News to nobody is that it’s getting harder to recruit drivers. Unemployment is 4.1% and the boomers are leaving the industry in droves – it’s been called the silver slaughter. The cost-per-hire across the transportation industry has gone through the roof as lead-to-hire conversation rates plummet - you’re spending more on advertising and getting fewer hires. The simple reason is you’re on the wrong end of supply-and-demand.
The millennial generation isn’t backfilling for the grey hairs and before you know it, you’ll be stuck with nothing but half-dead boomers. Throwing more and more money at the problem isn’t the solution. You need to invest your limited resources where they’ll do the most good and that begins with diligent tracking of your marketing sources.
Before you spend more money on advertising, evaluate these three key metrics we use to measure efficiency of a recruiting pipeline.
Cost-per-hire for each advertising source is the single most important metric that tells you where you should prioritize your money. It’s a simple calculation but the first one you should be looking at the end of each month. Take the total spend for each source and divide it by the hires produced that month. Start with your lowest cost-per-hire source and reallocate your spend to max out this source. Watch for diminishing returns. You can easily saturate a source and you’ll see your cost-per-hire increase after a productive month. Be ready to move your spend around to several different sources. You’ll deplete the good leads in one source and then attack another source while you let the previous source build back up.
Much like cost-per-hire, by source, measuring your lead-to-hire conversion rate for each source tells you its efficiency. You don’t want sources that require a huge investment of time filtering and screening. Some sources provide lots of volume, but poor quality leads. This drives up your cost-per-hire and wastes your time. You’ll be forced to hire more recruiters which could be $50,000-60,000 spent on more efficient advertising. You’re better off to put your best recruiter on a bonus program and double down on the lowest cost-per-hire sources.
If a driver calls and you don’t answer, chances are they’re already calling the next company by the time you get back to them. More than 80% of calls we didn’t answer, didn’t leave a voicemail or provide contact info! They’re looking for a job right now while they’re ticked off at their current employer. A quality driver knows he can find a job wherever he wants so he’s on to the next one if you’re not on top of your game. In fact, unless you’re following our process to create a truly unique driver brand, chances are you’re not all that special in your prospect’s mind because your advertising looks like everyone else. Our goal was to answer 95% of all calls during business hours and 85% during off hours. We would stagger the working hours of our recruiters based on the day and expected call volume for the peak hours of the day. After two rings to the recruiting line, the call would then roll over to back-ups who would answer and at least get the name, number, where and how they found us and why they want to work with us. It was all hands-on-deck. Anyone near a phone was expected to answer and had a script to follow. Drivers appreciate the personal touch and knowing that everyone was on board to help them join the company.
Use the Trailing 12s (TTM) across these three data allows you to look for trends. Simply add up the most last 12 months and divide by 12 and plot the point for this month. This eliminates the wild swings up and down and shows you the actual trend line. If you’re feeling sophisticated, you can measure each week using Trailing 52s - this follows the same math just over 52 weeks. T52s are a powerful leading indicator and give you more advanced notice to make adjustments in your spend allocation.
Schedule a demo of A-Suite Recruit today to see how we can help you measure your key metrics.