are those who advance with the market.
To find out how we can help your company stay ahead of your competitors and recruit logistic workers for your clients, please visit us at www.3bonboarding.com and book a demo, so that we can show you the full spectrum of amazing tools that we can equip you with.
