june2023 - 33

MANAGEMENT
" That's a fixable issue, " he said. " The company
would reach out to address that [issue], and
they retained a team member because of that.
" But there are also times where they share a
comment and they don't want to reveal their
identity, " Farrell continued. " [The shop worker]
wants to stay anonymous and the company
still wants to try to resolve that issue. "
The WorkHound co-founder shared a real
trucking scenario where a trainer made two
female drivers feel uncomfortable.
" You're in the truck 24 hours a day, so you
don't want to pick up the phone and say, 'Hey,
this person's crazy,' " he reasoned. " You want to
be able to confidentially share that here's the
issue at hand. "
And in an environment where drivers
and technicians are in demand, time is of
the essence for companies to address any
employee grievance.
" A technician can be happy on Tuesday, fed
up on Wednesday, and quit by the end of the
week-and then be in orientation somewhere
else on Monday, " Farrell said. " It's that volatile. "
Instant feedback also allows management
to move more quickly than acting on market
data alone. For instance, anonymous feedback
from technicians can tell a company that the
shop down the road is offering a few more
dollars an hour, and they can adjust to become
more competitive and retain their workforce-
which typically costs far less than hiring a
new employee.
Companies set up who sees the alerts,
which could include supervisors, directors,
and human resources. While a shop supervisor
may dismiss employee complaints about
equipment safety, HR can measure those anonymous
comments against other locations in
" The goal here is
to make the
company better
and help the
workforce be a
better version
of itself. "
Max Farrell, WorkHound
CEO and co-founder
the company to discern if there's a systemic
problem and act on it, Farrell offered.
" We work with each company to sort out
a structure, because one of the challenges of
workforce listening is that if you only have one
person receiving that information, the company
is not able to digest it and learn from it and
then evolve. "
So far, customer engagement has gone up
950% through use of the chat, according to
WorkHound's product team.
" It's more user friendly and allows for
quicker resolution, which helps even more
with retention, " said Jennifer Clark, experience
improvement manager at USA Truck, a
WorkHound customer.
The platform was originally created to bust
systemic trucker turnover-trucking companies
may experience 95% driver turnover
annually. In the time since WorkHound started
in 2018, the company has grown to include
other transportation frontline workers, including
technicians.
And the insights gleaned from surveys sent
through the app can help fleets monitor workforce
stability, just as telematics data informs
them of pending engine trouble.
WorkHound users are also aided by a
customer success team that works closely with
each company using the platform.
" They have regularly scheduled calls to talk
through the feedback, share some of the findings
in the data, and just serve as an adviser
to the company, " Farrell said. " The benefit is
that we get tens of thousands of comments, and
watch countless companies go through some
of these challenges, so we're able to say, 'Hey,
we've seen this problem before-here's a way
to approach that.' "
The app doesn't do all the work, though.
" Ultimately, it's on the company to make that
action, " Farrell said.
The results suggest that customers are acting
on the feedback in a positive way. Farrell said in
2022, " 88% of the time, a worker who revealed
their identity stayed with the company at least
30 days after. "
Whether the feedback is generated from a
company prompt, or comes via an unsolicited
anonymous worker, management should see
it all as useful data, Farrell argued.
" You can either take feedback as a gift or as
an insult, " he said. " The goal here is to make
the company better and help the workforce
be a better version of itself. If there's a gut
punch, the company needs to ask, 'How might
we get better from this?' And if you have that
attitude, then you're able to really improve as
an organization. "
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June 2023 | FleetMaintenance.com
33
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