Sounds easy enough, right? If you have the right hiring parameters in place, it makes sense you’d end up with a great team–but how do you get from Point A to Point B? That’s what we’re going to show you and it starts with a funnel.
What is A Recruitment Funnel?
Think of a recruitment funnel the same way you’d picture a kitchen funnel: A tool used to narrow the liquid going into a container. It streamlines the process and ensures there’s no mess! That’s exactly what a recruitment funnel does, except instead of liquid and a container, it’s the flow of all potential candidates to the job offer.
As a landscape company owner, you’ve likely gone through the hiring process many times over. And as you know, there are several steps that have to happen before a job offer is made, and a recruitment funnel can help organize that process.
First, let’s break down what each step of the funnel is, starting from the widest:
- Awareness: In order for someone to apply to your company, they first need to know you exist. The awareness stage of the funnel includes getting your name out there, establishing an online presence, and working with your HR team or marketing department to see what others are saying about you. If you can effectively communicate who you are and what your company stands for, people will be more likely to apply.
- Attraction: This is the first narrowing of the funnel and it’ll be steep. Not everyone who knows about your company will apply for the job–but that’s a good thing. If you create a detailed job description and advertise your job openings on your website, social media, and job boards, you’ll gain the interest of reliable candidates. Take your attraction phase to the next level by offering referral bonuses to any current employees who spread the word to their own network.
- Applying: Now that your lawn care business is well known by the community and the job descriptions have been posted and advertised, it’s time for people to apply. Did you know most people won’t complete a full application if it requires lengthy answers or too many questions? Work with your HR department to create an application process that isn’t too long, tedious, or complex to avoid any potential candidates from dropping off. Once applications are received, communicate quickly with the applicant that all is received on your end and to expect updates via email.
- Evaluate: This is an exciting phase of the recruitment funnel as you finally get to sift through all the applications you’ve received. If it’s just a few, you may be able to go through each of the applications yourself, however if you’ve received hundreds, it’s worth looking at ways to evaluate at scale. One option would be to send out competency, skill, or personality tests to gauge each applicant and screen accordingly. You could also employ an applicant tracking system, but most small business owners prefer a human looking over each application. Whichever method you choose, be sure to spend enough time and energy on the evaluation stage of the funnel because you only want to bring in high-quality candidates to the interviewing stage.
- Interview: We’re in the narrow neck of the recruitment funnel and you should have a shortlist of remaining candidates. If they’ve made it this far, they seem like a good fit, have the appropriate skills, and likely have some experience in the field. Now it’s up to you as the employer to ask the right questions to see which of the final candidates will be the only hire. Make efficient use of you and the candidate’s time by limiting the interview to just one or two rounds. In today’s job market, candidates are more likely to fall off if the employer requires three or four rounds of interviews. Instead, plan ahead and know the major topics you’d like to cover and leave ample time for your candidate to ask their own questions.
- Hiring: Congrats! You’ve made it to the end of the funnel and it’s time to extend the job offer to your top candidate. To increase the chances of them accepting, make sure you’ve taken the time to learn about their motivations, career goals, compensation and benefit expectations. This part of the hiring process is a two-way street and you want to be completely open with your new potential hire. Establishing this type of dialogue from the onset can be what differentiates you from another company they may be interviewing with.
Seems doable, right? Keep reading to see why hiring can be so successful when all the process moves in this order.
What Makes a Recruitment Funnel Successful?
What makes a recruitment funnel successful is its thoughtfulness. Unlike trying to fill a position ad hoc, a recruitment funnel forces a flow to the process. Having an organized approach to hiring not only ensures you’re attracting higher-quality candidates, but it also guarantees a final hire at the end. Why? Because someone who is serious about getting a job is looking for a company that is just as serious about hiring. Creating brand awareness, writing a detailed job description, and conducting professional interviews are all ways to increase your company’s validity and make more people want to work for you.
How Your Recruitment Funnel Can Help Build a Successful Business
Just like the domino effect, a recruitment funnel starts a chain reaction within your business: First, your hiring process is organized. Next, you attract higher quality leads. Then, you hire top tier talent, and the pattern will continue to repeat itself. As time goes on, you’ll be known as the lawn care company who hires effectively, offers competitive pay, and treats their employees well. Ready to start? Let’s learn how.
How to Create a Hiring Funnel that Works for You
Once business owners understand the breakdown of a hiring funnel, it’s no surprise they want to implement them immediately. But how do you create one that works for your company? Easy. Simply follow the six steps from earlier:
- Awareness
- Attraction
- Application
- Evaluation
- Interviewing
- Hiring
Each company will tackle these steps differently, depending on bandwidth, budget and open positions, but that’s the beauty in the recruitment funnel. No matter how big or small your lawn care company is, every business can benefit from optimizing their hiring process.
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