There’s aren’t many things more damaging to a Recruiting Department than a “We only want full applications” policy. It hurts EVERY part of the business, and here’s a story that will help illustrate why.

Imagine you are a bank and want to make loans. You run an ad and get two calls – Joe and Jane both want to borrow some money. Joe has terrible credit and is unemployed. Jane has perfect credit and a good job.

Your policy is that you won’t even talk to anyone about a loan until they come to the bank, wait in line, fill out a long application, and so on. Joe is perfectly willing to do this because he has major problems and will jump through any hoop to get a loan.

Jane – who has perfect credit and thousands of banks begging to loan her money – is not going to be interested in your bank. So you’ll have to sort through hundreds of applicants to make one loan. And more of your customers will leave without paying the loan off.

Now ask yourself … why on earth would a good driver who can have hundreds of job offers in 10 minutes ever let you force him/her to fill out a long-form application before you’ll even consider them?

I can think of one reason – if the driver is already sold on your company and isn’t even talking to anyone else. Good luck keeping your trucks filled from that applicant pool!

Forcing drivers to fill out a long-form application may sound like a great idea. But in reality, you end up with a tiny fraction of the leads you could get … mostly from worse drivers! Safety suffers. Customer service. And of course, Recruiting.

Any time you recruit for a job where the demand far outweighs the supply, it’s going to be hard work, and most importantly, a SALES job. Be sure to have the right pre-qualification questions on a short lead form. Prioritize based on that information and work those leads.

Happy Recruiting!