The secret to successful shortlisting is working out what qualities are essential to filling your position.
Here are some ideas on how to sift through applications and select the right candidate quickly and efficiently.
Have minimum criteria to get through the first stages
Set professional and educational qualifications and experience minimums before you start. This will instantly eliminate many candidates and save you a lot of time. Make a list of those who meet your criteria and rank them accordingly. If for any reason you need to return to your shortlist or perhaps recruit again in the future, this will help you later.
Have an idea of how many candidates you want to interview
By knowing how many people you want to interview you will know whether or not you can afford to take a chance and meet someone who deviates from your ideal criteria.
Shortlisting should be done in stages
The initial shortlist should be done on easy to identify essential criteria such as educational qualifications. You could even delegate this task to another member of your team if the number of applicants is large. When you’ve done the initial shortlist, you can move on to refining the list by measuring them against your desirable criteria.
Get rid of the inconsistent applications
If you’re searching for someone to fill a permanent role that you want them to commit to, you should ignore candidates with frequent job changes and a vague employment history. If you were looking to fill a short term contract the opposite could be true and a candidate like this may be included in your shortlist.
The Last Stage
If you still have too many candidates to invite to interview you can start filtering them by your desirable but non-essential criteria. For example, have they had experience in your sector before? Or perhaps they have some skills which could be beneficial to your company but aren’t listed in the job description.
The interview
Once you’ve whittled it down, the interview should affirm your desirable criteria and also be an opportunity for you to decide if their personality fits in with your company. It will also give you a chance to make other checks to evaluate their compatibility.
Try to be flexible
It’s unlikely that a candidate will meet every single requirement and still have an amazing education, qualifications and job experience. Accept that you may have to deviate from your perfect criteria but still try to make your decision a person who closely matches the criteria you specified.
By following these suggestions you will be able to shortlist candidates easily and efficiently. This should eliminate any personal bias and make sure the process is fair and will result you in finding the right candidate for the job.