As a driver recruiter, you know your industry’s outlook. Drivers are a hot commodity and there is constant pressure on you to hire more and more. It’s not necessary for me to remind you that the driver recruiting landscape is not looking great right now. However, I can help you improve your recruiting processes. That might be something worth listening to.
What I can tell you is that the Recruiting Lifecycle can help you succeed in a very tough landscape.
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What is the Recruiting Lifecycle?
The Recruiting Lifecycle is the journey a driver makes when looking for a new job. This journey happens in four stages, which you can utilize to enhance the capabilities of your recruiting. These four stages are . . .
1. Target
2. Connect
3. Engage
4. Convert
As a driver recruiter who is fastidious in utilizing marketing techniques and principles to recruit drivers for your fleet, everything you do fits into these four stages. By creating campaigns that leverage the Recruiting Lifecycle, you can customize your messaging for drivers specific to where they are on this journey.
Now let’s look at each of these 4 stages.
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1. Target Your Recruiting
Rather than just throwing out dozens of ads to see if they work, you need to find out more about the drivers you need to hire. For this, you need to analyze data and industry research, which will remove the guesswork from your recruiting.
Below are a few examples of useful data:
- Driver Surveys
- Results of Employment Package Testing
- Demographic and Media Usage Research
- Analysis of Exit Interview Data
This will help you make informed decisions and improve your recruiting ROI.
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2. Connect with Drivers
Once you know who to recruit, you now have to focus on where you should be finding drivers.
While you know that different driver audience segments consume media differently, you have also targeted the specific driver you need to reach. This allows you to build a campaign which utilizes the most effective channels to connect with your prospects.
There are a number of ways to raise driver awareness and your fleet’s employer brand recognition. A few of the best channels are truck stop signage, classified publications, and online newsletters to place ads targeted specifically to your prospects.
Once a driver knows who you are, they are more likely to apply for your jobs.
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3. Engage Truck Drivers
While some drivers will see your ad and immediately apply, not every one of your prospects is ready to convert. There are still a lot of drivers filling your Recruiting Lifecycle. And you need to make sure that you are doing everything you can to make them convert.
To make sure the remaining prospects convert, you need to continue engaging them.
Cultivating continued engagement can be difficult, but there are multiple ways you can do this. For instance, you can create regular blogs, social media, newsletters, and other content. This helps you establish yourself as a well known authority in the industry and a preferred employer for drivers.
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4. Converting to Hires
Once they know who you are and see you as a preferred employer, drivers have to be able to apply for open positions. The trick here is to make sure you’re making this as smooth a process as possible for drivers. Not everyone wants to fill out a long-form application. For your landing pages, make sure they are optimized for mobile and only require the information you need.
You also need to ensure that you are asking for the right information. For instance, if you have a larger, more sales-like recruiting department, you may want to request phone numbers or include click-to-call capabilities.
This will allow you to immediately screen applicants and get the hires you need quickly.
The Recruiting Lifecycle is an opportunity for you to improve your recruiting exponentially. By working within the bounds of this model and understanding a driver’s journey, you can create campaigns with the right touch points to hire the drivers you need.
