Six Ways to Improve Your Carwash Hiring

When you are looking for a new job, you must sell yourself to that employer and tell them about all the things you can do for them to get the job. While this is still needed in most instances, as the employer, we must do better selling the job to the candidates. We need to sell the job just as much as the applicant needs to sell themselves to us if they want the job. I think this is a mutually beneficial arrangement, mainly because the job applicant will usually tell you their expectations if you ask.

Think about how much it alleviates future issues with an employee if they tell you what they expect from the job. If the expectations are set and most things are communicated beforehand, the result will be that the employee stays around for longer. We don’t want candidates to find out everything about the job after they start working for us. Though you don’t have to communicate everything up front, I think the best thing to do is to communicate all of the benefits up front in your job posting and sell the job as best as possible. Make your job posting more about what you can provide them than what they need to provide for you.

Make sure you advertise these five things in your job advertisements, social media, and websites:

• Pay – Yes, pay! People want to know what you will pay or are less likely to apply.
• Benefits – Boast about any benefit they have from working at the carwash. Whether that is health insurance, paid time off, holiday pay, or free carwashes. Talk about any benefit you can.
• Employee engagement – Talk about anything you do that engages your employees. For example, if you had an employee party or special event, put it on your website, Indeed profile, and social media.
• Training programs – People want to be trained and know that you have a training program that will allow them to excel. Talk about the training programs you offer.
• Promotional opportunities – If you have opportunities for advancement, talk about them.

Nowadays, you need to ensure that you don’t make things too difficult or complex to apply for your job. If you have a long, drawn-out application process, chances are that is why you are not getting enough applications. Let's keep it simple, you need to make it easy to apply at your carwash in whatever ways you can. An article on LinkedIn claims that 60 percent of job seekers quit filling out an online job application because of the length or complexity, and 86 percent of active candidates use their smartphones to begin a job search. We are not living in the same hiring world we lived in a couple of decades ago. We have to adjust with the times and make things mobile-friendly.

In addition, according to Career Builder, here are the top five reasons job seekers abandon the hiring process:

• Your application is too long and complicated
• They aren’t ready to commit
• The mobile experience is painful
• Candidates feel like they have been ghosted
• The background check is taking forever

You need to have a structured hiring process. This touches on two of the other tips we provided here: "Have a Good Reputation” and “Make it Easy to Apply.” You have to have a structure for everything from how you recruit, hire, onboard, and train. People can tell if you have a structured process or not by how organized you are in dealing with their applications. They are researching your company before they apply. They will look through your website, social media, online reviews, and how easy the application process is.

In fact, the Career Arc source claims that 84% of active job seekers say they evaluate the employer's brand reputation before applying. They can probably tell if you shoot from the hip with your hiring process. They will probably not be interested in moving forward with your organization, either before applying or after their first interaction with your hiring manager, if they don’t think your organization manages this process well.

Make sure you have the following five things set up:

• Easy ways to apply (even on your website)
• Job descriptions
• Interview structures and guides
• New hire and onboarding procedures
• New hire training

Another statistic from the iCIMS 2018 Candidate Experience Report stated, “More than a quarter (26%) have quit a job specifically because they didn’t feel they were onboarded or trained properly.” So, not only will having a structured process help with your hiring, but it should also help your employee retention.

I will speak from personal experience on this one and give you my straightforward advice. If you don’t know what the businesses around you are doing to attract candidates, you need to find out quickly. You may be letting other businesses steal the talent you need for your company to grow and be competitive with other carwashes in the area.

Survey your market and see what your competitors are doing. By competitors, I mean the other employers in the area that are looking to hire the same type of employees you are. Believe it or not, you are competing for those employees, and you need to act like it. For example, if everyone is leaving your carwash to work at the local Walmart, McDonalds, or Home Depot, you should find out why and attempt to remedy the situation. Or, perhaps those companies are getting most of the applicants you should be getting.

There is such a thing as hiring bottom-of-the-barrel job candidates. That doesn’t sound nice, but I said I would be straightforward on this one. This means that other employers in the area reviewed applications, potentially interviewed, and rejected the same people applying at your carwash for some reason or another. Now you are left with the leftover job candidates. Put some effort into finding out what other companies in your area are doing to attract the local talent and be competitive with them if you want quality applicants.

Don’t expect people to just walk in or find you online and want to work for your carwash. The candidates you want or need are out there; you just need to find the best ways to connect. It is helpful for you to view it in this light. Find different ways to connect and get introductions to qualified job applicants in your market. There are many ways to do this; if you are struggling, you should use every pathway available.

Do these five things to source from multiple angles:

• Get referrals from employees and offer referral bonuses
• Advertise on job boards and social media
• Put up now hiring signs in your windows and next to your main streets
• Do community outreach at job fairs, local colleges, or employment agencies
• Actively recruit passive job candidates, or those you see doing a good job but not actively seeking other employment

In conclusion, we believe that the best ways to keep your carwash staffed in this market are to follow these six best practices. Review everything talked about here and ensure you are working to patch any holes you find in your processes. If you believe you are already doing these things and still struggling, I recommend working with a local recruiting company, but that can be expensive. Working with CarwashOS to review your processes will probably cost you less and give you someone with industry experience.

CarwashOS is a carwash consulting organization that consults for and helps carwash owners and operators put systems in place that assist them to be more successful. CarwashOS has developed a new program called HiringOS that is set up to review your hiring processes while providing the training, tools, and expertise needed to assist you in your hiring struggles. If you are interested in how CarwashOS can help you improve your hiring, book a free 30-minute consultation. Thanks for reading!