Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast

National Recruiting and Recruiting Symposium

September 24, 2021 John Farquhar & Chris Harris Season 2 Episode 1
Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast
National Recruiting and Recruiting Symposium
Show Notes Transcript

Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast 
Our guest this week is Kim Richardson discussing the National Recruiting Symposium. 

More info here: https://transrep.ca/symposium/ October 28 and 29, 2021 

Nominate: "The National Recruiter of the Year Award" https://transrep.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Recruiter-of-the-Year-Award-2021.pdf 

REGISTER for the NRRS: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/national-recruiting-and-retention-symposium-tickets-74917088027 

Contact Us: 
John@summitrisksolutions.ca 
summitrisksolutions.ca 

Chris Harris 
Chris@safetydawg.com 
safetydawg.com

And welcome to the newly named Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast. Yeah. John and I have now come up with a name for the podcast where two bearded guys, two bearded old farts of safety, taken an irreverent. Look at trucking safety, risk and insurance. So join us. Our first guest for the new podcast is Mr. Kim Richardson or a good friend, and we are discussing the NRR S symposium. So join us unnamed podcast. Whoa, I forgot. We got you, gentlemen. Didn't see that some confetti just went up, but we have missed the third part. My co-host with us and Mr. Kim Richardson. Welcome Kim. How are you? I can do a great Chris. Thank you. You're welcome. We're here to talk About the legend in my mind. Oh, don't make me bless John. We are here to talk about N R R S. Well, first of all, lots of acronym, Kim, can you tell me what N R R S stands for? That stands for the national recruiting retention symposium. There we go. Cool. Nashville recruiting and retention. Suppose it. And let's get this out right now. When's it being held and where and all that kind of stuff. Well, we are hosting it October 29th, actually. It's the 28th and 29th and the 28th. There'll be a industry event in the evening of celebration for industry along with a or kickoff or silent auction that evening having a few cocktails. Librations that work. And then Friday we'll get things rocking and rolling with a full agenda. Cool, John, you good? I, I I've seen the agenda. It's looking really good. Yeah. I've got some good speakers and conversations that are going to be had. That's going to be great. All right. And just move on to Friday. So Thursday, you've got a live auction. Yeah, it's a silent auction, silent auction. Are you supporting somebody? What's the purpose? Well, you're going to love this. It's all 100% of the proceeds are going to be going to secret charity and it's not the John Farr car. Kim Richardson. Damn. All right. I guess that will be announced sometime what Thursday evening. That evening. Yeah, the whole, the audience on Thursday, we'll hear about the secret charity and why it's called the secret charity right now. We're pretty excited about it. So people that are there, first of all, have an opportunity to add them. Then Friday, probably up until about noon. People were there for the full day of that allowed an opportunity to bed. And then there'd be an announcement made, obviously with the winners. We got some amazing prize itself. This industry just never disappoints. Cool, great support. Awesome. Can you give us an example of an awesome prize? Like maybe that would encourage somebody to register and come out to the event. Wow. Wow. You know what? I don't want to, don't want to say that one is better than the other, because they're all just such amazing prizes to a one that's I'll give you two that are industry related PMTC is donated abroad sponsorship to next year's conference, which is a big, big dollar value. And that's probably, <inaudible> A little applause in there for PMTC. Yeah. And avatar fleet. They're donating are pretty cool prize. It is a marketing video, which they do really, really well. There's a guy over there, but they have a marketing market. He's put a number of videos together for companies and they're donating a one video it's that's $20,000 that will be produced by avatar marketing mark. So that I feel like I'm at a hockey game. It's the haves versus the leaves. I must be, must be a regular season game that Viewers who don't know a BIST or Richardson is a Bruins fan Two favorite teams are playing. I got two favorite teams. The Berlin's anybody likes to play. There you go. Okay. So just as a, a, an aside, you had mentioned to me earlier this week, last week, I forget now that one of the other silent auction items was a round of golf. So, you know, oh, We got a few of Those, which caught my attention because I haven't played a lot of golf lately and He keeps saying that, but every time I pled it, knock it down the middle of the fairway, like nobody's tomorrow, I had an unbelievable round. That was really good with you. Is this free round of golf that you could win? Is that with somebody or is that, do you get to pick your own forklift? Yeah. So that's a great question. Yeah. That's a great question, John, because the one auction item golf is at the amazing Mondale golf and country club, which is four rounds of golf and carts. And we're working on tying a dinner to that as well. If we, we can make that happen. The other round, the golf that we have right now is with industry celebrity, Lisa Arsenault, she's a member over in green and Regine. She's donated three rounds and the cards and you get to go and play granite ranch with Lisa because that's very cool. It was like a good one. So there a silent auction it's supporting a charity that's Thursday night. What's the date of that? Again? That would be October 28th. And not that lions had a client's golf club and conference center. That's the song Then the beautiful. Yeah. And where, so that was the 28th. So if I was to come on the 29th, where is it being held At the same place, same location. And why would somebody from this wonderful trucking industry that we are all in? Why would somebody want to attend the NRR S Well, you know, it's all about recruiting and retention in this business and human resources. And at the end of the day, educating your people and getting them to benefit from somebody. Many industry experts as is only beneficial to them and their company in the industry. We've already, I think we're at about 120 registrations already. Wow. I see already this thing is going to be promoted for two years, but a little thing called COVID, but there's going to be wonderful education. We can talk about the agenda if you'd like it, what we're going to be covering, but a affordable opportunity to not work with great industry people, brush shoulders with some of the best in the business. And it is a, there will be a certificate of competency for those who attend the entire full day on a Friday. And at the end of the day, recruiting strategies are very important. Retention strategies are very important. Dealing with the management issues are very important. Well, there's a couple of things that I want to dig deeper into, into in what you said there, but the first one I'm so excited about this event, it's actually live where we can rub shoulders. Well, at least we can, it's a lie big event. Wow. Back to that. Yeah. And who knows what the protocol be like day out or night at the cocktail party? The jury still out on that, obviously at the time of the taping of this conversation, but you know, we've recently attended some live events there and you folks have as well, very comfortable. I felt very relaxed in reference to room or the calls that they put in place. Yeah. Lots of rooms. Thanks, John. There's lots of rooms. Social distancing is happening. The protocols. I know Kim you'll make sure they're in place and adhered to so whatever they may be. So agenda who might I come and listen, because one of the things I'll tell you, I believe in a whole lot is retention. You're far better to retain your best than to let them go to your competitors. So how am I going to learn about retention at the national recruiting and retention symposium? That's awesome question. Thank you. So we do have a retouching panel. There's going to be some great information there. Most people in the industry would recognize the name of Mike McCarran, the transportation Maverick. Yeah. He's he's going to moderate the panel. Cars, pencil from bison. Transport will be there. Mike Zeluck and the Wallington group of companies and Ruby Murphy Collins is coming in from the east coast, from our transportation system there to talk about all things, not a retention. That's cool of. I'm sorry. I'm looking forward to meeting. You said Ruby and the gentleman's name from Wellington. Mike. Zeluck great young man. They're doing some incredible things. I'll real Wellington and you know, armor and buys and they come as advertised. I mean, they're, they're to retention strategies are first-class and just happy that they're going to come and share some of those thoughts with the people that will be there. And what a great industry in that people like bison armor and Wellington group will come and share what they're doing so that others can copy. Cause there's no shame in doing that at all. No, John, You know what? I love it. I love it. When the carriers can come together and share best practices. And you're not worried about it because it's not about competition. There there's no plagiarism and safety. I've always said that for a long time. Here's a great opportunity for like-minded people that are doing excellent work with retention, recruiting a processes of new drivers. They just got it down, pat. So why wouldn't you want To learn that you could improve your own programs? What else has happened on the 29th? Friday, the 29th. It kicked off at seven 30 with full breakfast. What's a practice that should say, don't know how far we'll be, but there'll be yeah. Breakfast, lunch. We're gonna, we're going to give you some cocktails. The night before trout leasing is our, is our sponsor of the Thursday night. And there's going be some, some, I call it tea and crumpets on the Thursday evening, getting back to the panels and the agenda. We also have a great recruiting strategic panel or sorry, recruiting strategy panel. That's going to be moderated by Jeff topping, you know, Jeff as well on in the transportation industry from Childs or motor freight winner of the national human resource award on that panel on that panel is going to be Leanne quail from CPC logistics, James, or carrier's edge. I try not to butcher her last name, but it's just a, and suddenly now he's an intact. I did not know that. Or he didn't know that anybody out of the loop. Oh, congrats. That's a great place to be. Yeah. And then we also have, you know, I don't want to put these in any order, but we have a couple of high profile dudes. Joel Mandelbaum is gonna talk about winning online and crushing your competition visibility. He wrote an amazing book. I've read the book. The coolest thing about Joel is, you know what I mean? He cut his teeth in the trucking industry and he has a number of businesses now. And I've seen his presentations. He's going to be really good. And then Scotty, Ray of sunshine is like all Scott Ray, president of avatar is going to talk about retention. Re-invention great speaker. Very, very invigorating. Yeah. He's, he's a true pro. The 10th street is our sponsoring the national recruiter of the year award. Or we've got some amazing nominations, but the nominations are still open and all you listeners out there, there's nothing better than you can do, then promote your people or promote your company. And if you've got a recruiter or someone working in your company that would be deserving, this award, you can go to our website at trans rap and download it nominations. We've got some extra ones already. Well, and I'll make sure I put the link in the show notes below. So people can just go and click on that because you're right, Kim, you gotta be able to recognize excellence within your own organization. And it really gives a pat on the back to somebody just even to be nominated. They don't have to win. Just being recognized and nominated is a huge thing I believe. Oh for sure. And Andrea, Marley's also going to be there. You know, the health and wellness of, of our industry, every industry is important. And she's going to be there to talk about how the tracker given update is some of the terrific things are they all is doing. And I think that's going to be about it. There's going to be a couple of at working sessions. We've got a full area for people to promote at the trade show. We've got a ton of people that have already committed to that. And now there's only room for about, well, there's only room for so many and they're filling up quickly. So if you want a trade booth, very reasonably priced, I think it's, I think it's $1,500 and that includes registrations and the cocktail party. You want to get your estimation out to some decision makers. That's a great spot to be. Well, John, you've been to these in our S conferences in the past. Have you? I haven't. I was at the one that, the virtual one here Earlier this year, Last year we've ran. We were at two virtuals, maybe three during COVID. But yeah, I think this will be our third live one. Don't hold me to that. I believe I'm looking at this brochure. It was dated April 23rd, 24, 20 20. And we started postponing while we had already had so many sponsors stuck to the plate and actually paid. So we reached out to them as the lesson. What do you want to do? Do you want us to give you your money back? So why don't you run some virtual events and when you do run it again, we'll just, we've already budgeted for it. You've got, you've got the fun, so, huh, Perfect. Nice. And one of the things I like about the way you've organized the event is that we do have time to interact with the sponsors, for those who were there. You know, if you gave us enough time to go out there and investigate and see different products or sponsors or whatever it is that they want to enlightened me on. Yeah. And those breaks are going to be lengthly. So people can talk to those folks. You know what I have to give credit where credit's due. It's really important. John, Charlie, Sharon Lambdas from IHSA, he is our chairman or our individual. We'll be looking things. And he really helps organize all of this. And truly as an expert, additive, you salt bring this whole thing together. So big shout out to Charlie for sure. Cool. A great industry friend that fell. I just have trouble with his last name. It's easy. So it's really easy. Let me teach you how you say it. 'cause I, I was butchering it for years and he said, Ken, it's simple. So here's what you do you think of the singer share and then you think of a lamb and you think you're a bus bus. Yeah. His code name is Batman. Yes, it is. That's a tough job. And inside secret<inaudible>, let's put it this way. The job he has now is his second most wanted job. The first one, unfortunate it was already, well, you know, the ISA they've had Charlie as part of their team for awhile. And Charlie does. I think if there was a, well, there's a number of people that could be a poster child for volunteerism, but Charlie certainly fits in that category. He's a great human being a great for industry BRS. How happy to help us out in his spare time. He's sweet. He invest some time on the weekends with this stuff. So it's appreciated. And I don't know how many years I've known Charlie. It's quite a few. Well, I just, because I go back to, he worked for an insurance company is where I first met him. Not so many years ago. It was. And he's always been on the volunteer list and does such a great job, Martin was this how many years? Yeah, for sure. John, how many years we talk about this? The odd time we met back in the OTA days at the safety meetings, right? I'm guessing it's gotta be 30 now because I'm trying to think of my age. So I would've been in my mid thirties. I would think when I started going to the OTA safety meetings. Yeah. And I was 12 or 13. So that's been a great relationship. We really appreciate it. Know YouTube, Johnny<inaudible> you guys do a lot for our industry, including stuff like this, But John and I are just trying to have some fun and, and also promote safety and NRS right into that. Because if you can retain your best people and then recruit the best people. And when I say people I'm saying mechanics, office personnel, vice presidents, presidents, and of course, profit center operators, as you call them, you know, truck drivers for the rest of us. But Kim calls a truck driver rightfully so profit center operators. So if I can learn how to no, you're missing a word, Oh, you're missing The word. Okay. They're mobile. They're mobile profits center operators, Sorry, mobile profit profit center operators increase my knowledge on how to retain and how to recruit the best in the industry. You know, that fits right into safety because the best of course are safe or they promote. If they're a vice president, for example, then they're promoting safety. So NRS is doing a great job of bringing education to the masses and allowing people like my clients to operate a better and safer trucking company. It fits right in Chris. Can I mention one more presentation that we have that I think is going to be lights out and I'll kind of roll out our, our bets again, some folks in our industry. Well, though Kelly Anderson, she's the executive director of the trucking and resource sector council of Atlantic Canada. She's going to be talking about investing in your team for stronger retention. And I'm really looking forward to this one because a Kelly is a phenomenal presenter. She prepares so loud, the information that she provides, those who are the tenants of, of hearing her speak. I think that's going to be a real golden nugget. She's going to do a great job. We always walk with Kelly. Yeah. Yeah. She is bigger. I've heard her in the past. She is, as John just said an awesome speaker. Yeah. Very knowledgeable. So a huge lineup this year. Congrats Kim. That's awesome. I, I'm curious to ask you just the runoff or Kim who should be attending this event. I think we've kind of hit on a hit around it, but let's, let's be specific who should be at this event. Yeah. So if you're in recruiting, if you're going to retention, if you're in human resources, if you're in management, quite frankly, if you're in the industry, service providers, safety people, insurance companies, we've a long laundry list of, of registrations already. And all of those folks are there. We've got people coming from all over north America. We've got a number of folks registered. Some us, we, we do have a number of folks registered from across the country. But yeah, this is so the focus is recruiting, retention, human resources. I mean, this is all about building your team. This is all about being able to do the right thing as far as relationships and golden, your culture. And you know, I don't care what business you're in inside or outside of the trucking. These are all, all very important things. And we've got a ton of sponsors that make this app. The guys that I do want to give a full recognition to all of them, of course, being a platinum sponsor is very important to us from, from a contribution perspective and revolution. Staffing is our platinum sponsor has stuck to the plate for that. Our buddy, Mr. MacDonald, congrats. Well, he's a pretty, I think he told me one time during conversation where he said, you know, it gave you a, you contribute a lot to this industry that vast. And he said, Kim, I think it was something like this. No one ever goes poor. Like Yeah, exactly. He's a great individual. And I think revolution, stash staffing is an awesome company. Yeah. We got some great sponsors. There's still sponsorships available. There's there's a couple of gold sponsors left silver bronze. So we're having multiple gold, bronze and silver sponsors. So they'll stay right open until the end booths are open still event friends, a good place to be reasonably priced for people who want to attend and do want to contribute, get their brand in front of people, but not at those higher levels of investment. So a lot of our sold out of spots are just sold out. We actually have a sponsor for the placemats when you sit down the day of, and it's cool. It's a pretty cool idea. Well, congrats. Go ahead, Johnny. I was just gonna say one of the things that I'm I'm big on is not reinventing the wheel and in today's day and age, we have lots of motor carriers out there that are really struggling and retaining and struggling even more to get and recruit the drivers they need. And that's what this program will be all about is help you do that. So a definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result, but whatever your programs are, and they're not working, stop, come to the NRS and you'll learn some new ways. And that way You won't be into an Insane situation. Well said my friend Kim, last word, how would somebody register? Yeah, how's he got to do is go to a, I'm sure you're going to put up the light to trans rap, but just go to the website. There's a supposedly banner, all the information is there. You can register online. If you're interested in sponsoring or having a booth again, you can reach out to trans rapid, you know, I'm just the custodian of this event. Or, you know, the individual gets to be able to be evolved like this, but it takes a, it takes a big team to pull this off our entire team at trans or up, along with Charlie, they do an amazing job. I'm really proud of all of them. They've they worked hard at this As somebody who's been to the past event, you've set the bar high and I'm expecting you to hit it again out of the park, you and the team. I'm sure they will. You know, this, this new venue taking it to lion's hand is obviously a, a step up fraud, nothing against where venue was before. Cause they were awesome. But I think that the venue is going to be amazing. I think that the people in the room is going to be amazing and the delegates and the registers and the sponsors, those people that are at the boost. But I think most importantly, the people that are presenting the speakers panelists, they're gonna, they're gonna light it up. It's going to be awesome. Awesome. Thanks Kim. My friend for coming on the, I keep joking the unnamed podcast. I like it. I like it. Well, think about that name. Well, I wish I could unnamed podcasts, but that's not SEO friendly either so Well, you'll find something that is all for SOE friendly and to bogus you gentlemen, keep up the great work that you're doing and keep giving to the industry. Cause you folks have been doing that for a long time and you're setting a good example for the rest of us. Thanks Mr. Johnny. Thank you, Michael. Hey, looking forward to now. That'd be good. It's going to be good. All right. And tune in again next week where John and I will take an irreverent look and have a guest and talking about trucking safety risk and all things trucking. So if you would be so kind to play kolache and subscribe to this podcast, we'd love to see again next week. Thanks.