Subject: IFDA Project Meeting Summary 03/08/2021
From: Xiaofan Zhu <[email-masked]>
To: Brian Junker <[email-masked]>, Malik Khan <[email-masked]>, Yanxi Zhou <[email-masked]>, Lanyi Xu <[email-masked]>, Zixia Luan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2021 16:51:16 -0500

Hi Professor Junker,

Thank you for your suggestions and feedback on our interviews! I've
attached a word file with the summary of IFDA interviews that I used for
today's meeting. Here is a summary of our meeting today (I also included
this meeting summary at the end of the word file):

  Update on Interview Takeaways

n  *Recruitment difficulty* has been going on for a long time (much longer
than the pandemic)

u  Truck driver recruitment is a more imminent issue than that of warehouse
workers

u  One company Saladino’s mentions candidates that are hired don’t show up
or leave after a day or two (*Tip from Professor Junker:*would be
interesting to find out the reason and see if they are the less experienced
candidates)

u  *Tip from Professor Junker:* would be interesting to find out which
candidates are more likely to stay and target this type during hiring
process

n  Companies are willing to raise pay to deal with *driver shortage*

u  Saladino’s mentions their payment structure is hourly but many of their
drivers left for fixed pay offers (*Tip from Professor Junker:* would be
interesting to see whether driver started with one company and left for
another with different payment structure)

n  *Pandemic* influences the industry in certain aspects and is not the
main causing problem to hiring difficulty

n  Companies are *generally satisfied* with their hired employees but wish
they could be more experienced

n  *Promotion opportunities* exist in these companies (*Tip from Professor
Junker:* would be interesting to see career paths before they take the job)

n  Each company has their own *rewards and recognition program*

n  All the companies are considering *automation*, though all admit that
automation is in its infancy and won’t be vastly carried out in the near
future

  Data Request

n  Public data sources are available in csv or excel files, no API needed

n  *Concern from Professor Junker:* even on monthly level of aggregation,
it may be difficult to link data to covariates that may explain what is
going on

  Next Steps

n  Group meeting to go over logistics

n  Start on sampling data and exploring the public data sources (*Tip from
Professor Junker:* timeframe of data used depends on client data as well as
BLS data)

n  Set up data review meeting with Professor Junker once data is received

We will continue to explore the public data sources and client data once we
get it. Please let us know if you have other questions or feedback!

Best regards,

Xiaofan