Driving Force, a taskforce created by the ABA’s Women in Buses Council to help address the driver shortage issue in the motorcoach industry, has released a Recruitment & Retention Toolkit to help motorcoach companies — small and large — attract and retain their most important asset: drivers.

“Even before the COVID pandemic shut down the industry last year, many companies were turning away jobs because they had a driver shortage,” said Erin Ducharme, ABA’s Women in Buses chair and finance director at Bloom Tour & Charter Services in Taunton, Mass. “Driving Force was created to help the entire industry and companies of all sizes to attract and retain drivers. This is an amazing industry and those who do drive will tell you there is no other job that allows you to see the country like this job. We wanted to share the joy of working for this industry with those who may be looking for a new career and help companies who don’t have an HR person still recruit great employees.”

The Toolkit is broken into two sections:

RECRUITMENT

• Elevator Pitch

• Messaging

• Creating a Hiring Video

• Crafting a Job Listing

• Using Your Website

• Posting Jobs on Social Media

• Listing on Hiring Websites

• Targeting New Segments

• Getting the Word Out

RETENTION

• Orientation and Onboarding

• Assign Mentors

• Develop an Employee Communication Plan

• Provide Performance Feedback

• Celebrate Success

• Measure, Analyze, React & Repeat

The Toolkit is available to all motorcoach companies in the industry and can be accessed at buses.org/about/drivingforce.