Attracting and retaining talented workers has become a challenge for most industries in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. From the Great Resignation to quiet quitting, the impact of the pandemic on the workplace landscape has been dramatic. Many employers now find themselves in the midst of a talent war, constantly seeking innovative ways to win prospective hires.
In the delivery industry, staffing is especially challenging. The workload is ever-increasing; deadlines are tight; and the drivers who serve on the front lines often find themselves playing the role of brand ambassador, managing the expectations of customers and the stress that often accompanies that interaction.
Anar Mammadov knows better than most what it takes to manage a successful delivery business. As CEO of Senpex — a logistics company that provides on-demand pickup and delivery services for businesses including retail stores, grocery stores, restaurants, health companies, e-commerce shops, and marketplaces — Anar has learned that simply providing a paycheck is rarely enough to keep the best drivers motivated and performing well.
“A growing company requires a growing staff where people are motivated to do their best work,” Anar explains. “At Senpex, we make sure that all of our teams, from sales to dispatch to data analytics, have incentives that are meaningful to them. That way, they can be rewarded for their performance and create a level of success that rewards our clients as well.”
How data analytics drives employee performance
The success that Senpex consistently delivers for its clients has a lot to do with the ways that Anar and his teams leverage data. From its AI-driven route optimization to workload forecasting, Senpex’s logistics platform is constantly gathering, analyzing, and using data to achieve the best delivery outcomes.
Internally, Anar uses that data to encourage operational efficiency and reward employees for meeting operational goals.
“The data provided by our analytical dashboards, which tracks our success at fulfilling orders on time, is the same data used to drive our employees’ bonus plans,” says Anar. “When they bring more profit to the company by helping us to achieve an excellent delivery record, it results in more profit for themselves as well. It’s a great motivator that everyone can see, understand, and contribute to.”
Senpex has also sought to attract and retain quality workers by providing a hybrid workplace model. The flexibility has become a non-negotiable for many job seekers in the post-Covid world. For Anar’s team, it provides opportunities to balance the demands of work and family.
Creating a rewarding environment for drivers
Delivery demand exploded with the Covid pandemic, when many looked to services like DoorDash and Amazon to keep them supplied despite stay in place orders. As a result, companies like Senpex face a lot of competition as they seek to add quality drivers to their team.
“Our drivers, which include more than 8,000 employees spread across the US, play a critical role in our success,” says Anar. “So we do a lot to make sure that they are cared for and well compensated.”
A better pay structure is at the top of the list of benefits that Senpex extends to its driving team. On top of that, drivers earn bonuses when their metrics, such as number of deliveries and consistency of on-time deliveries, meet certain thresholds.
“We have developed and deployed very strategic performance metrics for our drivers that allow them to receive performance bonuses on top of their base salary,” Anar shares. “The feedback that we have received is that our drivers are very happy with it, especially when they compare it with what our competitors offer.”
Senpex also provides its drivers with a high level of flexibility in terms of when they work, how often they work, and the type of deliveries that they are assigned. In addition, by utilizing the analytical dashboard to forecast the volume of deliveries that can be expected at any given time, Senpex ensures that it has a sufficient delivery team, meaning drivers are rarely overloaded.
“At Senpex, we have focused on creating a work environment where ambitious, driven, results-oriented people can find a rewarding career,” Anar says. “I believe that is the key to building a team that will drive success in 2022 and beyond.”
