“Before I updated my recruitment processes, I received many, many resumes, and a lot of them were useless for the role. But they meant either that the team had a lot of extra working communicating and rejecting them, or not following up, which for me was unacceptable. I need to protect the brand of the company as well as find the next talent.”

Recruitment Manager at Fortune 500-company

You need effective recruitment processes. The statistic is already a little bit older, but Glassdoor released numbers on the relevant numbers for an average, posted vacancy. Brace yourself: the average vacancy generates 250 resumes. Out of that 250, 6 get invited for an interview. And 1 gets the job.

250 Resumes

We all know the companies that receive astronomical amounts of applicants. For instance, Google receives roughly 2 million applicants per year, and Under Armor’s coveted internship program receives more than 17,000 application for just 98 open positions. Both numbers make getting into either company harder than getting into Harvard University.

Nike has a policy to answer all applications with a personal note. And they do. They see all applicants as potential employees, and as (and I think this is where this policy makes a lot of sense) potential customers. All interactions with the Nike brand need to be as positive as possible.

But also for companies for us, mere mortals, we receive a lot of applicants as well. 250 on average. That’s a lot, and it is an average number. If the market is particularly bad – we are in a bit of a bad stretch now, unfortunately – or the job is a ‘hot’, popular job, that number may increase. Having a policy like Nike will do a lot for your employer brand, but it will also take a lot of time. So, those 250 resumes better be good.

Job Postings

We talked in a previous post about the need for good, crisp, and clear job postings, because they help you pro-actively filter out un- or under-qualified candidates. You limit the number of fortune seekers that opportunistically shoot, and see what sticks. Of course, you can’t blame anyone for trying, but it does mean extra work for you and all involved.

There are ways to filter through the 250 you get. Many, if not all, of the large job posting sites facilitate the use of qualifier questions. These can be, “do you have experience with such-and-such software”, or “do you have a bachelor’s degree”, and so on. Applicants that answer these questions will get sorted into “qualifies” and “doesn’t qualify” categories. A few will slip through, intentionally or unintentionally, but that takes away a lot of the load.

The Process

Based on your job posting, the job description and your view of The Perfect Candidate, then it’s sifting through the remaining ones, until you reach a short-list. Those same job boards as a rule have email functionality, so you can send automated mass-messages to the applicants. I recommend drafting a good, clear and respectful rejection message, and sending that out as soon as you indeed reject a candidate. It closes the loop, and helps maintain or even build your brand as a people-focused employers.

6 on the Short List

Using the 6 candidates from the Glassdoor example, that means you have a shortlist. All or most of the criteria are met, and you see potential in the resumes. Next up: setting up an interview.

Here is where we come in. AskAway helps with creating those effective recruitment processes by optimizing the planning and organizing of the interviews. And as a bonus, the recorded interview, the key to why our product is such an asset for anyone in the recruiting process, ensures you can pre-screen in the most effective way possible. You can increase both the efficiency and the effectiveness of your pre-screening process without hassle.

Because you can schedule, have candidates answer and review, and have the hiring panel discuss and select with no massive moving of people, clearing schedules and running up cost, you don’t even have to worry about limiting to 6 candidates only. You won’t have to feel that you selected strictly out of budget or time constraints. And that leads to:

The 1 candidate

And that is ultimately the goal. Bringing 250 down to 1 is not the goal, it is the means to get to that one perfect, fitting super hire. Make your life easier and optimize your tools and systems to create effective recruitment processes without jeopardizing the quality of the outcome. Because that’s the one thing you don’t want to sacrifice.