The new job your team posted Friday afternoon has received over 500 applicants by Monday morning and more are on the way!

While you're impressed at the popularity of your company how do you effectively hire someone with these numbers?

 

There's no one fix for quickly sorting through a large volume of applications but here are a few tips that may help manage a positive candidate experience and help you find your next hire.

1. Follow up with everyone who applies

An automated thank you email to notify them of their application is pretty standard these days and often this is a default setting on your Applicant Tracking System. Sending this out starts you off on a good track for a positive candidate experience.

Some organizations provide automated status updates to show candidates what stage they are in the application process.

2. Have a goal of providing feedback within a week of applying

This is a lofty but worthy goal. Getting feedback (good or bad) within a short time frame can help ensure candidates feel valued. If you can manage to a more aggressive schedule an ideal goal would be to provide feedback within 2-3 business days.

Prompt feedback will keep you top of mind with candidates. Additionally, this time frame helps give closure to hopeful applicants who will not move on to interviews.

Budgeting time daily can help meet this goal.

3. Create an objective and repeatable approach

Establishing an objective and repeatable process for screening and interviewing is important whether you are handling the entire recruiting process or have multiple people involved.

Since most teams have multiple recruiters working together this ensures you have a consistent approach to hiring and serves as a starting point as you explore future changes to your process.

4. Create screening questions to help narrow your focus

You can leverage screening during the application process to filter from a high volume of applicants.

These questions might be specific to the role or a standard set of questions for your company.

Two or three questions should be sufficient to briefly assess an applicant's interest, motivation, and writing style and can be a good complement to their resume and/or cover letter.  

5. Give extra consideration to referral candidates.

Referral candidates are often highly qualified for the role and may be a good match for the role. Since someone within the organization is essentially vouching for them your response can have a great impact not only on the candidate but also on your team members.

Following up with care can send a strong message to team members showing them referrals are valued and appreciated. 

6. Avoid stale job postings

Have you ever applied to a job and still see it posted weeks or months later?

If your job is posted for more than four weeks and is reposted over and over again this can signal to others that you are disorganized, not interested in making a hire, or looking for perfection. 

If you are getting more candidate applications than you can handle, consider turning off the job application until you clear your backlog.

7. Hiring is organic. You can change and adapt as you go.

Sometimes hiring needs change due to business conditions or based on feedback from hiring managers or job seekers. Don't be afraid to modify and revise your process and expectations along the way. Sometimes there is a clear gap between what your team is looking for and what is available in the applicant pool.

8. Nurture your talent pipeline for future hires.

Many job postings yield great applicants who ultimately don't get the job.

If you hire similar roles on a regular basis these people should be on your short list and first point of contact as new needs arise. This is an approach external recruiting firms follow consistently with great success. You can do it too!

If you have thoughts or feedback about these tips please feel free to contact us at info@counterpointsolutions.com

Thanks for reading and happy hiring!