Why Do Your Drivers Want to Remain Anonymous?

It makes sense: When someone is willing to give feedback, we feel like they should also be willing to attach their name to that feedback. But this isn’t the case, so we’re about to tell you why your drivers want to remain anonymous.

It would be ideal if we always felt welcomed to share feedback and that our opinions and thoughts would be valued and treated with respect. Sadly, that’s not the reality in most settings, and that has made many employees hesitant to share honest and transparent feedback for fear of repercussions.

Regardless of the reason, our research shows that truck drivers want to remain anonymous.

“Less than 1% of drivers giving feedback through WorkHound are willing to preemptively self-reveal,” says Paul Castronova, Strategic Projects Manager at WorkHound. “There are a lot of reasons drivers choose to remain anonymous, whether they’re naturally shy or just like the comfort of anonymity. Or it could speak to a lack of trust in the industry as a whole — drivers have often encountered situations in the past where they were treated negatively based on feedback they gave.”

The remedy to this lack of trust is to begin obtaining consistent feedback while also taking prompt action on that feedback. Over time, that can help trucking companies build relationships with their drivers and encourage drivers to share their feedback more often, both anonymously and not.

Anonymity Can Yield More Accurate Feedback

While you might wish that you could identify who is sharing feedback with you in order to remedy individual situations more promptly, there’s incredible benefit in allowing for anonymity. In the end, it means the feedback is more likely to be true to what’s occurring and what drivers really need and want. And WorkHound has a solution for situations that require urgent attention.

“The importance of workers, drivers, and office workers being able to provide information anonymously is that it gives them the confidence to be 100% honest,” Castronova says. “Employees are able to say what they’re thinking and feeling, and employers can focus on what was said and not who said it.”

There’s also a bigger picture when it comes to anonymous feedback. As much as we might like to imagine that our workplaces are unbiased and open to insight from all employees equally, the reality is that none of us or our businesses are perfect. Anonymous feedback can help you step away from bias in the ways you interact with your team members.

“For a lot of companies, a handful of employees will have the louder voices,” Castronova says. “Anonymity reduces the likelihood of companies unknowingly introducing bias into their process and encourages workers to be more honest in their feedback.”

Ready to put our feedback tool to work for your company?Sign up for a free demo to learn how we can help.