Talent Tectonics

CHAPTER 6Developing Capabilities and the Employee Experience of Learning

How Do You Prepare Truck Drivers for a World of Self-Driving Trucks?

A 50+-year-old courier company employing thousands of truck drivers and warehouse workers had to address this and similar questions to prepare its workforce for a changing future. Their industry is being transformed by technological innovations. Online retail shopping has expanded its customers from shipping clerks working in offices to individual consumers living in homes and apartments. Package delivery times that used to be measured in days or weeks are now measured in hours. Robotic automation and Internet of Things (IoT) tracking technology are altering how packages are sorted, stored, and retrieved. And the predicted development of self-driving trucks and drones is poised to totally change how packages are delivered.

Given labor market skill shortages, it is unrealistic for the company to transform its workforce just by hiring people with new technical skills. More important, the company values its employees and wants to avoid layoffs. So how could they get their workforce of long-tenured truck drivers and warehouse employees to view technological change as an opportunity instead of a threat? The answer lay in its frontline managers.

The first person many employees approach when confronted with change is their immediate supervisor. Frontline managers are the human face of the company to its employees. Frontline managers in this ...