As a recruiter, talent acquisition specialist, or hiring manager, you may have experienced an overwhelming number of inbound job applicants. Sadly, with the ease of online job submissions, many of the candidates won’t meet the requirements but apply anyway. While a high number of job applicants could be described as a “good” problem, it creates new problems when the majority are poor matches.
This makes the recruitment and hiring process challenging and consumes valuable time, especially on lean teams or in startups without dedicated recruiters, to sift through resumes to find qualified candidates. Fortunately, there are a few strategies and tactics to handle too many inbound applicants to a job but not enough qualified ones.
In this eBook, we’ll cover 8 ways to prevent and/or handle it when you have a flood of inbound candidates. But first, ask yourself…
Do You Need to Post Jobs Online?
There’s no rule that says you need to list your open roles on your site or within other channels, especially if you:
- Don’t have the capacity to handle an overwhelmed inbound pipeline
- Your company has had a reduction in force (RIF) or layoffs in the last six to 12 months. The optics of open roles, especially if they’re similar to eliminated ones, is bad for your employer brand and employee morale.
- Only have a few roles to fill due to internal changes or attrition
Outbound Candidates are 5x More Likely to Be Hired than Inbound
According to a 2022 article, companies saw greater success in hiring outbound candidates versus inbound candidates. Why? As one SVP of Talent said about inbound, “It’s the lowest-quality and lowest-ROI channel you have because of the sheer volume and lack of strategy involved.”
Advice from LTK’s Global Head of Talent Sourcing and People Analytics on Too Many Inbound Job Applicants
In a new episode of Talk Talent to Me, LTK’s Shally Steckerl reflects on the recent increase in candidate volume he sees on LinkedIn:
“It’s more people clicking on jobs. But compared to the per capita click per job per person, it’s gone down. It used to be that a hundred people would be looking for jobs and fifty of them would be clicking on jobs a day. Now, it’s ten thousand people looking for jobs, but more like a thousand people clicking them.
There’s more indiscriminate clicking. We get the same person applying for dozens of jobs and [LinkedIn’s] Easy Apply doesn’t seem to really be a good idea anymore because we have too many applicants too quickly.”
Tools like this enable low-intent candidates and result in a “fire hose of candidates,” which usually means fewer fits for a role but more work for the recruiter. Seeing how much time and money this wastes, Shally encourages talent professionals to shift to a big-picture view.
Related: Connect with a curated pool of highly qualified tech candidates on Hired.
The Big Picture Point of View of Too Many Inbound Job Applicants
Shally’s solution includes reducing friction just the right amount so there’s a balance in how easy it is to apply for positions. He suggests strategies including improving job description readability, enhancing employer brand, and prioritizing outcomes over activity.
In fact, Shally emphasizes a focus on the quality of a hire over the activity (clicks and applies) numbers game.
So, what exactly should you be doing to reach those quality candidates in a flood of applicants? Use this eBook to uncover 8 ways to prevent and/or handle an overwhelming amount of inbound candidates.
Source: Employer - hired.com
