Candidate glut: swimming in a sea of resumes, HR stays afloat by tweaking recruiting and hiring practices - Employment & Staffing Agenda

HR Magazine, August, 2003 by Martha Frase-Blunt

But even with fast screening technologies, Ackerman believes recruiters are still duty-bound to spend a certain amount of time with each resume before scanning and to do a final review of each qualified applicant before elimination. "This ensures you will be confident in who you presented because you took the time, even if it was only a minute or less, to consider each individual."

In fact, she says, recruiters with fewer positions to fill may find they have more time to concentrate on assessment.

Matthews has opted to conserve his department's time and resources by using third-party contractors for initial applicant assessments. "If I am going to run an ad, which is rare these days, I will ask an agency to screen down to only those candidates who are 80 percent qualified or above. That's certainly something new for us."

To cut down on unqualified applicants, many recruiters are adjusting their job marketing strategies to reach narrower candidate audiences with a highly specific mix of skills and experience. Ackerman reports that rather than posting on multiple job boards, she targets candidates on position--or industry-specific boards. "But we only advertise if we are struggling to find the right candidate," she says.

Matthews has stopped paying for job postings online and in print altogether, relying instead on the company's web site, and occasionally, listing openings with local community organizations that post job openings free of charge. He also finds that he can generate better candidates through pure networking. "People who are qualified in this select industry know to look to us. In the local grocery wholesale industry, there are only about five players. Word-of-mouth does tremendous work for us; we're relying on it much more now than 18 months ago."

Some companies aren't making major changes to their recruitment practices in anticipation of a tight labor market just around the corner. "This up-side-down supply and demand situation is only temporary as we near the huge exodus of retiring baby boomers," says Susan Custard, director of employment at Bonneville Power Administration in Portland, Ore. "With that in mind, our organization hasn't changed candidate sourcing or screening methods. Instead, our approach is to write much more explicit descriptions about qualifications and other requirements into our position announcement."

This technique distinguishes truly qualified and interested candidates "from the desperate folks whose unemployment benefits are running out and [who] feel they have nothing to lose by applying for everything," Custard says.

Qualification Temptations

But being more explicit about qualifications doesn't mean inflating them--something many hiring managers might be tempted to do.

"Some companies have begun asking for very specific skill sets, to the point of being absurd," says Callisher. "It's a big mistake for companies to think they can advertise for highly specific credentials just because there are more candidates out there. Upping the requirements for a position may enable you to shorten that hire's training curve by a few months, but it still boils down to a potential fit. A candidate who doesn't match the company's culture and values isn't going to be a good hire; that is never going to change."