Members share tips to recruit, retain carriers at roundtable

More than 20 circulation and marketing professionals came together on March 3 to discuss ideas for how to creatively recruit and retain carriers. Attendees, gathered on the Wednesday morning video conference, shared some best practices as well as what they’ve seen not work well.

I-SCMA President Joe Nealon kicked off the discussion then turned the call over to Training Committee Chair and Regional Director Susan Probert. While walking through a deck capturing some examples of recruitment and retention ideas, Susan invited Advance Local’s George Dyevoich and others to describe some materials they had shared prior to the meeting.

Recruitment:

• • Best carrier recruits have a full-time job and are looking for a side hustle
  • Front page strip ads work best for carrier recruiting
  • Ads can show how carriers could use money earned to pay bills, e.g. car, insurance, cable etc.
  • Large yellow posters tacked to telephone poles on an open route drive more leads than classified ads.
  • Also helpful: tear-offs placed in high foot traffic locations like laundromats, churches, YMCA, Legion halls, etc.
  • Facebook’s job section worked well to drive a lot of inquiries and carries no expense. One member explained how they created a ghost account to avoid tying it to a personal profile.
  • Work with your local marketing or ad team to develop a complete strategy including print, Facebook, job sites like Indeed, Craigslist, etc.
  • Avoid sharing an income range in ads as they may set unrealistic expectations and hinder retention
  • Grocery store digital racks can run carrier ads; a digital version of flyers on community boards.

Retention:

• • Interview with intelligence: be specific about the responsibilities of the opportunity
  • Don’t lead with seven-day commitment and instead highlight unique ability of contractors to use substitutes
  • Optimize routes for profitability, but be careful not to make routes too large
  • Care about your carriers. Listen to their concerns and act on them
  • Incentives and thank you trinkets may be appreciated. Things like lottery tickets, winter gloves, and small gift cards work well. Some promotional websites: Ray Lyon at Lyon Enterprises and I-SCMA Business Partner Prime Time Promotions.

A copy of the deck presented during the roundtable is available at this link.

Attendees also learned about a new I-SCMA Slack channel to help members connect and get quick answers to questions. Interested in getting connected? Send a quick note to this email and we’ll get you into the platform so you can ask roundtable attendees direct questions.