Everyone needs to find their A-Team. Whether it’s using traditional job boards or, using broader communities like Gumtree, there are some nifty tactics that can help find good people, fast.
Thousands of ads are advertised on Gumtree every day. I am one of those who regularly put free ads on Gumtree to recruit workers for my mobile snow cone and fairy floss business, Snowy Joey.
For the first year advertising on Gumtree, I got lots of applications, but 99 per cent of people were not suitable. Here are the 3 lessons I learnt to filter applications and only get the most talented people applying for my jobs… without having to do it manually!
1. Don’t ask applicants to send you their resumes
Sorting through hundreds of resumes is no fun. I would read through tons of resumes from applicants who would just attach a resume without even reading my ad properly and being suitable for the job. It was a waste of my time.
Remedy: Send the applicant to a landing page on your website. At the very bottom of my ad I have application instructions which specifically send applicants to a landing page with a video about my job. Below that link it says, “DO NOT REPLY via Gumtree, I will not answer your message.” Anyone that still does obviously cannot follow instructions, and I send their message straight to the trash.
2. Keep your ad copy short
I used to write out all of the details about my business and ad on Gumtree. But, I found people only have a short attention span and really only want to know two things – how much money the job pays and what the requirements for the job are.
Remedy: Put the pay rate in the headline, use dot points and, have a call to action. I advertise the pay rate in my headline to encourage people to click through to the ad. Then in the content section, I have two sentences on why I am recruiting, dot points on all the essential requirements and a call to action to go to my website to apply. Short and sweet!
3. Set up a recruitment funnel
Job applicants used to click through to my website from the Gumtree ad, but I had no way of capturing their contact details and send them through an application funnel.
Remedy: Gamify the application process. I gamified the recruitment process after watching Anthill’s gamification video series, sending job applicants on a series of four missions that take them through a series of videos and different pages on my website.
In fact, here is the process mapped out step-by step so you can replicate it if you wish:
Mission 1: Applicant is sent to a landing page with a video on the job opportunity. To access Mission 2, they need to enter their email address.
Mission 2: After entering their email address the applicant is redirected to another landing page with a video of a testimonial from our current workers. They are asked to watch the video and then complete two steps – like our fan page on Facebook and then click on an “Apply Now” button that takes the applicant to a Google Form to fill out the three most important questions about the job.
Mission 3: After filling out the application form, a confirmation page comes up asking the applicant to go to the Snowy Joey Pinterest page and find a specific picture on one of our Pinterest boards (this gets the applicant looking at what we actually do). When they find the picture they need to click through to our Media page and send an email to me to request an info pack, this gets the applicant to take notice that we are a reputable business.
Mission 4: After I send the applicant an information pack, at the top of every page in the header it says, “Mission 4: Call our Operations Manager to arrange your first training session”.
The whole recruitment process is automated and, the onus is always on the applicant to take action to progress through the missions before they are ever considered for training.
Those who don’t take action never make it through this process.
Chris Von Wilpert helps Aussie sports clubs and schools make more fundraising money with Snowy Joey (his mobile snow cone and fairy floss stands) and Fundraising on Steroids (Australia’s fastest raffle fundraiser). You can download Von Wilpert’s Gumtree ad template.
