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Dear Colleagues,
Now you’ve done it. You advertised a vacant position and
you’ve received more resumes than you know what to do with. In
this edition of HR Smalltalk, we’ll continue with Part 3 in
our series on how to hire a new employee by discussing how to
screen job applications.
Conducting job interviews is time consuming. Interviewing
unqualified candidates is frustrating and even more time
consuming. Read on to find out how to make the best use of
your time by screening out unqualified job applicants and
selecting only qualified applicants to interview. No more
sitting through countless hours of interviews with people you
would never hire!
Next month, we’ll cover how to conduct an effective and
efficient job interview.
For more information, feel free to contact us at 604.688.3879.
Until next month,
Cissy
Pau
Clear
HR Consulting
YES. NO. MAYBE SO...HOW TO SCREEN RESUMES IN AND OUT.
Seeing the dozens of resumes on your desk, you feel
compelled to read each one to make sure you don’t pass on
someone perfect for the position. But, you really don’t have
the time to look through each one that carefully. What do you
do?
If you decided to use a search firm to advertise your vacancy,
they will do the majority of the applicant screening for you
and will only refer candidates to you to
interview.
If, however, you decided to conduct the search on your own,
you, or someone at your company, will need to screen the
applications to narrow the number of people you interview.
Follow these steps for a foolproof way to screen out
unqualified resumes, leaving you with the cream of the
crop:
1.
Refer to the job description
The first step to screening applications is to look at the
qualifications, skills and experience required from the job
description that you so carefully created for the position.
Make a checklist of the must-have skills and the
nice-to-haves.
2.
Compare the applications to the checklist
Read through each application and give one point for each
must-have skill that the applicant possesses and one point for
each nice-to-have skill. At the end, the more points an
applicant has, the more closely he/she matches the
requirements of
the position.
3.
Look past the resume format
Don’t be thrown off by the different styles and formats of
resumes that you receive. In this first review of
applications, you can pick out whether the candidate does or
does not possess the skills that you require, regardless of
how the resume looks.
4.
Categorize each applicant
Separate each applicant into a Yes, Maybe or No pile. “Yes”
applicants are those who possess all the must-have skills and
most of the nice-to-have skills. “Maybe” applicants are those
who possess all or most of the must-have skills and some of
the nice-to-have skills. “No” applicants are lacking both
must-have and nice-to-have skills.
5.
Select candidates to proceed to the next step
Depending on your time availability, you will most likely
interview candidates in the Yes pile and possibly some in
the Maybe pile. If there are no candidates in the “Yes”
pile, review the candidates in your “Maybe” pile and see if
any are worthwhile considering further. Or, if you are lucky enough
to have lots of candidates in the "Yes" pile, you will need to
narrow the number of applicants even more by looking at what
additional skills and experience they bring to the table. A
common process is to use the initial review of resumes to
screen candidates out, while a more careful second review is
used to screen candidates in.
6.
Don’t settle
Finding the right employee for your business is critical to
your company’s success. Settling for the wrong employee can
cause you much more harm down the road than good. Provided
that you are sure that your job description accurately
reflects the position that you are trying to fill, if you
don’t find what you’re looking for in the applications that
you have received, go back and re-advertise the position. You
will save yourself tremendous time, energy and heartache by
hiring the right employee, the first time.
7. Red flags
Although not necessarily a reason to screen out a resume,
be on the look out for the following red flags: frequent
changes in employers or positions; large gaps in employment; a
resume with no dates; spelling and grammar mistakes; vague
descriptions of duties & responsibilities. Any concerns should
be questioned during the interview.
Follow these guidelines and you will reduce the amount of time you
spend interviewing unqualified applicants.
For a complimentary consultation on any of the materials
covered in this newsletter, contact us at info@clearhrconsulting.com
or 604.688.3879.
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