One of the largest, and most well known, sources of job applicants is craigslist. Unfortunately, in addition to providing plenty of applicants, it can also provide plenty of time-wasting emails. However, there is a better way to make craigslist work for you.
The most basic form of a craigslist job posting workflow is simple. A company posts its job opening on craigslist. Applicants see the job and either reply to a real email address (i.e. jobs@yourcompanyname) or an anonymous email address that craigslist will provide. This process helps generate applicant flow, but there is often far too many unqualified applicants flooding your inbox because it only takes a few seconds to hit ‘reply’ and upload a resume.
The problem with this method is that it still puts the burden on you to read through each email, figure out if that applicant is qualified and communicate with that applicant through the hiring process. Even if you are extremely efficient at weeding through resumes, this process is inefficient at best.
There is a better way though – use the Hyrell Online Hiring System. First, post your job in the correct geography and job category. However, instead of having applicants apply to an email address, you direct applicants to your recruiting management system, powered by Hyrell. Our system is configured so that each job opening within your company has a unique URL. That means you can direct applicants to a specific job posting, with specific qualifying questions (instead of sending them to one generic application or having the applicants simply attach a resume). Now, our system will do the work for you – it scores and organizes all of your incoming applicants allowing you to focus on the best-fit applicants, not the time-wasting resumes and emails.
By focusing on the best-fit applicants, you can then use the powerful applicant tracking features of the tool to both communicate with the applicant and track every action of the hiring process. If utilized correctly, your company should get more qualified applicants and you’ll spend less time on the hiring process.
In our experience, craigslist isn’t perfect for all job types in all locations. However, except for a few major metropolitan areas, it is free to post your job openings - so make it work for you! If you are looking to leverage the applicant flow of craigslist but want a more efficient system to handle your entire company’s hiring needs and workflow, Hyrell is here to help.