Hiring People regularly advertise jobs for our clients, where they attract 100s or 1000s of job applications.

Roles where we regularly see high volumes of applicants are:

• Warehouse Workers / Assistants
• Admin Assistants
• Junior Graphic Designers
• Receptionists
• HR Assistants
• Office Managers
• Accounts Assistants
• Junior Analysts
• Junior Data Scientists

So, how do you manage your candidates effectively?

The simple answer is to use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), where all your applicants will land, allowing you to view all CVs and covering letters in one place and marking whether a candidate is suitable, as well as being able to invite candidates to interview. This will save you hours of work, along with keeping your inbox clearer (would you really want to get 300+ CVs into your inbox? I know I wouldn’t!).

Read Centralising Recruitment With ATS and visit our Interviewing Resource Hub.

Strategies For Reviewing Job Applications

Having received multiple responses to your job advert, what strategies are you going to use to filter the applications?

Start Reviewing Job Applications As Soon As They Arrive And Inviting To Interview

Using this strategy means you can keep on top of your job advert, as well as being responsive to prospective employees; no one likes waiting for a month or longer for a response. In this candidate-driven market, providing a good candidate experience increases the likelihood of you recruiting the best staff.

Pros:

• Reduces time spent reviewing CVs
• Should result in a quicker start date
• Candidates are more likely to remember applying for your role
• Candidates are more likely to still be available

Cons:

• Doesn’t necessarily result in getting the best candidate for
  your role
• May miss the perfect candidate who applies at the end of your
  job advert being live

Invite Candidates To Interview After The Advert Has Closed

It is common for businesses to wait until their job adverts are no longer live before inviting candidates to interview. This strategy allows employers to have a more complete view of the market, only inviting the very best applicants to interview, BUT the best applicants are likely to get interviews in the meantime, especially if they apply at the beginning of a 4-week campaign.

Pros:

• You have a good reflection of the current market of job seekers
• Gives you the opportunity to invite the most appropriate
  candidates to interview

Cons:

• The process will take longer
• Candidates are likely to have forgotten about applying for your job

Time Considerations

Whichever strategy you employ, if
your role has attracted hundreds of applicants, working through them all will
take a considerable amount of time.

HiringPeople offers a flat fee recruitment service to our clients where we will manually review applications, creating a shortlist of applicants that closest match your job spec.