Staffing agencies are always looking for innovative ways to attract and retain candidates. With the recent price increases of major job boards such as Indeed, Zip Recruiter and Vivian, it has become even more challenging to acquire new talent without breaking the bank.
In this blog post, we will dive into the benefits of using staffing apps as part of your candidate acquisition strategy. We will touch on real-life examples of our clients’ successes (many of which see their staffing apps surpass their websites in candidate acquisition 4 to 1). By examining how these apps drive referrals and generate organic app store traffic, you will learn how to keep your candidate pool growing and thriving.
Diversify your sourcing with different investments
As we continue to experience high inflation and low growth, price hikes are affecting every industry, including staffing. But even before job boards raised their pricing, we frequently heard about how many agencies struggled with finding higher-quality leads from these types of platforms.
While there’s nothing wrong with buying leads from job boards, it’s important to assess whether the cost justifies the quality of talent you receive. If you have doubts, it may be time to reevaluate your sourcing spend. In general, agencies should be diversifying their sourcing channels by making different investments and by capitalizing on their existing talent pool.
While it may seem counterintuitive to spend more money on a new tool to solve this problem, it’s important to look at it as an investment that will pay off in myriad ways (check out our chart on the ROI of a great candidate experience), only one of which is candidate acquisition.
Sourcing through social media and niche job boards
Many agencies recommend using social media (such as LinkedIn) or niche job boards to diversify sourcing channels and acquire talent. While these can be effective and affordable strategies, it’s important to consider some of the drawbacks.
Social media is incredibly saturated, and not all users are actively seeking job opportunities. Smaller job boards may have a limited reach, and candidates on these platforms are typically more passive. So while these channels are a good addition to your recruitment strategy, it’s crucial to consider other options to ensure you’re reaching the right candidates and staying competitive in today’s job market.
Using staffing apps as a candidate acquisition strategy
Today, mobile staffing apps are quickly becoming an expectation for candidates. The modern candidate wants transparency and flexibility when considering their next job. This creates a meaningful level of organic traction for platforms that provide these features. As a result, agencies often see apps working as a candidate lead magnet without actually having to do anything. With little to no marketing or advertising, candidates still find them.
ActivateStaff clients commonly see dozens of new leads even before publicizing or launching their app. This has helped clients like CoreMedical Group surpass their app download goal by more than 700% within 8 weeks of launch, with $0 in advertising spend. Whether through word of mouth or searching in the app store, candidates are finding these apps on their own.
App store optimization is a valuable marketing strategy for talent acquisition
If your agency has been around for a while, you’ve probably explored search engine optimization (SEO). App store optimization (ASO) is to app stores what SEO is to search engines. A good ASO strategy can improve your app’s visibility and download rate, similar to how ranking higher on a search engine results page results in more clicks and conversions.
ASO is generally less competitive than SEO because it’s much newer by comparison. This makes ASO a good avenue for staffing agencies to diversify candidate sourcing and stand out in a crowded field. By harnessing ASO, agencies can increase the visibility and discoverability of their apps, attract more candidates, and ultimately, expand their candidate pool.
Candidates are beginning to search the app store to find apps that help them find work. Investing in ASO should be considered a long-term strategy for agencies to remain competitive in today’s digital landscape.
Pro tip:
Having a privately labelled app in the App Store is a must in order to reap the benefits of ASO. If using a mobile app as a lead generation tool is important to you, make sure your chosen provider publishes apps in the store.
Word of mouth is more powerful than ever before
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that mobile apps are not just a new channel or medium for people to find work. They have created a new level of transparency and control that is changing candidate expectations about the job search process. And as candidates have started to experience the benefits of finding work this way, they don’t want to go back to what it was like before.
This has made word of mouth an extremely powerful tool for agencies using platform technology. Now, candidates can speak to an entirely new range of benefits that didn’t exist before platform technology (like nurses having access to pay packages, for example). We’ve seen organic referrals shoot up for our clients because the experience is so powerful that people can’t help but share it with their friends.
Interested in learning more about how to use staffing apps for sourcing candidates? Watch our on-demand webinar on using mobile apps to reduce candidate acquisition spend or book a chat with an expert on our team.
