I’m working with several of my clients who are actually hiring during this time of woe. Before this recession, most job applicants came from people who were employed and looking for greener pastures. Now a company is faced with looking at hundreds if not a thousand or more applicants who bombard any job opening with their resumes because they want to work. Who can blame them?  One of my clients said they spent three days looking over 700 resumes for a $10/hour position!

Two things you need to do if you are hiring:

1. Have an online applicant system that forces a candidate to complete a basic application. They should also have to cut and paste their resume into the application. That way you can search on key words. If you let them upload the resume, you can’t do that. You can also ask specific questions relative to each position posted. This will cut out the tirekickers and reduce your total number of applicants to a manageable number.

2. Use an assessment that is validated for hiring purposes like the ProfileXT. Interviews are only about 14% effective in hiring the right person. What you need is some objective data with which you can focus the interview. The ProfileXT can help you do that. The difference in productivity in hiring the excellent candidate verus the average candidate is 30%!

I’ll have more on using objective data in future posts.

What do you think?