What Would You Do If You Stopped Receiving Free Applicants?

When it comes to hiring, I'm sure we can all agree it's been the most unique 12 months we've ever experienced.

We began the year with record low unemployment rates, and in a blink of an eye saw record-high unemployment rates with extended unemployment benefit periods. Then, just as things seem like they're leveling out, there's talk of ANOTHER shutdown.

It's a rollercoaster ride of chaos and uncertainty and I know I'm not the only one that recognizes this chaos is speeding up the evolution of the hiring marketplace. New hiring practices that worked last month, might not work this month... We are constantly having to adjust and evolve to stay up with the changes that are throwing us all for a loop.

Are you just treading water hoping it all ends soon and hiring will go back to what it was pre-COVID-19?

I'm here to tell you... I don't believe that'll be the case.

Although the unknown is daunting, this isn't the first time we've experienced rapid change.

In this week's video, I'll be sharing with you what we saw during the recession of 2008 and why I believe we see fewer applicants coming from free job boards as we come out of this period of chaos and uncertainty.

From the video, you understand that what we see is business models and applicants are adjusting and giving more rankings to paid ads rather than free ads.

If you're relying solely on free applicant traffic... you're soon going to receive fewer applicants for your jobs.

In order to prepare for the possibility of losing free applicants, follow these 4 steps:

1. Increase your paid budgets - It's the end of the year, as you're looking over your new year budgets, be sure to add "paid sponsorships" or "paid job ads" into your budget line items. When the time comes to bump your ads, you'll be prepared rather than caught off-guard with no budgeted money to spend.
2. Maximize the number of applicants you get per dollar spent - It sounds complicated, but it's actually pretty simple. You can do this by writing engaging and promising job ads, and reducing the friction applicants feel when applying for your jobs.
3. Begin looking for other sources - If you get 70% of your applicants from a single source, it is time to bring in other sources to balance that out to ensure you're getting qualified candidates from more than one location.
4. Try making your job more competitive - It's the hardest step, and the one nobody wants to talk about... But, taking a look at pay, benefits, perks, part-time vs full time, the job experience, etc., and comparing it to other jobs in the marketplace will allow you to create a more competitive job that attracts candidates to YOU rather than your competitor.

Now, the point of this video wasn't to freak you out and make you feel like what you're doing now, is going to cause you to get zero applicants for your jobs in the future. But it IS time for employers and hiring professionals to take an active role in applicant flow and prepare themselves for whatever is to come.

Treading water won't get you anywhere. If you want to be successful you must discover how applicant flow works, what drives it, what levers you can pull to be successful, and actively understand that this is a competition for talent.

The time is now.

To help you succeed at accomplishing my 4 tips listed above, I'd like to share with you a couple of my personal, proven workbooks to make the job easier and make hiring your competitive advantage in the business world today.

My free Applicant Attraction Funnel will help you understand the metrics behind your applicant flow from the time of posting a job to the time of an applicant showing up in your inbox. It identifies your bottleneck areas and allows you to find the areas you hold the most potential for bettering your hiring process.

The Source Power Report will give you the ability to find not only where your applicants are coming from, but where your HIRES are coming from. Allowing you to discover which sources give you the most power and drive the most applicants to your jobs.