Smart Time Hacks for High Volume Recruiting

Whether it’s hiring for the upcoming holiday season or even tax time, the pressure to find a large number of qualified candidates in a short span of time never goes away. In fact, it’s gotten even more challenging in recent years, as unemployment rates hover around historic lows and the ease in applying is as simple as hitting a button on your computer or smart phone.

Creating a credible shortlist, without letting good potential slip through the net is a tedious process, so it seems timely to share the positive points of good practice we’ve experienced when recruiting for high-volume roles.

1 – Have a Plan

This sounds simple enough, but know what you need to do long before you need to do it.

Set aside time the night before and mentally prepare for the following day’s meetings, prospect calls, and the bevy of incoming emails. Find a way to minimise distractions when the day begins.

Time chunking stands out as one of the optimal methods for staying on point. If you have an hour slotted to flesh out interview templates or make follow-up calls to candidates, devote yourself only to the task at hand.

Recognise that frivolous emails can be a huge diversion in high-volume recruiting, pulling you in a number of different directions. Shut down your email. If an urgent matter pops up, someone knows where and how to find you.

2 – Job Descriptions

Vaguely worded job descriptions often invite anyone and everyone to apply.

Take time to clearly state job duties and requirements. Thoroughly flesh out, point by point, company expectations for the position. Be specific about years of experience and whether the position requires a degree or certain certifications.

Applicants who have the necessary qualifications won’t be intimidated, and those are the individuals you want to pursue. The mildly interested candidates will feel overwhelmed and simply take no further action.

Tuning up those ads shouldn’t kill a lot of time, but it will certainly save you some.

3 – Screening

When a first cut of the CV pile, typically based on essential selection criteria of minimal educational, training and professional memberships, still leave a high number of applicants in the ‘yes’ pile, then bringing a secondary CV screen based on the competencies essential to the role readily cuts through the rest.

Firstly, by making the completion of the competency section of the application mandatory, all of the time wasting applicants who simply attach a generic CV and cover letter to dozens of Seek or Indeed advertisement a day and hit ‘send’ are screened out immediately, leaving you the time to give applicants who want to work for your organisation rather than any organisation the attention they deserve.

Secondly, consider using brief online tests which determine cognitive skills and personality traits. Individuals who do not meet the skill level expectations or culture fit can be eliminated.

4. Improve on the candidate engagement front 

Just because you have a pile of CV’s doesn’t mean you can skimp on candidate engagement. In high volume recruiting, recruitment technology can be especially helpful in engaging candidates. A recent survey revealed that two-thirds of candidates are happy to communicate with a chatbot, as long as it provided them with the answers they sought.

Consider leveraging text messaging and online chats to communicate with applicants, Jobpal is a chatbot assisting candidates 24/7 on numerous platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Skype.

Other ways to improve your candidate engagement include:

  • Communicating your hiring timeline. As soon as you receive an application, send an acknowledgment email letting candidates know when applications close and when they can expect to hear from you. Especially let candidates know if there has been a delay to your timeline. Never leave candidates in the dark, second-guessing what is going on at your end.
  • Letting all candidates, both successful and unsuccessful, know the outcome. One of the most common candidate engagement issues is not being told if they are unsuccessful. Even worse, a Careerbuilder survey showed that 60% of employers don’t bother letting candidates know they’ve been unsuccessful even after bringing them in for an interview and meeting them face to face.
  • Sending updates with relevant content. Don’t spam applicants with needless comms, that won’t reflect well on you, but do send them updates with engaging content about the company, its employees and activities.

If you are looking to spend more time on quality candidates rather than quantity, give us a call on 021 786 285