How to Recruit Canvassers: Where to Find People Who Stay
The canvassers most likely to stay usually come from three places: referrals from canvassers who are doing well, people whose last job had them dealing with the public in person, and community groups they already belong to. Job boards bring in many applicants, but fewer of them tend to stay. Whatever the channel, judge your recruiting by how many of the people you bring on are still working a month later, rather than by how many apply.
This guide ranks the main recruiting channels, explains how to write a job ad that screens applicants, gives a short screening method, and covers volunteers separately. For hiring, paying and keeping a team over a full season, see our guide to recruiting, paying and retaining canvassers.
Why recruiting for canvassing is different
The quality that most helps a person last in this job does not show up on a resume, and applicants cannot reliably describe it themselves. It is the ability to be turned down in person, many times a day, without taking it personally. Your channels and your screening should help you find people who have it.
Recruiting channels, in rough order of results
Referrals from canvassers who are doing well
This is often the best channel, and it is easy to overlook. A canvasser who is doing well understands the job better than any job description can explain it. They are unlikely to refer someone they expect to hate it, because a poor referral reflects on them. The person they refer arrives with a realistic picture of the work and a friend on the team.
If you pay a referral bonus, pay it when the new person reaches a set length of service rather than on the day they are hired. Paying at hire rewards the number of referrals, and the number of applicants is rarely the problem.
Ask people directly. "Who do you know who could do this?" in a one-on-one conversation produces names. A poster in the staging room usually does not.
People whose last job tested them in person
Restaurant and bar service, retail, coaching, teaching, other field sales, and campaign or organizing work all involve hearing no from strangers in person and carrying on. People from these jobs have already met the hardest part of canvassing.
Someone whose work history is all at a screen is not ruled out. Neither of you knows yet how they will react to their first hard afternoon, so plan to give them more support early. Experience with the public matters more here than credentials, and some durable canvassers have short resumes and a long history of dealing with people.
Community and organization networks
For political and advocacy programs especially, recruit through neighborhood associations, unions, congregations, campus groups and similar networks. People recruited through a group they belong to tend to show up, because the people they know will notice if they miss a shift. This channel also brings in canvassers who know the neighborhoods, which helps in dense or unfamiliar turf.
Job boards
Job boards bring in volume, along with a lot of screening work, and fewer of those hires tend to stay. If you are staffing a short spike of a few weeks, that trade may be acceptable. A program that relies only on job boards tends to stay in hiring mode all season. If you use them, set aside time for screening.
Asking people you see doing the job well
This approach is easy to overlook, and it can work well. If you watch someone handle a difficult member of the public calmly, at a counter, a register or a street event, you have seen the main skill of the job in action, which is more than an interview shows you. Tell them about the work and leave them a way to apply.
Write a job ad that screens
Many canvassing ads are written to bring in as many applicants as possible, and then the program is disappointed with who applies. The ad should help with screening. Include three things many ads leave out:
- The rejection. Say plainly that many doors will not answer and that some people will be rude. An applicant who reads that and still applies has already screened themselves.
- The physical side. Hours on your feet, outdoors, in most weather. Some people cannot do this, and it is kinder to say so before they apply.
- The actual pay. Vague earnings claims attract people who are unhappy by the second week. If the job has a base wage, say so clearly.
Leave out vague promises about "opportunity," unverifiable figures about top earners, and anything that makes the job sound easy. Experienced applicants have seen those ads before and discount them.
Screen in ten minutes
Two techniques tell you more than a long interview.
Describe the job honestly, then listen. Explain that many doors will not answer, and that the first two weeks are usually the hardest. Then stop talking. An applicant who asks a practical question is telling you something useful. One who visibly loses interest has saved you both a month.
Run a short practice door. Spend five minutes at a pretend door, and say in advance that you are not looking for polish. Watch for three things: whether they keep going after the first brush-off, whether they respond to what you actually said rather than sticking to a script, and whether they can take one correction and apply it right away when you run it again. That last quality, being coachable, separates people who improve from people who stay where they started, and you can see it in ten minutes.
Recruiting volunteers
Volunteer recruitment works differently. The most dependable approach is a direct, personal request from someone the volunteer already knows. A social media post or an email to your whole list collects sign-ups. A personal request is more likely to bring someone to the shift, because the person who asked can follow up and will notice if they do not come.
A long sign-up list does not guarantee a full Saturday morning shift. In practice:
- Recruit through your current volunteers, by asking each of them to bring one person they know.
- Confirm each shift by phone the day before, rather than relying on a form filled in weeks earlier.
- Plan for a gap between the number of people who sign up and the number who arrive.
To work out how many volunteers your race needs in the first place, see how many volunteers a local campaign needs.
How many people to recruit
Programs often recruit too few people because they plan for the number of canvassers they want, rather than for the losses along the way.
Work backward. Start with the number of canvassers you need working in a given week. Then count the losses at each stage: applicants who never reply, people who miss their interview, offers that are declined, new hires who never work a first shift, and people who leave in the first few weeks. Each stage loses some people, and many programs plan only for the last one.
Do not borrow another program's ratios, because they vary by area, channel and pay. Use your own numbers, which means recording the stage at which each candidate dropped out. With that record, two things become clear:
- Your recruiting target needs to be well above your staffing target, and you can see by how much.
- Keeping more people through their first three weeks reduces how many you need to recruit, because those losses come after you have already spent the time to find, screen and train someone.
Recruit all season, not in bursts
Programs that recruit only when they are short-staffed are always recruiting under pressure. Pressure lowers standards and shortens screening, which brings in people who are less likely to stay, so the program is short again a few weeks later.
A small, steady effort, such as one recruiting conversation a week, works better than a rushed hiring class. When someone good appears, you have room to bring them on.
A true seasonal spike may still need a hiring class. Even then, keep a core team hired all season and add the spike on top of it. A team that is entirely new at once has no experienced canvassers to pair with new ones, and a new canvasser paired with an experienced one has someone to learn from during the hardest days. Our guide to training new canvassers in their first week covers that first week in detail.
Bring new recruits into Beacon on their first day
Add each new canvasser to your organization in Beacon with the canvasser role, and keep managers and admins in their own roles. Every Beacon plan includes unlimited canvassers, so adding a new hire or a weekend volunteer does not change your price. Draw a small turf for each new person, ideally next to an experienced canvasser's turf, and assign it so they start with a walk list ordered by distance. After their first shifts, the leaderboard and each turf's completion percentage show who is recording results and who may need a check-in. For more on how campaigns run field teams in Beacon, see Beacon for campaign field teams.
When your next group of canvassers is ready, start a 14-day trial and give each of them a walk list for their first shift. The trial includes the Starter plan's features.
