Hiring A+ Talent from your Recruitment Pool
One of the most challenging tasks for a recruiter after posting a new position is reviewing the applicant pool and weeding out the applicants who don’t quite make the cut list.
Depending on the position and the hiring demands, as a recruiter, it’s important to have an upfront game-plan on how to quickly weed through the applicant list for your phone screening process. From the phone screening, you want to be sure you are only putting the best of the best in front of the hiring manager and his/her team for face-to-face interviews.
Overall Experience
Sometimes taking a step back and looking at an applicant’s overall experience may provide more of an insight into the type of employee they are, than just looking at their most recent job or two.
Reviewing an applicant’s resume fully, and reviewing their overall work experience more closely, may reveal the candidate to be a job-hopper and someone who may leave your team in 18-24 months.
On the other side, the applicant’s overall experience may reveal an individual that may not have the exact experience you were looking for, but through their overall job history they have picked up on many of the traits you need in the position and may be someone worth screening and possibly bringing in to meet the hiring manager.
Reviewing resumes from a 50,000 foot level may provide some insight into the applicant that maybe you didn’t see at face value.
Related Experience
Related experience is always a tricky one because a majority of the applicants completing your application will probably have the related experience necessary. But those who don’t, you can probably leave their resumes on the cutting-room floor.
Save yourself a lot of time and effort by leaving these resumes behind and moving onto only those who have the needed job requirements. You should probably still find yourself with plenty of applicants to review and talk to by leaving these applicants behind.
Gaps in Work History
Gaps in work history can provide a telling story as well. Multiple gaps may tell a story of an individual who isn’t quite satisfied with either their position, salary, job responsibilities, or it may just tell a story of someone who isn’t quite sure of what his career is and/or the direction he wants it to go.
On the other hand, a gap in work history on someone’s resume may be the result of caring for a sick family member, or simply someone who needed to step away from their position for other personal reasons. It may also just signify time spent between jobs if the person was suddenly let go due to job reduction.
Gap history is a tricky item and should not be looked at in a vacuum. View it as part of the resume as a whole. If it looks like an isolated incident, and the person has the skillset you need, it’s probably worth the phone screen. If it’s part of a larger pattern, it’s probably just worth your time to simply file that resume away.
Volunteer Work
Don’t short-change volunteer work when viewing applicants. Volunteer work says quite a bit about the individual, whether the volunteer work is related to your field or not.
Someone who volunteers their time, whether it’s to youth sports, hospital work, church assistance, or homeless shelters is someone worth at least a phone screen, if their skillsets meet your job needs. Individuals who sacrifice their own time to help others, usually signifies someone who is willing to go the extra mile. This type of person may be the gold-standard your organization needs.
Kane Partners and our 10-Step Hiring Process
There are no shortcuts when it comes to finding the right employees for your team. Kane Partners has a history of putting the A+ talent in many organizations in the area.
With our ten-step hiring process, we ensure we are getting the right recruits in front of you and your team.
Contact Kane Partners today and let us go to work in finding the A+ talent your team is looking for.
