For high-volume roles, recruiting efficiently has always been a problem. This issue is further heightened by ‘one-click apply’, auto-filled applications, and other methods using which candidates can apply for hundreds of jobs in a short amount of time. This leaves you with a flood of applications.
What this means for recruiters is that their valuable time is spent screening and shortlisting good candidates. According to a recent survey by Gartner, 42% of the recruiters wished that they spent less time screening the candidates.
For this to be done efficiently, organizations have to devise a strategy through which they increase the number of quality hires, while simultaneously looking out for ways to reduce time to hire or fill in high-volume roles. These strategies should be focused on effectively deducting the time spent in screening and removing the features that are complicated to make hiring decisions faster.
Here are a few methods that would help you in making this process efficient:
- Honest branding so employees self-select out themselves
Four major drivers that people look for in a role are compensation, work-life balance, location, and stability. Branding teams should highlight how these factors would look truthfully in their branding material. This should be reiterated in the job description as well.
Netflix, for example, posts unscripted videos of how the life of its employees is. In this video series, employees talk about topics that matter, like performance feedback, leave policies, learning opportunities, etc. This series talks about how the culture at Netflix actually is.
However, this need not be in the form of videos only. MongoDB has a series liken to this but in an interview format. Adding this material gives you candidates an honest look into how it’ll be like working for you, and they can then self-select out of the process. This will reduce time to hire and your recruiters would have more time to spend on serious candidates.
Moreover, some candidates, after learning of the work and working culture, decline the offers and leave soon after joining the organization. Honest employer branding would help in keeping the expectations of people straight.
- Assess first, screen second
Organizations can also revisit the amount of effort they wish their applicants to make when they make the initial connect. Instead of a simple ‘one-click apply’, you can add a quick assessment to see whether they are competent enough or not. This assessment need not be a complete assessment for the role, this could be a simple aptitude test or communications proficiency test. Using the results of this test, your recruiters would be able to quickly eliminate the underperforming candidates.
For example, a global pharmaceutical company 'Roche' tried this method. They moved their preliminary assessment before the screening round and saw great results. Even though their applications dropped from 300 to 80, they didn’t suffer on quality.
Be careful on how you create this test, though. Roche’s assessment, in this example, was a business challenge. The candidates were meant to respond to a certain business scenario. The candidates had to only respond to one question, and that made attempting this test easier. So, organizations need to be careful with this strategy. A number of applicants may be deterred from applying if the test is exhaustive and requires a lot of effort on their part.
- Let Automation Take Over Time-consuming Practices
We’re in the midst of the fourth wave of the Industrial Revolution, and this time, it is all about automation. The way we now interact with technology is vastly different than a decade back. Recruitment, as a function, cannot be left behind.
Unilever is an organization that receives thousands of applications every year for each role. So when they wanted to make this process easier, they turned to AI. They created an AI-based tool wherein they assess their candidates using gaming-based questions on logic and reasoning. They added another mandatory feature of video interviews. This helped them in cutting over 70,000 man-hours.
There are a number of sourcing platforms, candidate management systems, and ATS that you can leverage for your benefit. A number of resume screening platforms are also available that use AI to zoom in on the desired candidates. All you need to do is determine what is ‘good’ for a role or organization, and let the algorithm help you make decisions faster.
- Reduce the Number of Stakeholders Involved
To make the recruitment process for high-volume roles, you may consider eliminating the number of stakeholders involved in the process. Recruiters feel burdened because of the number of stakeholders engaged in the hiring process. By lessening the number, you’d empower your recruiters to make better hiring decisions; this would also teach them how to rely on their own expertise.
