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Profile Keeping business moving


The challenge of attracting and retaining talented young staff is a common topic of conversation in logistics circles. Logistics service provider Dachser, winner of BIFA’s 2017 Staff Development Award, certainly seems to be doing something right


Valuing the benefits of low staff turnover, Dachser’s human resources officer Rachel Bussey remarked: “We are always asking ourselves how we can attract and retain the best talent in the marketplace, and be the employer of choice. “We entered the BIFA awards because our


apprentices and their training are extremely important to us. Career pathways and talent management are part of our future as a company in terms of succession planning – strategically, we have to guard against an ageing workforce, especially further up in the hierarchy,” she pointed out. “We are passionate about this; it is about


sustainability and keeping our business moving, not stagnating. “In winning the award and demonstrating our


credentials, we hope we are providing real, practical reassurance for the parents of young people considering applying for an apprenticeship with our company,” Bussey noted.


Multi-skilled workforce She summed up: “It is exciting. It is hard work, but so rewarding to see the apprentices successfully complete their programme, during which they will have learned a lot and matured as individuals. They realise their potential and often ask for more training to develop further.” Apprentices receive what she calls a 360


degree introduction to the business. “We discuss our expectations and theirs, and they go on what we call a ‘multimodal rotation’, spending up to three months in each of our 15 departments in Northampton,” she explained. “Our workforce is multi-skilled through


experience across all of our departments. This June 2018


Rachel Bussey of Dachser receives the BIFA Staff Development Award from Cliff Atkinson (left) of sponsor Albacore Systems, with event host Levi Roots (right)


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gives everyone a chance to build relationships, and then choose which department they want to work in. Not everyone stays with us, but the vast majority do and are having successful careers with Dachser. We guarantee a permanent position for every graduate apprentice at Dachser UK. “It is all down to how we manage the process


from the start: we treat our apprentices like employees from day one.” Further training beyond the logistics process


itself includes Level IV qualifications that cover team leadership and supervisory skills. The UK apprenticeship programme is aligned


with the Dachser Academy, and the Dual Learning (academic and practical) programmes across Dachser’s stations in Europe and beyond. Once accepted into the programme, apprentices have to be very disciplined: there is a lot to learn, and all modules must be completed. This year’s new cohort will start in September,


Bussey confirmed. “Right now I am attending apprenticeship road shows and visiting schools and colleges to find raw talent. “Following that, we contact individuals to


invite them to an open day so that they can see our operation in its true form. This gives them a chance to tour our facilities, assess the


company and meet the managers.” Bussey continued: “Often, when you ask


young people about logistics, they seem like a rabbit in the headlights! But if you ask them, for example, how their jacket got to the shop for them to buy it, they start to understand. You have to get them to identify with something. “With all the other pressures that schools are


under, including the wide array of targets they have to meet, I do not think schools are always able to educate students sufficiently in work choices and they do not always sell careers days the right way,” she felt.


Apprenticeship numbers Dachser’s apprenticeship programme has been running for a number of years, and was given an even greater impetus in 2017 with the introduction of ‘open days’ and a widening of outreach efforts in general. The number of apprenticeships has been increasing year on year – a measure of the success of the programme. As for building on that success: “We want to


bring all our apprentices together for an evaluation session to see what we can do better,” Bussey said. “We will run the first of these workshops by the end of 2018 and then repeat them every year.”


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