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6 Tips to Screen Resumes
when you are hiring bulk candidates

By Aditya Sharma

October 2 2019 - Technological advancement has significantly solved the problem of optimizing bulk-recruitment of candidates. But that’s only half the job. Hiring good candidates cannot be done with the use of technology alone. You need to go to great lengths to ensure that you aren’t compromising on the quality of the resource while hiring in bulk. This is invariably the biggest challenge that recruiters face when they hire candidates en masse.

Mentioned below is a list of the top 6 tips that will serve you well while you’re screening resumes for bulk hiring:

1. Write realistic job advertisements

You cannot successfully hire candidates in bulk if you can’t attract them in the first place. Your task here is to get potential employees excited to click on the job posting and apply for the said job. If you have a lengthy and boring description with unrealistic expectations, candidates may get demotivated and may not even apply for the job. This is why a candidate-first policy will serve you better. Keep it short and transparent to acquire the best talent.

2. Researching the job description

Most recruiters don’t spend too much time preparing the job description. They just write whatever comes to their mind in the last minute. This not only hampers the quality of candidates you attract but also the overall hiring process.

It’s imperative that recruiters coordinate with the concerned departmental heads to ensure that the keywords going in the job description exactly match the requirements. The entire matching process – not just between recruiters and applicants but also for the ATS - is governed by keywords.

In most cases, even after the candidates have been shortlisted for the interview, there’s still a mismatch of expectations w.r.t the exact job profile. Candidates are even on-boarded without absolute clarity on the specific job requirements.

The negative impact of this drawback is still kept to a minimum when you’re hiring individual candidates, but when you’re going for bulk hiring, this can explode into a huge hiring catastrophe that can take months to rectify. All of this can be avoided if the job description mentions the exact requirements the organization is looking for.

3. Incubating the dream team

Bulk hiring of candidates demand that a recruiter goes through the tedious process of screening candidates to look for the best pedigree of candidates. Let’s just call them the “dream team”. The task of the recruiter here is to shortlist the “dream team”. The dream team or the ideal candidates will have certain tell-tales that will distinguish them from the rest of the flock. It is this pedigree of highly proficient professionals that you should try to look for when you assess job candidates.

It'll help if you’ve a well-written job description that you can refer to during the entire hiring process. Since you’re dealing with human beings, there are bound to be cases wherein there’s going to be a conflict or a dilemma. In such cases, it helps if there’s a job description set in stone that can be used as a reference for resolving such disagreements.

4. Use the Applicant Tracking System

When you are hiring in bulk, automating key components significantly streamlines the entire process. The Applicant Tracking System filters all resumes based on keywords, skills, professional experience, education, etc. to help you effortlessly shortlist the ideal candidates. You can find multiple ATSes as per your requirements – whether there are 50 people in your company or 50,000.

Employing an ATS will leave the recruiter with more time on actually streamlining the recruiting process and filtering the candidates.

5. Outsource your recruitment needs

Mass hiring can be made easier by outsourcing the process to a recruitment agency. They are well equipped with the right tools to handle various aspects of hiring such as recruitment, shortlisting, interviewing, extending the job offer, etc. Recruitment agencies keep your professional appearance alive and help you hire quality candidates at a faster rate. Most recruitment agencies often guarantee employee retention for at least 3-6 months, and that perk makes outsourcing for your bulk-hiring needs an attractive affair.

Outsourcing your recruitment needs might not make sense if you’re looking for a few individual candidates, but if you’re going for bulk hiring, this option will majorly cut down on your valuable time and cost.

6. Incorporating employee feedback

While this may not be a popular method, gathering feedback from existing employees to understand the factors involved during their hiring process and understanding their skills & abilities to set parameters for your next bulk-hiring recruitment may be a feasible approach. This process is a great example of learning from your mistakes. This ensures that you’re continuously optimizing the hiring process based on internal feedback which will go a long way in stabilizing long-term hiring operations. The data acquired from the employees is helpful in formulating the job description and devising the recruitment strategy. Understanding your shortcomings can help you accomplish a targeted and successful bulk-hiring endeavor.

About the Author:

On a quest to help professionals across the world land their dream jobs, Aditya lives and breathes Hiration - a resume builder that helps job-seekers find their way in the treacherous job market - where he’s a Co-Founder and the unofficial CPO (Chief Problem-solving Officer). He likes to code away his days and nights when he’s not busy disrupting the career space.



 
 




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