Save Time in Hiring by Improving the Screening Process

If you’re like most people hiring a new employee, time is money! Every minute you spend shuffling through incomplete resumes and applications with typos, a more efficient company is hiring the best talent. Imagine if there was a way to streamline the process to save you time and your company money.

Save Time… Time is Money

To get the best person for a team, there needs to be a solid process for connecting with them quickly. Without this, you may miss your opportunity to see if they are a good fit for your team because they’ll already be working somewhere else. With a limited amount of people actively seeking employment, you need a system to quickly connect and engage with the candidates. Finding the best people requires even more work.

The best people in the job market already have a job. They are the passive job seekers; comfortable “enough” in their current position, but ready to entertain the idea of a new job.

Of course, you want to save your company’s time and money. However, you should also be conscious of the time a passive job seeker is spending, too. Since they already have a job, they are going to be especially selective when it comes to spending time applying and interviewing with a company. Finding a couple of hours to sneak out of work for an interview can be a big risk. If there isn’t a true interest in the company, they don’t want to waste their time interviewing.

Connecting with the candidate “quickly” means contacting them within 15 minutes to an hour the same day they apply.

Here are four ways to improve the screening process and save your team a lot of time:

1. Invest in an applicant tracking system

Recruiting is no longer an HR-only task. Who knows the job responsibilities and company culture better than someone on the team? An applicant tracking system (ATS) is an online program that helps with posting jobs as well as managing and screening candidates. There are hundreds of systems on the market today. The best option is the one the entire company adopts and uses.

A good ATS will help screen candidates by requiring answers to certain questions before the person moves on to the next stage of the application process. The answers to those questions can allow the system to automatically pre-screen and pass on candidates without taking time away from the team. Responding to a candidate can be as simple as allowing the system to generate a predetermined “no thank you” email, letting the candidate know they’re no longer in the running.

An ATS can also help with other features of hiring, such as requests for references, background checks, and more. Using email templates your team pre-approves allows your message to be consistent to each candidate as they move throughout the hiring process. Automating the pre-screening process will save time. And after all, time is money.

2.  Update job descriptions to describe to the unwanted candidate

Have fun with this one! You want your job description to match the company culture and core values. It shouldn’t be unprofessional; but, there are creative ways to filter out candidates that wouldn’t be a good fit. If you want a candidate who is dedicated to the company, rather than someone who likes to job-hop, call that out in the job description:

“Switch jobs every 90 days to make an extra buck? Then, this company isn’t right for you. Opportunities for advancement and training are only available to committed team members.”

It’s amazing how a well-written job description can deter the wrong people from applying for your open job.

3. Make recruiting a team effort

A good ATS will allow for multiple team members to use the system and screen candidates. You can assign different levels of access to each person you include in the system. Giving access can also allow your supervisor to view the system and see that everything is on track, rather than follow up with you constantly.

When you start to think about the flow of an ATS, you may realize that more people can help with the hiring process than you ever imagined. Perhaps you can train an administrative assistant to disqualify candidates or conduct phone screenings. With an objective screening process, office staff with a little extra time on their hands can make a dent in screening out the unqualified candidates.

4. Leverage technology

The ATS should be the hub of the recruiting efforts. With so many people applying for jobs from their mobile devices, it’s important to use technology they connect with easily. Many ATS have an option to optimize your job posting for mobile devices. An ATS with a mobile-friendly application can allow your team to review candidates from the comfort of their couch, rather than being stuck in front of their computer screen.

Much of the time spent on screening candidates is putting them through a phone screening and scheduling the interview. If there’s a struggle to get people on the phone to schedule the interview appointment and follow-ups, automate the process. A good ATS system will schedule emails to the best candidates.

Integrating text messaging is another great option. A passive job seeker may struggle to discretely call you back during work hours since they already have a job. Candidates often respond much more quickly to a text message, rather than an email or voicemail.

Consider using video interviews for the first round. Cloud-based applications can guide candidates through screening questions. Candidates then provide their response in front of their computer without the company having to schedule the first interview. If the hiring team is struggling to get to all of the candidates, integrating video interviews is a great way to screen out those who aren’t very interested.

Building Business with ATS

It takes time to lay a strong foundation, carefully integrate technology, and gradually make improvements. Just like any project, this won’t happen overnight. Take the time to plan for integrating new technologies into your screening process. Soon, the time savings during the screening process will allow added time to find the best candidates in the marketplace.

Applying for an open job can be as easy as clicking a box and a button. One candidate could apply for ten jobs in 30 seconds. This puts the burden on you, the employer, and increases the time it takes to screen candidates to find the right fit. Technology can make this process simpler and save valuable time for the entire team.

Call the Professionals

Hiring managers spend a lot of time screening candidates to find the ones worth interviewing. This process can be exhausting. There is a lot of energy spent eliminating people who have no right applying while shuffling through hundreds of applications. The paperwork screening process increases the time it takes to respond to a candidate. Companies that have a better screening process get the A-list employees.

If you’re interested in setting up an ATS but don’t know where to begin, call the Recruitment Marketers at Core Matters. We’re experts at helping you identify and implement an applicant tracking system that will be the right fit for your team.

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