Secrets To Success on JazzHR vs. Indeed for Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers

Hiring can be one of the biggest fears and challenges that I see pet sitters face on a day to day basis. This topic is for sure 50% of all problems that all pet sitting and dog walking businesses will face when trying to scale their business.

Bill Gelderman, from Orion Systems, says that “hiring shouldn’t be an event… it is a constant recruitment process” and I can’t agree with him more.

If you are a business that reacts and only attempts to hire a new team member when someone quits or you have too much business and need help then you will always be under your business and behind the eight ball.

In June, a company called JazzHR came into my life and promised to revolutionize how pet sitters and dog walkers solved the hiring problem. Their promises sounded too good to be true so naturally, my suspicions were raised and I put them to the test.

I had a few pet sitters try them out and the feedback was unreal.

I never saw the hiring problem solved at such a systematic way before:

JazzHR is a software that posts to 15 job boards and helps you keep everything in one place. No more sending back and forth emails and trying to remember what stage of the process someone is in. Jazz’ main job is to get your hiring ad seen by as many people as possible and then organize your recruitment process.

Even as so many pet sitters started raving about their positive experience with hiring qualified people fast, I started reading “JazzHR is just like Indeed” and really… it isn’t.

Is JazzHR The Same as Indeed?

In short, no. If you think that JazzHR is like Indeed, you don’t understand the truth behind what JazzHR can do.

It is sort of like asking if a bicycle is like a Porsche?

Sure, both platforms will get you the applicants, just as both modes of transportation will get you from point A to point B. Although the way in which it is achieved and the quality of the journey is drastically different. Indeed even tries to pull the wool over your eyes and make you think they are performing well for you, but that isn’t always the case.

1. What kind of applicants are you getting?

When you take a closer look at how Indeed brings businesses applicants you see that they have a matching feature which matches job seekers to jobs based on resume content and general questionnaires. This might work if you are looking for a software engineer, but not so much for a pet sitter or dog walker. It can also leave the business wondering:

Did the “candidates” actually apply or were they matched
Matched candidates might not be qualified for the job
If they didn’t actively seek out your job, they may not be interested

Here is more about what Indeed says about their matching feature in their Terms of Service

1(d) Regardless of whether you are an Employer or Job Seeker, Indeed may use application materials (including resumes and responses to screener questions) to determine whether the words of any Job Seeker’s resume and answers to screener questions match the words of a Job Listing, and vice-versa. Regardless of whether you are an Employer or Job Seeker, you agree and consent that Indeed may differentiate those matching resumes and screener questions from those that do not match, and presenting them to Employers as matches or not matches.

In essence, customers perceive “matched” candidates as more applications, when in reality the candidates did not actively seek out the job and apply.

JazzHR Only Gives You Qualified Applicants, Indeed Does Not

Think about where you spend your time when you are interviewing and hiring. Is your mindset that it is a popularity contest and you are just striving to get as many applicants as you can or are you looking for the most qualified applicants?

With Indeed there is no filtering system as good as JazzHR. JazzHR uses your exact questions to know if the applicant is right for you and only shows you the ones that are qualified. So now you are spending your time looking at applicants that have already past through your screening process.

Neat, huh?

This being said, JazzHR can only be as good as the way you set it up which is why I recommend making sure you reach out to their support team… or even me… to give it a look over to make sure you are maximizing your efforts.

Spoiler Alert: I only recommend about 4 knockout questions.

Imagine which scenario would keep your morale up? Imagine if this could actually make you LOVE hiring? Or at least not feel like you were wasting so much time sifting through endless amounts of applicants? Having ONLY qualified applicants in front of you really does turn a stressful and depressing process into a happy one.

2. Save Time & Track Your Hiring Process:

Up until recently, I have seen two ways pet businesses have been moving people through the hiring process:

1. Through their own business email, writing emails back and forth. They spend time reviewing the thread, hemming, and hawing over how they feel about an applicant. Sometimes even looking back to review their file because they forget what they already asked them. They are writing every email by hand while thinking to themselves, “It is okay! it doesn’t that much time”

2. They have a similar process as #1 above however they have gone through my Employee Quick Start course and have all the emails loaded as canned responses. Yet, they still struggle with remembering what the applicant said the entire process, finding the emails, and being interrupted throughout the day with the emails.

Both of these solutions take an enormous amount of time out of a business owner’s (or their management’s) day.

No wonder why no one likes to hire.

See what I mean here as I take you through the Phases of an actual dog walking online interview process.

In this video you will see how workflows can be used to streamline the entire hiring process. You can move people through 4 stages in one day if you wanted to. The applicant will be blown away and impressed at how professional you are and the process really commands respect for your position and business.

3. Moving Through The Hiring Phases Fast & Easy:

Traditional hiring is tough because you have resumes, cover letters, email exchanges everywhere and sometimes you don’t even remember who you are talking to or what they said. You have to search through email and while doing that almost always get side tracked.

Am I right?

With JazzHR you are able to upload your entire hiring process into their software so everything and everyone stays in the same place and you can see where they are in YOUR process. For those of you with staff that helps you hire, they too can see exactly what is going on with each applicant. (Especially helpful for those who might allow their staff to do the first round of interviews)

Take a look how a pet sitter does it here:

She has Phases to her interview process and it is as easy as clicking a button and moving them onto the next phase. The phases itself weeds people out and if you position the questions correctly, it will test them on your company values.

Example: You are looking for someone who would rather ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. To test for this, you can do a situational question in Phase 1 where you force them to make one of those decisions and explain why.

4. Interview Without Doubts On What To Ask Or How To Evaluate:

Many times we are rushing to a face to face interview.

Praying that the interviewee shows up and we are wondering what we might ask them? All the while really feeling stressed because let’s face it, we don’t feel confident interviewing. On top of all that, we feel pressured to make a decision to hire them or not, yet it is almost always based off our gut. Never any real non-emotional mathematical equation.

Here is how JazzHR helps you to ask the same questions at all interviews and then be able to evaluate your applicants based off what is really important to you. No more stress, not knowing what to say, or who to hire.

JazzHR is revolutionizing the pet sitting and dog walking hiring process.

More Things That JazzHR Can Do That Indeed Does Not:

See how many people view your ad
Post to more than one job board at a time with one click of a button.
You can ask people questions while they apply and knock them out if they don’t answer the correct way.
Sync your google calendar to invite them to an interview.
Store your interview guides to keep all your interview questions neatly in one place and then rank the applicants. (See the picture above)
You can track how long it takes you to hire an applicant. Is there a tipping point to when people lose interest in your job?
You can also send job offers there and they even have a feature where they can electronically sign things (think application or job offer) where it all stays virtually.

There is so much data that can drive so many of your hiring decisions and as we all grow as business owners we know how important it is to make all decisions moving forward based off the data and not our feelings.

Jazz_Demo_3m from JazzHR on Vimeo.

Helpful tips and tricks for those of you who are signed up for JazzHR:

1. If you are on the Hero plan, use all three job posting slots that you have access to. Also, take their free webinar they just started offering.
2. If you are open the Pro or Plus plan… you have unlimited job postings. Use them and see which performs the best. Just make sure they aren’t the same title.
3. Job boards block the cute titles so make sure you have what you are looking for like “pet sitter” or “dog walker” and a short description like your area.
4. On the Hero plan, you have email support. They will get back to you fast. On the Plus and Pro plan, you have 2 one hour sessions to help you get set up. Use them!
5. On the Pro or Plus plan you get to choose from a big list of knockout questions I suggest. Use them 🙂
6. If you ever have any questions, just ask me. I am always here to help. Like seriously, I would be happy to go under the hood and give you my suggestions on improvement.

What Would It Mean If Your Hiring Problem Was Solved?

Today, if 2 people quit and you could just open up a program, press a button to initiate the interview process for people you already vetted…. how much less stress would you be under? How much would you now (all of a sudden) not CARE if someone quit because you already had people waiting in the wings?

It is like making Thanksgiving dinner from scratch 3 hours before the company or prepping most of the meal a few days ahead so it is stress-free the day of!

Yes, I just compared hiring to Thanksgiving dinner 🙂

Do yourself a favor and give JazzHR a fair shot. I promise you, it will really help solve a LOT of your hiring problems… if you use it right!

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Disclaimer: I am a partner with JazzHR and I do get paid a small fee if you sign up… BUT as a user of Jazzhr myself, I would never recommend anything that I didn’t 100% believe in. To date, over 60 other pet sitters also believe in it and it has really helped them too. 🙂 (PS) If you click on any of the JazzHr links above you will get all the discounts and bonuses they have agreed to give to my crew.