In addition to being the Founder and President of FitnessJobs.com, I also assist fitness organizations with staffing and recruiting.
During a recent recruiting assignment to hire a Club Manager for a brand new Anytime Fitness in Union, NJ, I learned a real-life lesson using a few different job boards to generate candidates. I have always advocated using several recruitment sites, as not to put all your eggs in one basket. Plus, the urgency of filling openings is too critical to lose any kind of time.
I will outline what I did and things that I found out along the way. My goals were to use 4 sites: FitnessJobs.com, Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Indeed. As the owner, FitnessJobs.com was going to be free of course. Glassdoor’s pricing was $249 for one job and $295 for two jobs, for 30 days. Based on that information, I decided I was going to skip Glassdoor and focus on Indeed and LinkedIn.
I was going to use the Indeed and LinkedIn cost per click model. I was familiar with Indeed, as FitnessJobs.com exported jobs to Indeed for years when they first started. They were a job board, compiled of hundreds of other job boards. Our clients not only got top quality traffic from FitnessJobs.com, but they got bonus traffic from Indeed. A true win/win.
Recruiting directly on Indeed was interesting. The great thing was, they have a slick admin portal that helps you manage candidates. Several more bells and whistles than the FitnessJobs.com applicant tracing system. When I posted the ad, I decided I was going to budget $10 per day at .50 cost per click, or $300 for the month. I knew if I had a great response, I would stop the job 12-15 days into it spending about $120-$150.
So, what happens, true to form, I was getting a bunch of resumes each day for about 7-8 days. 80% were not meeting the requirements listed in the job; most weren’t even close to meeting basic requirements. But I did get about 6 decent resumes. What happened next, was UGLY in my mind. Over the weekend, indeed started doubling my daily spend, from $10 per day to $20 per day. This went on for 3 days and I said enough is enough and reached out to them via chat. I was told the monthly budget is what they work off. Really what they were saying and doing is most people stop their job posting, like I was going to do 12-15 days into it. So, they want to JAM you and make sure they collect as much money as possible before you stop the ad.
After I expressed my displeasure with this, the chat woman said there is another setting (Advanced) where they won’t do this. That setting is not offered up front or buried somewhere. I was able to find it for a 2nd post.
I told the chat lady; well I want to change my setting. NOPE. Can’t do it once an ad is already running. I told her, well, I’ll just cancel my ad (Which is what I did) and create a new post with the CORRECT setting. NOPE. Can’t re-run the same ad-Confusing to job seekers. Really?
She did offer me an Insiders hint: Just change up your ad title and some copy and you should be able to re-post it.
Recently, as of June - 2019, when I posted another position on Indeed, I was contacted by their sales department saying my ad was only showing up in a 25-mile radius and I may want to expand that radius. I followed her instructions, and each local city I added, they were going to duplicate my daily spend. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is their new way to really bleed every dollar out of you that they can. I passed on that ridiculous suggestion.
Also, Indeed has made it so easy for job seekers to upload resumes and apply for jobs, most employers I speak to in the fitness industry are saying Indeed is becoming a waste of time and money. Too many not qualified candidates, wasting way too much time for hiring managers, sorting through all the garbage resumes. People can be sitting in a bar and apply for 25-50 jobs before they finish their drink! No cover letters, no experience. Just ready, aim, apply.
The good news is I did get 3 good people from Indeed and one was hired as the club manager. PHEW!
LinkedIn had related issues. I thought this was going to be a really good experience. NOT. When I was ready to post the ad, I was going to test the same budget, $10 per day. I was immediately prompted to set a $17 per day budget. That would project out to $510 for the month. I said, no, I’ll try my $10 per day. Because I have done a lot of online marketing with Google AdWords, Bing and others, they always try to push your budget. I always stand pat, and usually, make out sticking to my budget. I only got 1 resume from LinkedIn that was not qualified.
I went to cancel the ad after 14 days and immediately got a reply/warning I will not be able to post this job again if I cancel it. REALLY? Confusing to job seekers again?
On FitnessJobs.com, we got 3 candidates. 1 not qualified, 1 over-qualified, and 1 not willing to relocate. At least with FitnessJobs.com, you pay a set fee for 30-60 day, anywhere from $95-$150. You’ll know what you are spending. Most candidates on Fitnessjobs.com meet or exceed the requirements, you don’t get hundreds of junk resumes. You’ll get fewer resumes than Indeed, but almost always someone that meets your requirements. Also, FitnessJobs.com has an annual unlimited job posting subscription for just $299, which should be part of everyone’s recruiting strategy.
The moral of the story is that as before, don’t put all your eggs in one basket when recruiting. If you use Indeed, use the Advanced Settings and be patient wading thru non-qualified resumes. If you choose to use LinkedIn, be prepared to spend much more then you want. Glassdoor is probably worth a shot too, for $249 for 30 days. And of course, FitnessJobs.com has 20+ years’ experience as a proven recruitment resource for the fitness and recreation industry.
This recent experience has inspired me to continue to invest in FitnessJobs.com so hiring managers in the health and fitness industry won’t have to experience what I recently went through.
Alan Cohen is a renowned fitness industry expert with more than 30+ years of experience in the health and fitness industry. He is the president and founder of FitnessJobs.com He can be reached at 602-334-7898 or by email: alan@fitnessjobs.com.