How I Built a Recruiting Machine

My startup had some MAJOR recruiting struggles.

There were two main problems:

1. Top of Funnel (not enough applicants)

2. Middle of Funnel (applicants dropping out)

Here’s what was happening and how we fixed it.

Top of Funnel

Problem: We weren't getting enough applicants.

My company relies heavily on college student interns which means there is a lot of turnover each year.

As a result, recruiting is a major part of the company. At the time, we were receiving only a few applicants per week which was extremely worrisome.

I decided to get the whole team on a Zoom call. After brainstorming, we came up with an action plan to increase candidate interest. Ideas included:

• Improving job descriptions

• Posting on social media

• Reaching out to people in our networks

• Focusing more on job platforms like Indeed / Handshake

A few days later, we started receiving tons of applicants. I think the biggest factors was creating more fun / attractive job descriptions AND spending more time on job sites.

We are now getting 10+ applicants per day.

Top of Funnel problem solved!

Middle of Funnel

Problem: Applicants were applying, but many did not respond to our 1st interview request or dropped out before their 2nd interview.

Our hypothesis was:

• We need to make it as EASY as possible for applicants to schedule interviews.

• We must make our internship opportunity as COMPELLING as possible.

• We must stay ORGANIZED so applicants don't slip through the cracks.

Here's what we did:

New Interview Scheduling System

We implemented a scheduling system using a Calendly integration with Google Calendar. Instead of the tedious process of:

1. Asking for applicant availability ➡️

2. Receiving applicant availability ➡️

3. Checking our schedule ➡️

4. Picking a meeting time ➡️

5. Sending the Zoom link ❌

We now do this ↓

1. We send a Calendly link and the applicant schedules their own interview! ✅

We've synced up all our calendars so the applicant can pick a day and time that works for everyone. No more back and forth, emailing, texting, or calling.

Simple. Easy. Done.

Email, Text, Phone Call Templates

The goal of these templates is to make our recruiting communication repeatable / consistent for our recruiting coordinator.

Instead of typing EVERY message from scratch, she simply clicks a template in our recruiting software and hits send.

Huge time savings.

Follow-Up Guide

We've created a Follow-Up Procedure for our recruiting coordinator to reference and see EXACTLY when to send each message / template.

Example: Applicant applied 2 days ago and hasn't scheduled their interview yet.

Here’s what you do:

• Send the "1st Interview (1st Follow Up)" email.

• Then immediately call the applicant (and leave voicemail "Phone Script #1")

• Then send the “1st Interview, 1st Text”

Consistent, repeatable, time-saving system.

These systems have been a GAME CHANGER in our recruiting. Feel free to steal it!

Cheers,

Collin Rutherford

PS. Hope you didn’t do this at Thanksgiving dinner!