3 MORE Ways To Kickstart Candidate Flow

Still No Candidate Flow. What Do I Do Now?

So you read my previous article called, “3 Ways To Kickstart Candidate Flow,” and you’ve already done those things. Still little to no flow? What do you try now? By the way, if you didn’t read that article, you need to start there. Click Here for the first 3 three ways.

Here are the 3 more ways to kickstart your candidate flow:

1. Monitor Your Ad Placement

Once you’ve written a compelling ad that stands out from your competition, clearly communicates your values, and inspires candidates to take action, you need to make sure that it is getting found. It’s not enough to simply post your ad to job boards, you have to monitor it and make sure that it is showing up where candidates will find it. The world’s greatest ad won’t yield a thing if it’s stuck on page 3 of the search results.

Remember that job boards are essentially search engines. And just like Google and Yahoo, they operate on keywords and budgets. Assuming you did your homework and created an ad featuring the proper keywords, you need to match that effort with a proper budget. Remember, I told you in the last article that there is no such thing as a successful free job ad right now. You need to know how much to spend and where to spend it.

The best way to make sure that your budget works is to chart the appearance of your ad online. I suggest you search for your ad every hour on the hour using the keywords you chose when you wrote it. Do this for a full day charting its placement in a spreadsheet. Remember to search both desktop and mobile versions of sites like Indeed, because the search results will differ. Your ad should be showing up on page one of the search results regularly. If not, you need to raise your budget.

Remember: an ad that costs $30 per day and shows up on page one is successful, but one that costs $25 and only appears on page three is likely a waste of money. Sometimes a small adjustment can mean the difference between getting found and getting lost.

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2. Make Sure Your Offer Is Competitive

If people are finding your ads, but not responding to them, it’s time to look at your offer. How does your pay rate stack up against your competition? Are your benefits comparible? Would it help to offer a sign-on bonus? These are just some of the questions to ask yourself when analyzing your offer.

The first thing to look at when reviewing your offer is pay. In a super competitive job market like the one we’re in now, most job seekers will simply cruise through the search results looking for the biggest numbers they can find. Consider these guidelines:

- - Include pay rates: This may seem like a no-brainer, but a lot of companies resist listing their pay rates, because they want the freedom to decide them in the interview. You can’t do that right now! Make sure your ads include pay rates whenever possible. It will make a huge difference.
  - List the rate as an “Up To” number: Listing pay rates as ranges or using “Starting From” numbers requires job seekers to be possibility thinkers. You can’t do that right now! Find the highest number someone could possibly make in the position and post it as “Up To $X Per Hour” or “Up To $X Per Year.” Remember we’re trying to get flow where we have none. Using an “Up To” number could be the difference between getting them on the phone and missing them entirely.

The second thing to look at when reviewing your offer is benefits. If you can afford to offer great benefits like health insurance, paid time off, and a retirement plan, list them proudly. If not, you’ll need to get creative. First consider why companies offer benefits and what they say about us. Businesses offer benefits ultimately because they care about their employees. And by offering those benefits, we communicate that those employees are valuable and appreciated.

A benefit doesn’t have to be big and expensive to properly communicate value. If you are a small business that can’t afford to offer medical coverage and retirement accounts, what can you offer that will make the everyday lives of your team members better? What about paid holidays? Could you give them all Amazon Prime? What about a COSTCO or Sam’s Club membership. Could you give them a gas card with their pay check every other week? Could you buy lunch for everyone on Fridays?

Remember: benefits communicate that people are valued and appreciated. Do what you can and be proud of it. You may surprised at the message it sends to job seekers.

The third thing to look at when reviewing your offer is what I call extras. Extras are things like sign-on bonuses, weekly instead of bi-weekly pay, memberships to professional organizations, company phone, company car, etc. Offer whatever you can. There’s no such thing as being too competitive in today’s job market.

3. Manage Your Reputation

Reputation is the most often neglected element of recruiter branding. We rarely ask for positive reviews from our staff. Usually it’s only when we notice that we have 2.2 out of 5 stars and then scramble to make it better, so that our ads will work. Here are some suggestions for reputation management:

- - Create a culture of celebration: constantly find things to celebrate. Anytime a team member completes a training, wins an award, gets promoted, or levels up in any way make a big deal of it. Anytime the company received recognition, accomplishes a goal, or reaches a milestone make a big deal of it. If celebrating is something you do all the time, ti will only seem natural to celebrate the company in a positive review online. On the other hand, if you don’t celebrate regularly, you can’t expect your people to break out of that pattern and suddenly leave positive feeback for you.
  - Regularly review your reputation: make a point to look over your reviews and ratings on all of your company profiles and social media sites. If you stay up to date on the state of your reputation, you will be more likely to take timely action instead of playing costly catch-up.
  - Ask for positive reviews when morale is up: when things are going well people are more likely to leave positive reviews. Anytime a team member is feeling particularly good about things at work, ask him or her to leave a review.

Managing your reputation on sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, Facebook, and Google is essential for helping job seekers feel good about applying to your ads. 68% of people who see your ads will read reviews of your company before deciding whether or not to apply. Don’t blow this off! Reputation matters. And sometimes it is the only place where you can take immediate action.

Hopefully you found something in this article that you can do right away to kickstart your candidate flow. If you would like some help with your recruiting system, we’re happy to talk with you. Just complete the form in this article and we’ll contact you to see how we can help.

Talk Soon.