Recruiting Job Candidates 101

Applicant Quality. It may seem like a nice problem to have until you’re actually faced with it: Your help-wanted efforts worked so well that you have way too many potential job candidates to select from. As a busy small business owner, you’re overwhelmed at the thought of interviewing all those people. Well, you don’t have to. Save time and your sanity with these simple steps to weed out the possibilities from the “no ways.”

Recruiting Job Candidates 101

Start with the resumes. If the job is the type that requires a resume, you can quickly go through each resume to see if it meets the basic criteria you included in your help-wanted ad. For instance, if the job requires a bachelor’s degree or proficiency in Excel and the resume doesn’t mention either, out it goes. Send the Application. For who passed the resume test, have them fill out a job application. You can save yourself some time by having candidates complete this step before you set up interviews. Create a fillable PDF of your job application and email it to the candidate to return to you. All candidates should fill out the same application, whether they’re applying to be your CFO or an entry-level cashier. Once you’ve got the applications, review them for any red flags; this will probably eliminate still more candidates. Qualify with a Test. Once you’ve got a shortlist of candidates, you can narrow it down still more by having applicants take a test related to the job requirements. For example, you might want the person to type a certain number of words per minute, perform some alphabetizing and filing or demonstrate their knowledge of certain software. Short Intros. If you still have a large number of candidates, consider doing preliminary interviews. These can be conducted by phone or using videoconferencing software such as Skype so you can actually see the candidates. The preliminary interview will give you a better sense of each candidate’s personality, attitude and whether he or she would be a good fit for your business’s culture. Delegate. To really save time, have a trusted manager or other employee handle the bulk of these steps, so that you only need to participate in the in-person interview.  Just make sure you and the other person are in agreement as to what you’re looking for in a job candidate. RELATED POST: VMware Makes 20 Hard-to-Fill Engineering Hires through Glassdoor