CHICAGO — With a tight labor market and an increasing workload, small businesses across the nation are feeling the pinch of understaffing, and dry cleaners are no exception. Cleaners who want to find not only warm bodies to fill positions but great hires who might stay for the long haul need to take advantage of every tool available to them, and one of the most powerful recruiting platforms available is Indeed.
A recent webinar, sponsored by the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), focused on how dry cleaners could best use this tool to fill out their staff. Brian Fish of Pier Cleaners, headquartered in Wakefield, Rhode Island, and Amy Wischmann of Benzinger’s Clothing Care in the suburban Buffalo, New York area, both spoke, each of whom has successfully used Indeed in different ways.
Employers can either use the free service Indeed offers (which was covered by Wischmann in Part 1 of this series), or take advantage of tools the service offers for a price. The right choice will depend on the employer’s budget, hiring needs and the availability of labor in their geographic area.
Fish about the benefits of using the paid version of the service, which he uses to find talent for his company. Indeed walks employers through a step-by-step process to create a job posting, Fish says. Once an employer makes their job posting, there are two methods of paid job postings that Indeed offers: sponsored posts and subscriptions. Knowing which one is right for you, Fish says, can save both money and time.
Sponsoring a Simple Ad
Of the two types of ads, the sponsored method is the one Indeed prefers employers to use, Fish believes, basing his opinion on the fact that several points in the process allow you to select this option. “It’s all over the place,” he says. “They want you to pay to play.”
When selecting this method, employers must choose between the “simple” and “advanced” options. There are pros and cons to each approach, Fish says.
With the simple option, Indeed presents all the information needed on a dashboard screen, including the recommended daily or monthly budget to get a good response for the posting.
“It’s specific to the job title you’re using, and it’s specific to the location,” he says. “It’s also based on the number of employers you’re competing with in order to find people in your category.
Users can set how long they’d like the ad to run, and once that’s set, Indeed gives estimated results, based on the ad’s timeframe and budget. Fish stresses, however, that employers should keep in mind that all this information, including the estimated budget spend, is just that — an estimate.
“So even though you say that you want it to be $38 a day,” he says, citing the example he uses in his presentation, “it can fluctuate. It tells you the max amount that you’re going to spend is actually $285 a week, when $38 a day breaks out to $266 a week. So, you could end up spending more money — and it can vary a decent amount.”
And the estimated results? “It says that they are based on Indeed past results,” Fish says. “It does not guarantee any future performance.”
There are benefits to this type of sponsorship, Fish says, with the primary being employers will enjoy higher visibility. “You’re getting higher in the search options — that’s the advantage to it,” he says. “You’re going to be towards the top of somebody’s search if they search your category.”
Advanced Sponsorship
When an employer selects the advanced version, Indeed offers a pay-per-click (CPC) option, where the employer only pays if someone clicks on their posting. The employer sets the maximum CPC price. Indeed advises that most clicks on the site cost between $0.25 and $1.50 and that jobs with higher maximum CPCs “tend to get seen more often.” Job posters can also set an ad budget, denoting the total amount they want to spend promoting the job.
“The difficulty with this is that, while you can set exactly what your budget is going to be, you’re only getting the applicants who are coming to you,” Fish says, “And you’re paying for lots of other clicks as well. Who knows who’s clicking on this job post — maybe they did it by accident.”
This type of ad also can lose visibility sooner if the maximum CPC is lower than your competitors. “If instead of doing $1 a click you do 25 cents a click, you’re not going to be at the top of their sponsors — you’re going to be at the bottom,” Fish says. “So, somebody else in your area who’s willing to pay more per click is going to the top of the list — not you. The more you spend, the more people you’re going to get.”
Both the simple and advanced sponsorship options share a benefit — they don’t require the employer to pay a lot of attention once they are up and running. “They are ‘set it and forget it,’ which is great in regard to your time,” Fish says. “You just follow up when people reach out to you.”
The biggest drawback? It’s a passive strategy, requiring people to be looking for the type of job the employer is offering.
“You have no control over who’s going to come and click on that job post, and you have no control over the type of applicant that you’re getting,” Fish says. “So you’re spending a lot of money out there, you’re not exactly sure what you’re going to be spending because it can vary, and you don’t know the type of people that are coming to you.
Subscriptions — Indeed’s Best-kept Secret
The other paid option on Indeed — subscriptions — are Fish’s preferred method of using the site. One thing to note about this option, Fish says, is that, unlike the sponsored approach, it’s difficult to find if you don’t know where to look.
The option is available in the “find candidates” page on the dashboard, Fish says, under the “subscription management” menu item on the right-hand side of the page.
Why is this option much more difficult to find than the sponsored posts? “Because you end up spending more money more often when you do the sponsored job posts,” Fish says.
The main difference between sponsored job posts and the subscription service is that subscribers can go out and actively look for job seekers who have posted their resumes on Indeed. Instead of waiting for candidates to come to employers, employers can search for people they believe would fit the role available on their staff.
Indeed offers two subscription plans: a standard plan for $100 per month that allows the user to make 30 contacts a month, and a professional plan for $250 per month that offers 100 contacts. Unused contacts roll over to the next month, and they can be assigned for the use of other people at your company.
“I might want to send a certain amount of contacts to my route manager because we’re looking to hire drivers, and I want him to take the lead on that,” Fish says. “We can’t be all places at all times, and my staff can take a look at the resumes that are out there and reach out to people that maybe I wouldn’t have thought to contact.”
When searching resumes, Fish says employers can not only look for people with experience in the particular job they are posting, but for applicants that might have transferable skills, as well. Employers can also search by company to see if employees at a competitor are posting their resume — or if your own employees are searching for a new job. Employers can search by geographic location and skills, as well. Searches can also be performed on the time since applicants have updated their resume. This indicates how eager they are to find a position, Fish says.
When Fish wants to contact a prospective hire, Indeed allows him to use templates from past searches that are easily personalized to streamline the process.
“Good talent wants to feel wanted,” Fish says. “They want to feel that someone is actively recruiting them, which is what this subscription plan is.”
Come back Tuesday conclusion of this series, where we’ll take a look at ways to keep your job posting relevant, who to look for and how to make your ad as attractive to great hires as possible. For Part 1 of this series, click HERE.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].