How employers can best deal with mass job applications

Last month we addressed redundancy guilt and how to accentuate the positive when forced to make redundancies.

Sadly, in the three months of the second quarter of 2020 we have seen the largest drop in employment since the 2009 Financial Crisis, with 730,000 employees falling off payroll. However, it is not all doom and gloom. There are new businesses emerging and many industries are thriving. As the many apply for the few job vacancies employers may well feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of applicants.

How we manage the recruitment process is incredibly important both for the individual applicant who is desperately seeking work and for the good name of the company. Recruitment done properly is time-consuming and you want the best possible person to fill the role.

One way to limit the number of responses is to ensure that your job advert clearly sets out the qualifications, experience, skills and knowledge that are essential to the role. The more specific you can be the better, whilst of course avoiding any discriminatory requirements such as age or gender. This is a strong first line of defence for discouraging unsuitable applicants and protection against claims of discrimination.

If you are happy to accept CVs, then ask for a covering letter to be sent with the CV, setting out how they meet the requirements of the position, in particular the skills and knowledge. Even better if you can use a properly created application form, as this ensures the candidates have to fill out the required sections and makes comparison between the forms easier.

Even with these measures in place you may be inundated, so now the sifting begins. You can’t interview everyone, even if they were all suitably qualified. Therefore, weed out those where no covering letter was provided with the cv, if requested, where covering letters which have obviously been cut and pasted, contain poor spelling or have got the company name wrong.

For the ones that remain, score them against the pre-set criteria you are looking for, and as with so much else in HR, keep records (you should retain the CVs, letters and application forms of all unsuccessful applicants for six months from the date you advised them they were unsuccessful).

Decide where you draw the line on your scoring system and progress your best candidates through to a telephone interview. Prepare your questions and ask everyone the same ones, again have a strict marking policy and record keeping.

After this stage, you should leave yourself with a manageable shortlist for face-to-face interviews. With face-to-face interviews it is helpful to have more than one person as part of the process to give a balanced view and help avoid unconscious bias. It also helps where you may have several strong candidates with different qualities: talking through the candidates with a colleague can help clarify the decision.

Again, ask the same questions of all candidates and ensure you record the answers given during the interview: it is much easier to make a decision later in the day when you have objective information recorded for each candidate.

Don’t forget that each application, no matter how poor, represents someone who needs a job and has spent time applying to you. Inject some empathy into your process by replying to everyone – it is good manners – even if it is just with a well-crafted pre-written email. If someone who has been rejected emails to ask why they were unsuccessful, giving them proper feedback if you can is helpful e.g. if someone used a generic covering letter, advising them to ensure each letter is tailored to the vacancy may help them to get an interview for the next vacancy they apply for.

Many SME’s do not have the same resources as their larger competitors. A good HR provider can help with your recruitment by building your key staff efficiently, allowing you to keep up with larger companies.

The HR Dept is now the UK’s largest network of HR professionals providing outsourced HR support. Our clients vary, from tiny start-ups to established brands, across all industries.

We pride ourselves on delivering cost-effective employment law advice and HR solutions that leave you free to concentrate on growing your business.

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01243 214404