In many recruiting departments at many trucking companies, recruiting is still being done “the old fashioned way”. Apart from the most diligent and up-to-date recruiters out there, many are fine doing things the way they’ve always done them. Worse yet, many recruiters take a “shotgun” approach to their recruiting strategies - they shoot into the air and pray one of their shots hits the target. This sort of reliance on doing things the way they’ve always been done can lead to suboptimal performance in the long term, and a lot of wasted money in the short term.
Recently, advancements in truck driver recruiting software (the same advancements that have previously transformed recruiting in the medical, financial, and retail sectors) have made it possible for companies to try out a new way of doing things. With good software, your team can reach (job-seeking) drivers in creative and exciting new ways, collaborate and efficiently manage all candidates, and save lots of time overall.
It’s no surprise that the industry has been slow to catch onto these new and efficient ways of doing things. These solutions, after all, have previously been locked behind massive paywalls - only available to companies with the financial means and size to afford them.
Now, with solutions like Lanefinder and YouCruit, trucking companies have an easy way to dip their toes into the world of recruiting technology without breaking the bank.
This blog is for those of you that are leaning towards recruiting software, but are still unsure of whether you really need it. Below are three common issues many recruiting departments face, as well as the ways that recruiting software can provide new solutions and help. If these apply to you, it might be time to seriously start looking into software for your recruiting department.
1. Your team needs new ways to reach drivers
Most trucking companies across the country rely on posting their positions to a few free job boards - sites like Indeed, Craigslist, Monster, et cetera. Even if these channels bring in a decent amount of leads for a while, many companies eventually hit a wall. Results are usually inconsistent, competition for attention is through the roof, and you only reach a small percentage of the drivers in your area that are open to work.
Finding new channels that actually work can prove to be challenging, as trucking companies are constantly solicited by job ad agencies and third party recruiters that often overcharge for the results they provide.
Besides, when you invest in an external agency, a newspaper ad, or a third party recruiter, you lose a lot of control. When other parties handle your job ads, you lose insight into valuable metrics and performance indicators that can help you create better ad campaigns in the future. On top of that, once you’ve paid, that’s it - results are never guaranteed up front. You can blow your budget and still end up with very little to show for it.
With truck driver recruiting software, you can keep track of what works and what doesn’t. Software such as YouCruit allows you to run job advertising campaigns that reach all of the CDL-A drivers in your hiring area online and on platforms such as Facebook. The benefits of an advertising method such as the one offered by YouCruit is that it:
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Targets passive job seekers - Passive job seekers are the drivers that are open to switching jobs, but are not actively looking for new opportunities on job boards. For more information on the value of reaching passive job seekers, click here.
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Gives you full control over your ad - When you run a job ad campaign from inside of YouCruit, you have control over when to stop it. If you get the result you’re looking for, you can stop your order at any time and save the rest of the money for another time.
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Can help you remove risk from your ad campaign - YouCruit’s pay-per-candidate model is titled just that because you only pay each time a driver applies to your job. You don’t just put money into a campaign and hope it yields results, you pay only for results.
Using software can allow you to tap into new and creative job advertising methods you didn’t know existed. Even if you choose to continue advertising on job boards, and there’s no reason you should stop entirely, recruiting software can make that easier for you. For instance, when you add your positions and job descriptions into YouCruit, it automatically generates a readable and job-board compliant job description. You can then spread that job description to as many job boards as you need at the click of a button from within the software.
2. You lose drivers during the recruitment process
Losing drivers or having them "go dark" during recruitment is very common. Though there's no way to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks, there are always things you can do to improve your results. If you find that too many drivers are slipping away, recruiting software might help you out in a big way.
There are many things you can do to increase your lead retention manually, but software can do a lot to help you out too.
One of the ways software can help is by simply giving you a recruiting platform or hub where your leads are organized and structured in a way that's more intuitive and easy to manage than a series of emails, spreadsheets, and disorganized contact infos.
Speed is a big factor in getting drivers interested. The speed at which you can reach them, the speed at which they can sign release forms, and that sort of thing. With an applicant tracking system or truck driver recruiting software, you can speed up all of these processes. Ordering releases to be signed digitally can be done in the click of a button. You can sort drivers by hiring stages, leave notes and track events with your team, and more.
Software can offer you faster and better ways to communicate with all your applicants.
Instead of opening your email service provider and manually typing emails to all of your prospects, you can instead message them all directly from within the software simultaneously and chat to them as you would anywhere else.
One of our customers at Destiny Transportation Inc said:
"I love being able to make initial contact with each driver from YouCruit."
She also told us that she's had more success getting a hold of drivers using direct messaging within just a week of using YouCruit than she ever did sending emails - and she saved a lot of time in the process, too.
Bonus tips for lead retention during the recruitment process:
Here's a quick blitz-round of advice for anyone that wants to improve their lead retention with or without the use of recruiting software:
- Contact leads as soon as they apply!
- Always choose to call instead of email first!
- If the driver is qualified and interested, close them quickly!
- Create formal follow-up processes!
- Always keep up the communication!
- Hold your recruiters accountable!
- Have a simple application process!
- Have an intuitive website or career site!
3. Your internal processes are bulky and inefficient
Look, handling a massive recruitment workload can get a little overwhelming - especially if you're working as a team. Luckily, the main pain point that most software seeks to address is the aspect of organization and collaboration.
Many companies realize that their processess are completely out-dated, but they don't know what to do about it. I'm happy to tell you that the days of filing cabinets, memos, and stacks of paperwork are over.
Here are some of the ways good truck driver recruiting software can help you tidy up your recruitment processes and increase efficiency:
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Team collaboration - Live updates and effortless teamwork within a modern system.
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Driver database - Build a backlog of useful names, numbers and emails without the filing cabinets.
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Automate tedious tasks such as job ad creation and more.
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Order MVRs, run background checks, and more with the click of a button
What software can do for you
Recruitment software can do a lot more for your company than just what's listed above. In fact, I've barely scratched the surface. With proper usage of good software, you can sky-rocket your recruiting performance and improve your performance in many fields. Good use of software can mean more productivity, more hires, and more growth and prosperity for your company.
Here are some other ways recruiting software can help:
- Improve productivity of recruiters
- Improve your reach
- Save time performing unnecessary or boring tasks
- Improve efficiency of communication between your team
- Keep track of performance indicators and data
- Can be used in automation of recruiting
- Can be used to find better, more diverse candidates
- Can help you diversify your recruiting strategies
- Create career sites
- Integrate into social media
- Can be accessed 24/7 and outside of work hours
Where to begin
If you're convinced and are ready to start right away, you can fill out this form to get started. By expressing your interest above, one of our customer success managers will reach out to you and get you and your positions set up completely free of charge. Once your jobs are uploaded to YouCruit, they'll become instantly available on Lanefinder, America's fastest growing trucking app.
Even if you choose not to use all of the features on offer with a free account, you can still rely on free organic traffic and additional exposure thanks to having your jobs up on Lanefinder. Having your jobs up on Lanefinder is a good way to receive a steady stream of pre-qualified driver applications completely free of charge.
The trucking industry is getting more competitive as time goes on. Being competitive means being efficient in how you get drivers to join you over anyone else. A growing company means a company where the stakes are higher overall. Eventually, all companies past a certain size will implement recruitment software as part of their strategy - the question is: when will it happen for you?