On average, businesses will receive 250 CVs for every position that they advertise. Working through these applicants in the hope of finding the ideal candidate can take valuable time and effort. It’s therefore important that companies screen their applications, allowing them to focus on a smaller but better suited pool of potential employees. With this in mind, what are the best ways in which to screen CVs to ensure success?
Advertisements
The advertisement that you create will dictate the type of applicants that you attract and often the number of CVs that you receive. If you’re looking to streamline the application process, the advertisement is the best place to start. Employers will include specific qualifications and experience requirements within their advertisements, as a way to attract the ideal candidate. If you’re receiving too many applications, you may need to tighten these requirements. For example, not just general experience within a field but specific experience that is relevant to the role. This approach will reduce CV’s and ensure better candidates, offering quality over quantity.
Skimming and Sorting
In a perfect world, every CV would be read in full detail but practicalities mean this can’t be the case. Therefore, employers need to become experts in skim reading. Ideally, focusing on the experience section, particularly recent experience, then qualifications and skills. Employers could even create a scoring system that allows them to quickly and efficiently sort CVs into different piles. A good example of a sorting system could be “qualified”, “possibly qualified” and “not qualified.” Therefore, once it comes to shortlisting, you have a clear list of candidates, ordered accordingly. You can also then spend more time going through the applications of applicants who best suit the position.
Prioritise
Now that you have sorted your CVs into general categories, you can prioritise the better candidates. With fewer CVs to sort through, this allows employers the much-needed time and energy to look into each applicant in greater detail. Those with similar qualifications and experience can be difficult to choose between and it’s at this point that recruiters should look at other aspects of the CV. For example, does their work history make sense as a gradual journey, building up to their current position? Are there any work gaps and if so, is there an explanation? On average, how long is the candidate remaining in a position before moving on? Reading between the lines can be informative for employers and allow them to sort the good candidates from the great ones.
Legislation
It’s important to note that there are anti-discrimination laws and legal obligations which must be followed when hiring new staff. For example, sensitive information such as gender, sexual orientation and religion, must be removed from CVs prior to review- to prevent prejudice. Ideally, each CV would be reviewed by two different members of staff, to avoid any potential bias.
Employers must ensure that all the staff involved with the hiring process are properly trained and educated on the laws surrounding CVs. It’s also important that the process is transparent and relevant details recorded, to safeguard against any potential issues.
With so many people trying to get a job, businesses are collecting more CVs than ever before. However, with intelligent and informed screening, employers can streamline the entire process.
The hiring process, whether it be the advertising of positions, collection and sorting of CVs or the interview stages, can be time consuming. As we have discovered, it’s also extremely important to be up to date with employment laws. Salhan Accountants offer a comprehensive HR Consultancy service, with options to suit every need.
