3 Tips to Reduce Time Spent on Candidate Shortlisting & Selection for SMBs
Applications per job ad continue to rise, shifting the job market further from a candidate-driven market to an employer-driven market. If, like most HR professionals, you’re dealing with more applications than you can handle, here are 3 tips to streamline your shortlisting & selection process, so that you can: save significant time achieve better hiring outcomes ensure a positive candidate experience, and enhance your employer brand. Shortlisting & Selection can be a particularly time-consuming part of an internal recruiter’s role. This is especially the case when you have a high volume of applications, and you need to evaluate potentially hundreds of candidates against role requirements. Here are three tips to help you speed up your shortlisting & selection process and how Scout Talent can support your efforts (for less than what you might think!). 1. Implement AI-Powered Screening Tools Competition for roles at the moment is extremely high, with applications per job ad rising 3% in May 2024 (source: SEEK). At Scout Talent, we have clients who are receiving over 200 applications for a single role! Sorting through this volume of applications can be overwhelming without the right tools and resources in place. This is where AI-powered candidate screening tools can help, like Scout Talent’s AI Screen. AI screening tools have revolutionised shortlisting & selection. They can summarise hundreds of applications in seconds and quickly identify top candidates whose skills and experience align with the job criteria. Not only does this save a significant amount of time, but it also enhances hiring outcomes and reduces human bias. These tools continuously learn and adapt, refining their processes to meet evolving organisational needs. By quickly identifying unqualified candidates, internal recruiters can focus their time on progressing the most promising candidates. Scout Talent’s AI Screen helps internal hiring teams quickly evaluate a large number of applications, ensuring a more efficient and effective shortlisting & selection process. AI Screen is available to add onto Scout Talent’s lite ATS (:Recruit Essentials) for a total cost of just $450 per month. Or, when you run a recruitment campaign with Scout Talent, we’ll include 12 months of access to :Recruit Essentials, making access to AI Screen even more affordable at only $300 per month. Reach out to the Scout Talent team today if you’d like to find out more. 2. Automate Candidate Communication and Interview Scheduling Communicating with candidates and scheduling interviews is another time-consuming aspect of shortlisting & selection. In fact, it is estimated that these activities account for over 40% of an internal recruiter’s role. Tools that automate this part of the recruitment process, like an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), can significantly reduce the time spent on candidate shortlisting & selection. Here are three ways to use your ATS to reduce time spent on shortlisting & selection: Set up automated communications for different stages of the recruitment process. For example, an email or text message to acknowledge a candidate’s application, an update if their application has progressed to the next stage, or unsuccessful feedback if they haven’t been selected. Auto-assign candidate statuses based on responses to application screening questions. For example, a very simple screening question might ask if a candidate has an open drivers licence. If this is a key requirement of the role, you can configure your ATS to mark anyone who answers ‘no’ as ‘unsuccessful’ and automate subsequent communications. Use scheduling tools that allow candidates to book interview slots that suit their availability. This eliminates the back-and-forth communication typically involved in setting up interviews and helps to prevent scheduling conflicts and errors. Investing in recruitment software like an ATS can be out of reach for many SMBs. But with Scout Talent :Recruit Essentials, you can have a fully implemented system and achieve incredible ROI using features such as those listed above for an affordable investment of $1800 per year. That’s only $150 per month! Or, if you run a recruitment campaign with Scout Talent, we’ll include 12-month access to :Recruit Essentials for no additional cost. 3. Leverage Expert Shortlisting & Selection Services Shortlisting & selecting the right candidates from a pool of applications is often cited as the most challenging part of recruitment. As mentioned above, we’re currently seeing hundreds of applicants apply for some roles. Reviewing this volume of applications can be a significant drain on resources, and partnering with an outsourced shortlisting & selection specialist can make a substantial difference. Examples of expert shortlisting & selection services that Scout Talent offers include: Shortlisting & Selection: Our specialists can act as an extension of your team, completing tasks such as rating and ranking candidates against job criteria, conducting first-round video interviews, scheduling second-round interviews, running necessary checks and tests, and more. Group Interviews: Our Shortlisting & Selection Specialists are experts at delivering customised Group Interview and Information Days (GIIDs). These are perfect for roles with high numbers of applications. A GIID will help you uncover top talent through a range of activities, games, and tests. Anyone can run activities or interviews, but it’s the design of the activities and interviews that is pivotal, and this is where it’s best to get a specialist involved. Having a specialist facilitate the day gives hiring managers the opportunity to observe candidates for a range of relevant behaviours. With experts designing your GIID to uncover relevant behaviours (and running it on your behalf), you’ll be able to focus on reading candidate behaviour. That is, instead of being preoccupied with the administration of the day. Skills and Behavioural Testing: Internal HR professionals often partner with Scout Talent to act as an extension of their team to distribute skills and behavioural tests to candidates efficiently. Our Shortlisting & Selection Specialists are trained to interpret the sometimes ambiguous language appearing in skills and behavioural test reports (which can be up to 40 pages long!). For example, ‘dominating,’ ‘analytical’, and ‘social’ can differ depending on the industry. It’s these nuances that can mean the difference between a behavioural fit and a poor choice. Our Shortlisting & Selection specialists
New talent engagement product structure: how to choose the right campaign for you
Introducing our new talent engagement product structure, encompassing our most valuable shortlisting & selection solutions.
The Talent Scout Episode 35: Powerful Interview Questions
Interviews are often the first thing that comes to mind when people think of recruitment. In my opinion, there is probably slightly too much focus placed on interviews but that really is a topic for another day because, love them or hate them, interviews are a fundamental part of how we currently recruit. Today we’re
Closing Techniques: How to Land That In-Demand Candidate
So, you’ve heard of closing techniques; but have you heard of candidate closing techniques? Have you ever invested time in selling your offer to an in-demand candidate, only to have them reject the offer at the last minute? This is a surprisingly common occurrence, and one you can prevent by going the extra mile to seal the deal. Use these powerful closing strategies. They’re not all cheap and easy, so choose ones that will work for your organisation. Speed up the process In most competitions, speed wins. Some hiring managers don’t make offers quickly in fear it makes their organisation look “desperate”. (Yes, we’ve seen this happen on multiple occasions, to hiring managers’ detriment.) Sending a “bird in the hand offer” the same day of their final interview (before your candidate leaves) is even more impressive. An offer like this demonstrates that you and your manager are decisive, and that your candidate is desirable. Make on-the-spot offers if you can. One of the fastest ways to seal the deal is by making an offer on the spot and encouraging them to accept while they’re in your office. It’s not uncommon for people to change their minds, receive other offers or receive counter-offers from their current workplace. You can even offer a guaranteed sign-on bonus can provide an extra incentive for them to say yes. Making an offer in person is, psychologically, a more powerful strategy than making one over the phone. It’s also easier to address their concerns. Tip: Choose a time and space that makes them feel comfortable. Check out our article: “Converting candidates to hires: How to get to “yes” faster!” Create a dream job offer: understanding and meeting criteria Do you know all your desired candidate’s acceptance criteria? If you can meet them, it’s hard for them to say no. If you’re not certain, be upfront and ask them to list their criteria, and use their list to guide your offer. When you present it to them, ensure they understand how you’ve met each of their requirements. You could alternatively ask them to list the characteristics of their ideal or dream job on a blank sheet, then meet their dream-job criteria. Alternatively, offer an “exploding bonus”, encouraging them to decide quickly. This is where you offer a significant sign-on bonus, but it’s contingent on you candidate accepting the offer right away (on the spot or by that evening). After that initial time period, the bonus continually and dramatically decreases until it eventually reaches zero. Use the power of influence Job offers can be major decisions, which are rarely made alone. If possible and appropriate, consider reaching out to individuals who will influence the final decision. For example, pre-identified job references, colleagues, mentors, and family members. Provide them with information so that they will proactively go out of their way to encourage the candidate to say yes. You can also offer “two-for-ones”, winning them over by providing them with an opportunity to work alongside a peer, for example, a colleague, mentor, best friend, or qualified family member. A package deal can be a great closer, and you can also set them up to work together initially on a joint project. In using the power of influence, do you know if they have any contacts currently in your organisation? Encourage key people to informally let your chosen candidate know how much they are needed and that they will be welcomed with open arms. Make sure that you educate them so they know what the candidate cares most about. If your finalist is a referral, also have the referring employee call them and to also try to close the sale. Make it personal A passionate, personal call from your CEO, or another member of your leadership team, asking them to say yes and making a compelling case is a powerful closing strategy. Your leaders can express their enthusiasm for what they hope to achieve with them: “Together we can build this company to the next level.” Alternatively, a handwritten note from your CEO attached to their offer letter is also a nice touch. Automatic salary reviews Often the major hurdle in accepting a job is their concern about the offered salary being too low. So, if you can’t give them more money initially, agree to reopen the salary discussion three to six months down the road (when both sides know how the new hire has performed). This can alleviate some of their fear that they will be locked into a lower salary for a long period of time. Wow them with a surprise After a number of interviews, most candidates understand their offer. Adding an unexpected surprise that hadn’t previously been discussed can seal the deal. For example, working at home on Fridays, or choosing their own title. This also demonstrates you are willing to go above and beyond, and is great news for them to share with their family and friends. Be prepared to provide them with some symbols or indicators of status that might seal the deal. This might include a title, an office, an assistant, or a company car. Offer opt-out options No-fault “divorce options” can minimise fear of failure — some candidates are nervous that the job won’t be a fit. Offer them a non-confrontational way to walk away after six months. Assure them that they’ll get a positive reference and a lump sum payoff if either side feels that it didn’t work out. They can walk away while relatively unharmed. Flexible work More and more candidates expect flexible working arrangements. The opportunity to work from home or have flexible working arrangements can make or break a deal (especially if getting to your office requires a lengthy commute!). Create exciting letters of offer Is your letter of offer the best it can be? Letters that are overly legalistic (with a lot of fine print) are turnoffs. Also, letters that leave out key “promises” that were verbally discussed during interviews can invariably frustrate your candidate. Make your letter of offer and processes
Avoid Costly Mis-Hires: How Local Governments Can Reduce Hiring Risk
Taking on new employees in local government can have its challenges. While recruitment always carries some risk, the wrong hire can be particularly devastating for smaller Councils. Here how local governments can reduce hiring risk. New hires make us wonder, can they work well with our existing team? Will they show the dedication required for their role? Will they leave after a few months? While screening and onboarding new employees can be costly and time-consuming, following hiring best practices can help you reduce the odds of making the wrong hire, and increase the likelihood to place the right person in your role. Here are six tips about how local governments can reduce hiring risk. 1. Define the role Attracting the right person means understanding your organisation and role requirements inside and out. Establishing set criteria before your start advertising helps you stay focused when you do start to receive applications. Check out our article: “Are you recruiting purple squirrels? (How to rethink your selection criteria)” Seek input from key people invested in the role: your hiring manager, and whoever the role’s new manager and team members will be. Write down the list of duties your new hire will be required to perform and the skills they need. Use experience and qualifications to narrow down your talent pool. Then, tailor your recruitment advertisement accordingly. Culture is important in local governments, both for individual teams and your organisation as a whole. In your recruitment advertisement describe the work environment your new hire can expect. Sharing details about the way your organisation operates (and excels) will help both you and your candidates decide if your role is the right fit. Check out our article and podcast episode of The Talent Scout: How to pick a winning candidate 2. Use the power of referrals If you’re still wondering how local governments can reduce hiring risk, remember that you can reduce hiring risk through referrals. Referrals are one of the best ways to source talent you can trust. It’s faster, and often cheaper than traditional methods. To increase the number of referrals you receive, consider putting in place an employee referral program. These programs save time and money, as you won’t need to spend hours wading through resumes or waste money on job postings that don’t attract the right candidates. Your current team knows what it takes to be successful, and they can be a fantastic asset when it comes to finding new talent. People who already work in your Council will typically refer people with similar work ethic. So if you have a high-calibre team, you’ll attract high-calibre talent. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on recruitment advertisements, you can spend as little as a quarter of that amount through referrals – costs associated with referrals typically come from employee compensation from successful referrals. This can vary based on your organisation’s needs. 3. Use smart interviewing techniques Interviewing is not only an important opportunity to gain direct insights into your candidates, but having the right processes will save you valuable time and resources. Develop a list of behavioural and skills-based interview questions to screen candidates over two-way recorded video interviews or over the phone before inviting them for a face-to-face interview. Use your list of interview questions to keep interviews fair and consistent. While remote interviews are an investment, they save you time in the long run. By recording initial interviews (after obtaining permission from interviewees), you can share it with multiple team members to gain their feedback on which candidates to progress with. Gaining their insights can allow you to make a more informed decision. When it comes time to the face-to-face interview stage, many Councils invite team members to conduct a panel interview. Each interviewer takes turns to ask questions individually, the remaining panel members have time to listen to what the candidate is saying and observe their body language. Dividing the responsibilities gives both strong and weak interviewers the chance to ask questions, increasing the likelihood that all appropriate questions will be asked. Panel interviews reduce the risk of personal bias and ensure the validity of interview findings. It’s also an opportunity for candidates to interact with their potential coworkers, and gain a better understanding of the role as it’s seen from different employees’ perspective. 4. Check references After you’ve found a great candidate, it’s time for reference checks. Ask referees to confirm: Education, certifications, qualifications and skills Title or position in their previous role More information about the nature of their former duties and personality. Reference checks help you to narrow down your pool of candidates and reduce hiring risk, especially if you’re torn between several applicants who all interviewed well. Managers eliminate 21 per cent of applicants after speaking with their professional contacts (OfficeTeam). Learning about an applicant’s professional background from a direct source can be a great way to determine if they’re a good fit. Cross-reference contact information through independent research. If they provide a contact number for their supervisor at a former place of employment, look up the organisation. 5. Establish trial periods Many local governments engage in trial periods with new hires. This allows you to see how they perform, without making a commitment to permanent employment. It’s an opportunity to see how they interact with the rest of the team and whether they’ll be a successful long-term fit or not. It can also save you money, and give you the time and proof you need to assess your new hires’ abilities – beyond their resume and interview. 6. Conduct checks Background and pre-employment checks give you the peace of mind to confirm your hiring decision, particularly in local government roles where employees are trusted with confidential or sensitive information. This can save your organisation from hiring mistakes that could lead to misconduct or fraud. Checks give you access to employment history, police checks, traffic checks, financial checks and more. Specialist support from a recruitment services provider like Employment Office gives you fast, easy-to-understand reports
The Talent Scout Episode 25: Types and benefits of candidate testing
This post is written by our Recruitment Marketing Senior Leader, Shane Keane. I think a lot of us are very guilty of thinking that we are highly intuitive. We often come to a conclusion about a person very quickly after first meeting them and we trust that this opinion is in fact truth. I know that I like to consider myself a highly empathetic, intuitive, and emotionally intelligent person to the point that I often think I’m capable of “reading” a person and knowing who they are. It’s in recent years that I’ve started to practice checking that line of thought by reminding myself that subconscious bias exists and that the way someone presents themselves on the first meeting is not necessarily a true representation of who they are. Be careful of your biases These gut feelings and intuition are ever-present when we are recruiting candidates and if we listen to them during our interview process instead of fully assessing our candidates it’s very easy to fall into the trap of a bad hire who interviews well. When we interview candidates, whether we’re consciously aware of it or not, we’re often appraising them on 3 main criteria to establish their ability to perform on the job. The first of these areas can be called “Appears To”. This is the candidate’s appearance, pose, dress sense, mannerisms and expressiveness, as well as their interests and goals. It’s the area that really has the least impact on a candidate’s ability to be effective in a role and yet it’s the area that most of our gut feeling is based on. The second of these areas has a greater impact on a candidate’s ability to be effective in a role and can be called “Can do”. This area refers to a candidate’s knowledge and skills, their training and education, and their experience. Typically a resume gives us this information and we confirm this or dig a little bit deeper into this during an interview. The third of these areas can be referred to as “Will do” and this is the area that has the biggest impact on a candidate’s ability to be effective in a role. This area refers to a candidate’s attitudes and beliefs, internal motivation, stability and persistence, maturity, intelligence, aptitude, and temperament. These are things that we like to believe we’re all really effective at assessing in an interview but the truth is we’re not. We get caught up in our own biases and false truths from past experiences causing us to draw conclusions about people that simply aren’t true. Now this isn’t an argument against the interview process that we all know. Instead it’s an argument to improve it by combining it with different forms of candidate testing allowing you to make sure you’ve truly seen everything a candidate has to offer. Types of testing There is a huge volume of different tests you can avail of to round out your interview process and give you more insight into how your candidate fairs in terms of “Can do” and “Will do”. Some examples are numerical, verbal, and logical reasoning tests to establish the strengths and weaknesses of candidates in these areas and back up some of their educational and experiential claims. Situational Judgement assessments allow you to perceive how a candidate approaches various scenarios in the workplace by presenting them with a scenario and asking them how they’d likely respond from a multiple choice of options. This can be useful if a candidate is moving from a similar role or industry towards your organisation but if the role is brand new to the candidate, you likely will not glean much of use here. Most of the testing I’ve mentioned covers the “Can do” section that we discussed but doesn’t cast must insight on the aptitudes presented by the “Will do” section. To gain an understanding of a candidate’s “Will do” our best avenue of approach is personality and psychometric testing. The benefits of using candidate testing in your recruitment process I imagine some of you may have rolled your eyes when I mentioned personality tests, certainly the personality test debate is a decades-old dilemma that HR professionals have been pondering for a significant amount of time now. But not only is it useful as a selection tool by giving you insight into how your prospective new hire will perform on the job, it can also be an effective tool for employee retention. In fact, using personality tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (also known as MBTI) of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) may help you better understand your team, the way they think, and who they’ll work well with. Myers Briggs testing and HBDI testing are both personality tests that we offer to our clients, but equally, everyone who joins our organisation undergoes at least one of these tests. It can certainly have a powerful impact on a workplace to better understand how your colleagues work and think, and that has certainly been my experience of these specific tests. There are no right or wrong outcomes when it comes to the results of a personality test. But as I’ve been saying throughout, the findings can help you build a better idea of your prospective candidate beyond just a gut feeling. This in turn will allow you to separate the “ok hires” that will coast within your organisation from the “excellent hires” that will drive your organisation forward. Similarly, personality testing may help you increase employee retention within your organisation by allowing both management and the greater team to become aware of the different ways that other people think, better understand how other people operate and work best, and understanding where personality clashes may occur and how best to resolve them. Using testing is not a sure-fire way to make an excellent hire. But it is a means of removing incorrect bias from your interview process and getting a more robust idea of who your candidates are. If
The tricky interview question you need to be prepared for
As many organisations prepare for the next round of challenges that a potential second wave of COVID-19 could pose, be ready to answer to this interview question from candidates.
3 Ways Personality Tests Increase Productivity And Retention
Instead of relying on personality testing as a selection tool, maybe we should consider using it as a tool for retention too! Using personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI), may help you better understand your team, the way they think and who they’ll work well with. Note: personality tests shouldn’t make or break your hiring decision, but rather, they can be used as a way to better understand your new hire and/or current team members. Here’s how personality testing can help you increase employee retention in your organisation. 1. Gain awareness of the way people think Better understanding the way you think helps you identify the way others think. By becoming aware of the differences (especially the major differences) in your thought processes between you and your team. You can identify the best way to brief them for a new task or even a way that could help them overcome their shortfalls. If you are a sensory thinker, for example, and your team member thinks based on intuition, the way you phrase a brief may affect the way they understand the task. By understanding this, you’ll be able to not only improve communication between you and your team member, but you’ll also increase productivity based on this understanding. 2. Understand how people work best You may prefer thinking in a judging manner, meaning you like to be organised and make a clear plan. Your team member, on the other hand, may prefer a perceiving approach and think big picture instead of about the smaller details. As a team, this probably means you’ll disagree a lot about strategy and have to compromise a lot; but work well together to reach the end goal. By understanding people’s preferred way to work is going to help you achieve a better insight into the way you’ll need to go about a task. Thus, increasing productivity thanks to the ability to understand the ways of approach. 3. Identify personality clashes and ways to resolve them There’s nothing worse than clashing with a colleague and if things get out of hand, it can drive people out of an organisation. By having your employees and all new hires take a personality test, your team will be able to understand the way they think and how others are different. This understanding can help calm most personality clashes as team members will begin to understand their differences and the ways they can compromise and begin developing the ways they communicate with each other. If you would like to learn more about how Scout Talent can help you to implement personality tests in your recruitment process, simply speak to one of our Shortlisting & Selection Specialists by calling us on 07 3330 2595 or emailing us at info@scouttalent.com.au Find out more
10 Steps For Remote Hiring: Find Great Candidates Without Face-To-Face Interviews
Remote hiring is a great opportunity to find great candidates without face-to-face interviews. Follow these 10 steps to improve your remote hiring outcomes.
The Talent Scout Episode 17: How important is diversity in your hiring?
Listen now This post has been written by Shane Keane, Senior Recruitment Specialist, Scout Talent. When it came to scheduling episodes for this podcast, I always wanted to take a week in June to talk about diversity in organisations and within recruitment. The initial reason for this is that June is recognised in many parts
