For those who have been hiring candidates throughout the pandemic, you will understand how saturated the market has become. 2020 has hit businesses and individuals incredibly hard.

In early August there had already been a reported 175,134 redundancies across the nation.

9.3 million jobs have been placed onto the job retention scheme. More redundancies are expected to occur before the furlough scheme comes to a close in October.

With more people going for jobs than ever before, it becomes imperative to know how to hire efficiently with so many applicants.

Know Your Role Inside and Out

This may seem like recruitment 101.

We don’t mean to simply point out the obvious. But it is something we see in the market quite regularly.

Confusing and undirected job specifications, which can open companies up to an influx of irrelevant applicants.

It is incredibly important to really hone in on what the job is. What skills and experience the successful applicant will possess.

Right now we have a very saturated marketing making hiring candidates more tricky than ever before. Not many managers will have hours and days to spend riffling through hundreds upon hundreds of CV’s and cover letters.

You can simply narrow down the number of applicants, by having a clear and concise job specification. Making your advertisement more appealing to the right people.

At the beginning of your hiring process, detailed discussions with relevant stakeholders is imperative. Once you all know and understand exactly what you want, finding that perfect fit will be so much easier.

 Think well about the following aspects of the role:

• Skills required
• Skills desired
• Previous Experience and Job Type
• Current and expected salary
• Education – do they need to have a degree? Is experience alone okay?
• Any background preferences
• Culture fit

You can browse the internet for similar job roles to see how others have written their spec out.

 If you’re really struggling or your job is niche. You may need expert advice to save you time and money when hiring candidates.

 This is where recruitment agents come in and can really make your life easier!

Curious at how we help? Head to our website to discover a little more. 

How to Spot Something Special

So, your job spec is top spec. You have mostly relevant and interesting CV’s pouring in.

What do we need to look for before honing in on these applications?

You still have a lot of applications to go through. At this point it’s important not to waste too much time.

We will provide you with a list of above and beyond criteria that is great to look for. But we also would like to stress how to look for things that aren’t there.

When you have a rigid criteria, you could find yourself missing out on some of the best candidates. This is something we greatly pride ourselves on! As experienced recruiters we know how to find quality people even when their CV’s don’t exactly drip glitter and gold! Hiring candidates is never quite as black and white as you would hope.

You may be wonderfully surprised with a candidate you never thought you wanted!

Having said that, let us look at some things aside from Experience and Skills that you can easily look out for;

• Who has a well thought out cover letter that has been tailored specifically for this role
• Who has interesting extra curricular activities in school or life (age dependant)
• Any volunteer workers?
• Who has outstanding CV aesthetics
• Who has shown extra commitment to their career?
• Is there any other criteria you find would be a great asset to your business?

There are plenty more things you can look at when hiring candidates. But this is a nice place to start.

At this point you can start siphoning out the ‘no’s’, and whittling down your ‘yes’ pile. But don’t whittle down too much… as we’ve said, you don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot and let excellent candidates slip through your fingers.

As you can see even by this point there is so much to consider! It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially when you’re trying to carry out your usual responsibilities too.

We can’t stress enough how important it is to consider each step we lay out. The alternative can be poor hires. Which could cost your company thousands.

Cultivating knowledge for seeing great potential hires, even when they don’t shine on paper can take you on leaps and bounds!

It’s not an easy thing to do, especially when you’re so low on time. Don’t forget exactly where we are should you need a little extra help.

Get Organised

So, now we have a much more manageable pile of CV’s to go through! Hurrah, we’re getting there.

At this point it’s really handy to see all your applicants in one place. Especially if you have a highly desirable position advertised.

Go ahead and create a spreadsheet to knock out all other spreadsheets.

Once you have done this, you can carry this habit forwards to future roles you may advertise.

Your excel spreadsheet may contain;

• Name
• Contact
• Salary
• Location
• Experience
• Extra curricular
• Effort of CV and Cover Letter
• Education
• Anything additional that your company requires

Once you have this populated, create a column to rank each criteria from 1-5.

When you see these all down side by side, it’s easy to see who pulls out against the rest.

As when you see someone who perhaps didn’t lay out their CV in the most amazing way. They may come out ahead in the other areas!

You may remove those applicants that no longer stand out. Keeping your strong ‘hot list’ and ‘maybes’.

If you’re filling with dread at the thought of doing this. We can’t stress enough how handy it can be to have a recruitment agency by your side.

We have a separate post where we discuss which recruitment agency is right for you. You can find it here.

We’re especially right for you if you are looking for an agency that recruits for the following roles:

• Call Centre and Customer Service
• Admin Office Support & HR
• Sales & Account Management
• IT & Digital
• Marketing & Creative
• Finance & Accountancy
• Buying & Procurement
• Managerial & Executive
• Legal
• Engineering & Technical

Or other commercial roles!

This isn’t so much about us… so breeze on by to keep reading about our top tips for hiring candidates in a saturated market.

However, if this does seem like an easier path for you, you can reach us at recruit@turnerfox.co.uk or 01623 656 303.

Now it’s Time

Now you should have removed all those that don’t suit the role.

It’s time to really comb through these final CV’s and really read through them to ensure they are the right fit.

Finalise your hot list and have a back up of maybes. You may find that when speaking with these candidates they’re not what they have made out on paper.

It’s a really tough time for candidates in the market. Some have found themselves out of work for some time now. So fortunately you will likely find a really strong candidate pool. But it’s certainly a time to exercise compassion and empathy for those in this situation.

Communication throughout the process is key, and again it can be very time consuming. We more than anyone understand this.

But, communication goes a very long way. Therefore, we recommend when hiring candidates being transparent and open throughout the process.

You should now be ready for your phone interview stage and feel very well versed in what is to come!

Firstly, before you stage phone interviews. Now is a great time to consultant again with relevant stakeholders.

Ensure this hot list of candidates is right for all and everyone is happy with the final selection.

Phone Interviews

This step will make your life so much easier than if you were to jump straight to face to face interviews.

You can save yourself time and money by conducting interviews via phone.

At this stage you may find upon speaking with your potential hires, that they shuffle out or in, your hot list.

People can often come across very different on paper to real life.

Today, it’s just as, if not more important to find candidates that fit your company culture than other qualities.

You may find they have exaggerated and won’t be up to the task. Or some may just blow you away!

When we work with businesses, we pre screen all candidates. So, that when they make their way to you, its almost guaranteed they will be a good fit! If they aren’t… well we have special guarantees in place to cover you!

Almost Time to Hire

Alrighty, we’re finally getting close to the grand finale!

You don’t want to interview too many candidates, be true to what you know and don’t overdo it.

Interviewing many gives you a greater chance of success, but will also run you ragged on time. It can be confusing meeting with so many people too.

Hopefully you will have done all the appropriate ground work that your final interviewees are absolute knock outs!

Here’s a quick overview at this point of each step of the hiring process.

1. Mapping out your job specification and consulting with state holders
2. Identify who has your listed criteria
3. Identify who has gone above and beyond
4. Creating an excel spreadsheet
5. Phone interviews
6. Face to Face Interviews
7. Time communicating throughout
8. Allow additional time

As mentioned before, yes this is a lot of effort and time… however, hiring candidates poorly will cost you more.

We realise this time spent away from your job costs your company big money. We’ve done the calculations… and more often than not, recruiters are much cheaper!

Head to our other blog; How recruitment agencies save you time and money. To understand this a little better.

We have a constant stream of candidates in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire areas. This is quite literally what we do, day in, and day out. So, we can act faster and more effectively than many businesses. We have the know-how and the means to deliver.

Handling the Admin

It isn’t the most glamorous job… but someone has to do it!

Throughout hiring candidates, there is a lot of ad hoc work you may have not even considered.

There hasn’t been a challenge we haven’t seen here at TurnerFox. We’ve worked through even the most complicated of situations. Understand challenges are unavoidable.

What you should expect to encounter during your hiring process;

• Candidates who do not show for interviews
• Candidates turning down offers
• Counter offers
• Rescheduling interviews
• Candidates going AWOL

Hiring is rarely the straight forward process you would hope it would be. People can be relied upon to change their minds and situations frequently.

Do you have the infrastructure in place to deal with these problems when they arise?

You must be prepared to act swiftly to avoid losing great candidates. Or, to simply move the process forward when you have been let down.

There’s no time to sit on missed interviews, phone calls or even placed candidates that may go AWOL.

Time is always of the essence.

Avoid losing precious time and enduring overwhelm. Reduce hiring stress by bringing in the support of a great recruitment agency.

We at TurnerFox know how to approach counteroffers, cancellations and changes.

Or… whatever else may be thrown our way! If you would like to discuss some of this subject with us to understand it a little better. You can reach us on 01623 656 303.

Be Quick!!

Even in a tough economic climate, good candidates won’t stick around for long.

It is in your best interest to act quickly and efficiently to snag yourselves the best!

Some markets are doing well at the moment, and some have stayed the same. So, although it is a busy market, we implore that you do not take this for granted.

Many people know their worth and will demand a certain level of communication throughout.

You should endeavour to communicate regularly, with as many applicants as possible. This will and does take up a lot of time. However, incoming phone calls are hard to avoid. Prepare yourself that you will likely spend most of your days speaking with candidates.

Once you have found that perfect someone, an offer should be with them in around 2 days. Any longer and you may find they are off the market.

We totally get this is a tall order. However, it is the reality of recruitment.

If you do not have the time, and need support, we’re here to help. Whether it’s simple advice or the full recruitment process. We urge you to contact us on 01623 656 303 or email recruit@turnerfox.co.uk.

That’s what we’re designed for after all!

We wish everyone embarking on a recruitment journey the best of luck, and we hope to hear from you!