2017 R&R Conference Kicks Off in Nashville

Hundreds of recruiting and retention professionals gathered together today at the 14th Annual Recruitment & Retention Conference in Nashville, Tenn. This annual event is one-of-a-kind and gives carriers the opportunity to network with other industry professionals and educate themselves on how to face driver recruiting and retention challenges with innovative strategies. The 2017 conference is filled with a strong lineup of speakers beginning with this morning’s general session with Oliver Feakins, digital marketer and leader of Track5Media. Feakins kicked off our conference with some great insight into utilizing digital media for recruitment efforts and how carriers can navigate social media in a successful way.

Following this morning’s general session, several workshops were offered throughout the day. We heard from a panel of drivers representing the American Trucking Association’s Road Captains about what carriers can do to improve driver recruiting and retention from a driver’s perspective in “View From the Driver’s Seat.” Steve Sichterman, vice president from ConversionU, discussed utilizing video technology for driver retention in his workshop “Using Video-Based Technology to Improve Driver Retention.” Other workshops offered during breakout sessions included: “Driving Decisions Using Digital & Social Media Marketing KPIs,” “Using Data to Improve Your Driver Compensation Plan,” “How to Grow Your Fleet & Not Just Fill the Trucks You Have Today,” “Recruiting & Retaining Drivers for Small to Mid-Size Fleets,” “Autopilot Didn’t Replace Pilots: How Technology Advances the Role of the Driver,” “Your Data is Talking to You About Driver Retention, Are You Listening?”, “Analysis: Driver Online Behavior,” “What’s Your Brand Worth: Protecting Your Intellectual Property,” “Top 10 Tips for Best Practices in Employment Verifications & Other Background Checks,” and “Recruiting Networking Roundtable.”

In between breakout sessions, attendees had the opportunity to go to two additional general sessions. In the second general session, ATA’s chief economist Bob Costello spoke on how data, trends and other information should impact recruiting and retention decisions. Emmy-nominated actor John Ratzenberger, best known for playing mail carrier Cliff Clavin on the long-running NBC sitcom “Cheers,” gave us his entertaining view about the importance of valuing drivers and how that plays into driver retention during the day’s last general session.

It was incredible to hear all the great feedback from today’s conference attendees. Everyone found the workshops from this year’s Recruitment & Retention Conference extremely helpful and informative. We can’t wait to hear what’s in store tomorrow!