Flooded with Resumes?

Flooded with resumes?

Hello!

As the unemployment rate continues to rise, HR professionals, hiring managers, and small business owners are receiving an increase in the number of applicants for their few openings. Please read below to see if the below scenario sounds familiar.

John from XYZ Company is your typical spectacular HR professional. (Only time I'll suck up in this story!) Over the weekend, John learned that the floor needs an additional Manufacturing Engineer. Piece of cake? Company market, plenty of candidates---so he jumps on Monster.com---opens an account, purchases a job posting, identifies the criteria, and follows along with the instructions to post the position.

After one hour---John has 12 applicants. At the end of the day---he's reached 40. And after one week, 300 resumes have come through. (In case you're wondering---these are actual stats from one client.)

With much more on everyone's plate, here are a few suggestions to manage an inflated candidate funnel:

Use qualifying questions: Most job board sites offer employers the option to require candidates to answer several questions in addition to simply responding with their resume. The questions often ask candidates to provide specific examples of their experience in relation to the opening. For employers, it's another tool to screen candidates before investing more time in an interview, and candidates will often reconsider applying after reviewing the additional required information.

Pursue sites that passive seekers would use: With 92% of the workforce still employed, there continues to be a vast amount of passive candidates that will not respond to regular ads. To move beyond the "very active" seeker that is all over the job boards, consider posting the position on social networking sites like www.linkedin.com or simply via word of mouth at networking groups or through employee referrals.

Hand off the work: Of course, you can pass off the whole process. When working exclusively with an outside recruiter companies simply refer applicants to the third party---who is then responsible for following up. In addition, the recruitment agency will only present qualified, pre-screened candidates within the salary range who have a vast knowledge of the hiring organization. (Sorry, had to plug our product---it's a rough economy :)