Employee Life Cycle part 3 – Screening Applicants

Keep this stage of the recruiting process quick and easy for both the applicant and the employer.
OK so you took my advice in the last two columns and you made it easy to apply, used all the strategies from the last two weeks, and now you are drowning in applicants, many that do not qualify. Now is when we move to the next step of the process, screening.

Screening Step One – The Online Form

The best practice for hiring is to automate the first part of the screening process as much as possible. Direct your applicants to fill out a BRIEF form on your website with their name, contact information, and no more than 7 yes-no questions to help separate those who do qualify from those who do not. These questions are going to vary based on your company. As an example, here are mine. Keep in mind, we use solo cleaners, so that affects our questions.

1) Do you have a valid driver’s license? (required)
2) Do you want to work full- or part-time? (we hire full time only)
3) Do you have a vehicle you can use during work hours? (yes)
4) Can you legally work in the State of Ohio? (yes)

Screening Step Two – The Interview

Based on those questions, we automatically send them one of two emails. If they answered any of the screening questions incorrectly, an email informs them that they do not qualify. We thank them for their time and ask them to apply later if their situation changes.

If they answer all of the questions correctly, an email invites them to the next step of our processing, an interview. Now it is important to realize what we have not done yet. Up until this point, we have not asked them for personal information like a social security number, where they lived in the last 3 years, previous places of employment, or references. Each of these requests would force some people to opt out of the process. That is a lot of information to share when you are not even sure you want the job yet. Our goal, once again, is to keep them moving through the process. So far this has been quick and easy for both the applicant and the employer. We normally screen out about 1/3 of the applicants without anyone, us or them, devoting a tremendous amount of time on it. 

A successful cleaning company will need to refocus their marketing efforts on employee recruiting and to build out their culture and employee retention programs.​ Fortunately, Cleaning Business Builders has tons of resources to help you meet this challenge. Our class on 1, delivered by American Maid founder/owner Liz Trotter, sets you up with the basic elements of the recruiting and hiring system used by successful and still-growing cleaning companies. The key is that this system goes beyond simply giving you a list but also provides guidance on how to evaluate candidates – what are good, mediocre, and bad answers to application and interview questions, for example. Click the button below to learn more.