How to build an employee attraction funnel

As a business owner, what comes to mind when you hear the word funnel? Fresh leads and potential customers, right?

While a marketing funnel designed to attract leads keeps your business running, there’s another important element to success: employees.

An employee attraction funnel helps ensure you’re never struggling to hire and that you can deliver on the promises you make to your customers.

Mike Campion, owner of Grow My Cleaning Company, teaches his clients how to have a steady pipeline of potential employees. Read on to learn some of Mike’s tips for setting up an employee attraction funnel.

The most popular, and most boring, job description ever
Write job descriptions that focus on core values
Make good on the promises of your job description
Post your job ad on free and paid platforms
Invite applicants to a group interview
Start your employee attraction funnel before you really need it

The most popular, and most boring, job description ever

Does this job ad look familiar?

“Fast growing cleaning company looking for high energy motivated people, paid training, good benefits vacation, flexible hours. Apply now.”

This is how most cleaning companies write their jobs listings. But here’s the problem with running an ad like this:

It doesn’t show how you’re different from your competition
It doesn’t inspire excitement in applicants
It attracts people who apply to everything

Write job descriptions that focus on core values

If your goal is to attract great-fit applicants, there’s a better way to write job ads.

Instead of listing general tasks and information, write about your company’s core values. Core values are the beliefs that guide your business and its culture. For example, the core values for Mike’s business are “have fun, make money, be real, and help out.”

When you focus on core values, you’ll attract applicants who want to work for you, instead of wanting to work for anybody.

Make good on the promises of your job description

Once you’ve hired someone based on core values, chances are good they’ll be excited about the job.

Don’t pull a bait and switch. Make sure the job they’ve signed up for is the one they actually get. Don’t promise a certain culture or environment in your ad and fail to deliver in real life.

In fact, your entire hiring process should reflect your core values.

Post your job ad on free and paid platforms

Post your ad in multiple places. Aim for a mix of free posts on your social media accounts and paid ads on websites like Indeed or Zip Recruiter.

Don’t overlook the power of word of mouth. Ask your employees to share the ad in their networks. A top employee can often bring in another high-performing employee.

How much you should spend on paid ads depends on how many applicants you need. But in general aim for $1 to $3 per applicant. Anything over $6 per applicant is considered high.

Invite applicants to a group interview

Your employee-attraction funnel should include an automated system that invites applicants to a group interview. This system could invite applicants by text, email, or automated voice mail.

Aim to get 10% of applicants to show up for the interview. If you’re getting less than that, review the invitation message you’re sending.

Does the invitation have a different tone or information than the job ad? Does it reflect your core values? Make sure the messages match. If your ad is fun and casual, but the invitation sounds stiff and formal, applicants may decide to pass on the interview.

If you’re consistently attracting job applicants who aren’t a good fit, it’s time to check your ad. Consider whether you’re posting or sharing it in the wrong place. Or maybe the ad needs to be rewritten.

Start your employee attraction funnel before you really need it

It can take some time to develop a hiring system that works, so it’s a good idea to start it before you have an urgent need for employees. This will allow you to experiment or make adjustments.

Even if you don’t hire anyone right away, save the contact information for your most qualified applicants. You’ll need them eventually.

Once you have your funnel running, it should take two to four hours a week to manage.

And once it’s running successfully and you have a selection of great candidates, don’t stop the funnel. You can dial down your budget, but keep the funnel going. Always be hiring.

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About the presenter

Mike Campion is the owner of Grow My Cleaning Company. He has bought, built, and sold several multi-million dollar companies and coached owners of cleaning companies to clean less, earn more, and grow faster.

This talk first aired at the 2021 Maid Service Success Summit.

The Maid Summit is an annual online event that brings together the most successful leaders in the cleaning industry, like Debbie Sardone, Angela Brown, Courtney Wisely, Amy Caris, Chris Schwab and more. Get free access to masterclasses and workshops that will help you to grow, scale and automate your cleaning business so you can get more leads and create more profit. Make sure you’re on our email list to find out how to get free tickets to the next event.

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How to have a steady flow of job applicants for your cleaning service

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