Te Road to Diversity


BY JEFF FLEMING Guest Writer


Let me share with you a few thoughts on


how we can attract and retain diverse talent in the trucking industry. First, the commitment to diversify the workforce must come from the people seated at the highest levels of the organizations. Tey must give the green light and be an active sponsor to build the roadmap to make this happen. Te first step is the easiest. Utilize


your college recruiting efforts to identify potential candidates for internships and entry level management positions. Tis will allow you to diversify your workforce from the ground up. Te next phase of your recruiting


efforts should focus on injecting experienced talent into middle management or director level positions. Tis phase may be a little more challenging. Just hiring diverse talent from other carriers is not going to add talent; it just moves it from one seat to another. We must find talent that has been successful in other industries that may have transferable skills that can be applied to trucking. Talent from other transportation industries like airlines or railroads may have experience that can be applied to trucking. Candidates from other industries that have experience with leading cross-functional teams, operations management, and developing strategies and a proven track record of delivering results can add value in trucking. Attending conferences for professional organizations in logistics, supply chain and engineering are a great opportunities to engage talent. Finally, hire talent at the officer or executive


levels within your organization. Leveraging executive search firms for this level will help you find diverse candidates. Now, if you are thinking, you haven’t read


anything in this article that you aren’t already doing, that’s great. Diversity recruiting should be easy. By making minor tweaks to your current recruiting strategies, you should see a


Association or Women in Engineering. If you are already using executive recruiting


firms, make sure diverse candidates are in the pool. Regardless of which level you are hiring for,


ensuring that you have female and minority candidates in your pool gives them the opportunity to compete. Once that happens, you will be surprised at just how quickly your road to a diverse workforce will actually get paved. Once the hiring decisions are made,


you must have a strategy to keep the talent. If you are truly starting at ground zero, you may need to hire multiple candidates at the same time to help them have a sense of community within your organization. Tese candidates will be looking for leaders within your organization that they feel that they relate with and aspire to be one day. Not having diversity in your leadership roles may be discouraging, and you will have to work harder to keep them. Tey have to see a possible career path that will be supported by sponsors, regular feedback, mentoring and developmental opportunities.


more diverse applicant pool. If you are doing college recruiting, add universities that cater to females and minorities to your list. You can also ask the universities that you currently visit to make sure that the students that you interview are representative of the entire student population. If you are already attending conferences,


expand your list to include those that you know target minority attendees like those for traditionally African-American fraternities and sororities, National Hispanic MBA


So this road to diversity may seem long. It


will have its share of hills, curves, and even a few potholes. As you are traveling, the faces in your organization start to change. You will see new perspectives to solve problems, develop solutions and a positive impact to your bottom line. At the end of your journey, you should see that diversity is just good for business. NT


Jeff Fleming is the senior manager of regional transportation operations at Walmart Transporation in Bentonville, Arkansas.


NEBRASKA TRUCKER — ISSUE 4, 2016 — www.nebtrucking.com 7


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