Stay Metrics, provider of an evidence-based driver engagement, research and analytics platform that enables motor carriers to retain more of their best drivers, announces its Scientific Advisory Board along with new, original research projects in the trucking industry.
Members of the Scientific Advisory Board are some of the world’s leading researchers in areas critical to the success of commercial and private fleets, which include employee retention, employee behavior and behavioral analytics.
The Board is led by Stay Metrics’ Director of Research, Timothy Judge, PhD, who is the most published and cited author in top-tier journals of applied psychology and management research.
Timothy Judge and the Scientific Advisory Board provide Stay Metrics with expert advice and guidance for its products and research to ensure the highest standards of data quality and integrity are being met.
“Dr. Judge and the Scientific Advisory Board are very detailed. Their fingerprints are all over our products and will be on every new product we build,” said Tim Hindes, chief executive officer of Stay Metrics, which was founded and is headquartered in the Innovation Park of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. “For example, we will be developing big data solutions for our clients that combine our research with client-specific data in operations, safety, and other sources. We will build new predictive models for driver turnover among other exciting endeavors.”
Besides playing a strategic role in product development, the Scientific Advisory Board will create “win-win” research scenarios for motor carriers and scholars, explains Judge.
“I think carriers love data but making practical use of their data to understand why drivers are leaving is another matter,” said Judge, who is executive director of the Fisher Leadership Initiative in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. “We can help carriers win by making sense of this mountain of data. As researchers, we also win by studying a dynamic, interesting industry with so much data to analyze.”
The members of the Scientific Advisory Board are:
John Kammeyer-Mueller, PhD. A professor of industrial relations at the University of Minnesota, one of his areas of research is the impact of employee selection and socialization processes on early turnover.
Amir Erez, PhD. A professor of management at the University of Florida, Dr. Erez’s research focuses on how positive moods and positive personality influence individuals’ thought processes, motivation and work behaviors.
Joeri Hoffman, PhD. A professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, his primary research interests are in the areas of personality, emotions, leadership, motivation and work performance.
Project 1: Is There a “Stay” Driver and a “Safe” Driver Profile?
The research team is working to create a driver profile that carriers can use as a risk assessment tool for potential driver hires. Preliminary analyses suggest the profile for a “safe” driver (one who has a clean safety record) is different from the profile of a “stay” driver (one who stays on the job for more than six months).
Project 2: Does Communication Between Drivers and Dispatchers Influence Driver Safety?
Relying on carrier data, researchers analyzed thousands of mobile communication messages between dispatchers and drivers. Researchers focused on key words that reflect emotions (anger, frustration, appreciation) and communication modes (including swear terms). Preliminary analyses suggest the words dispatchers use, and how drivers respond to those messages, impacts turnover.
Project 3: Is There Really a Millennial Effect to Driver Retention?
Researchers are analyzing the degree to which younger drivers may be different than older drivers. Results of this project will either confirm or refute the conventional wisdom that Millennial drivers are different and, in so doing, suggest practical ways carriers can better manage the next generation of drivers.
Project 4: What Is Engagement, Really?
Analyses of Stay Metrics data suggests driver engagement is a key aspect of driver retention. This begs the question: “Who is an engaged driver?” Most methods for assessing driver engagement rely on self-report measures. For this project, researchers are linking self-reported engagement to “hard” metrics to shed light on what carriers can do to keep drivers engaged. The bottom line: engagement is an attitude but it’s also an action.
Stay Metrics invites motor carriers to participate in these and other groundbreaking research projects to benefit their companies and the trucking industry.
“At Stay Metrics, our mission is to use the highest standards of research to help our clients move the needle for driver retention. By the same token, any project our Scientific Advisory Board conducts will be worthy of being published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal,” Hindes said.
