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Max Farrell
CEO at WorkHound: Building better workplaces
Max Farrell is the CEO and Co-Founder of WorkHound, a real-time feedback platform for frontline workers, with a focus on the trucking industry.14 He founded WorkHound in June 2015 to address the high turnover rates and driver shortages in the trucking sector.4
Prior to WorkHound, Farrell's career included:
- Founding an innovation consultancy called Create Reason4
- Working in Business Development at Dwolla, where he helped grow the company's user base by 500%4
- Co-creating dsmHack, a charity hackathon in Des Moines, Iowa4
- Facilitating Startup Weekend events across the US4
Farrell studied Sociology and American Studies at Grinnell College and completed a study abroad program in South Africa focused on Entrepreneurial Strategies and Business Management for Musicians.1 His experience in the trucking industry led him to develop WorkHound as a solution to improve driver retention and engagement.2
At WorkHound, Farrell leads sales, business development, and administrative duties. He also engages with the industry by speaking at trucking events and writing for industry publications.3 Under his leadership, WorkHound has developed a platform that allows carriers to receive real-time, anonymous feedback from drivers, enabling companies to make data-driven changes and improve driver satisfaction.2
Highlights
Getting feedback is one thing. Learning how to lead with it is another.
It’s not uncommon for a leader to say, “I don’t have time for feedback. What if they bring up something we don’t have the bandwidth or ability to fix?”
My response:
↳ Not asking about the issues doesn’t make them go away. It just means the workforce is discussing them among themselves. Would you rather know 🔦 or be in the dark 🙈 ?
↳ Crowdsourcing information from your workforce is a powerful way to guide your leadership team and find alignment. Maybe you’re prioritizing the wrong things, maybe not. But having data from your workforce to support your goals will only help.
↳ Most people just want to know they’re heard. It’s okay to say, “I hear you, but we can’t address this right now because of XYZ.” Now you have a team that feels valued and included.
Here are some easy and effective ways to include workforce feedback in your leadership meetings:
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Create the habit: Dedicate 5-10 minutes in every meeting to review feedback.
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Stay accountable: What actions are we taking based on what we’ve heard?
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Be open to what you hear and prepared to act: If a message keeps coming up, it’s probably time to address it.

The WorkHound Trends Report for trucking is live! With nearly 100K comments, surprisingly -- the top theme this year is Praise. We are all guilty of focusing on fixing what is broken instead of celebrating what is working well. This is a reminder to double down on the good in all of our companies. #trucking
