5 Top Tips for Screening CVs

In today’s job market it’s likely that you’ll be swamped with dozens or even hundreds of CVs for a single job vacancy – how can you screen down to the best applicants without taking days and days of effort?

1) Define your most unique, critical requirements in the job

Before you sit down with your pile of CVs, take some time to work out what your key requirements are.  Do you need certain unique characteristics that are essential for success in the job? For example, in an Assistant Librarian role, is the personality to be able to liaise effectively with demanding users more important than knowledge of the particular online sources you use (which can be trained)?

Before going through your resumes, set up specific, unique requirements that not all candidates will possess – this will speed up your ability to narrow down your shortlist, as applicants with those attributes will stand out from the crowd.

2) Skim read your CVs and separate them into 3 categories: A, B and C

The A pile is your “definitely-suitable” candidates — they meet the unique requirements and all the “essential” criteria for the job, and on paper they theoretically should be able to do the job (contingent of course upon your meeting them, verifying their CV and their personality being a good fit for your team). This A pile should be about 10-15% of the total CVs.

The B pile is your “maybe” candidates — they fulfill some requirements or look interesting but do not stand out. Maybe these resumes meet 75-80% of your requirements and you would need to follow up to check if other criteria are met. This pile will be your backup plan if all of the “A” candidates don’t pan out (yes, sometimes all the A candidates fall at the interview hurdle). This B pile should be about 20-40% of the total CVs.

The C pile is your “no thanks!” candidates — they are resumes with spelling, grammar or factual mistakes, as well as resumes of candidates who do not meet any/many of the essential criteria or personality traits, nor the unique critical requirements you’ve highlighted for the job.

If you are strict with spelling, grammar and standards of professionalism when skimming the resumes, you can usually cut out at least 30-50% of the candidates immediately by using a critical eye to the documents. This C pile should be more than half of your total resume list.

3) Focus on the A list, screen further with a brief phone interview

The A list will contain candidates that are a good match to your needs; however you may not fit their needs. A brief phone call with several filtering questions can reduce your list down to the most promising candidates for a more detailed interview. Questions that I often use for phone screening include:

- What salary range you are looking for?

- Would you be willing to work in / move to XYZ location?

- Where do you see yourself career-wise in 5 years?

- What is the reason you are leaving (or have left) your current position?

- Why are you interested in this job?

- Based on our job advertisement, how would your approach the first 90 days in this job?

The above questions will give you an idea of a candidate’s own expectations. The answers will identify any large disconnects in expectations (salary, mobility, relocating, approach/style). These gaps will give you another filter to reduce your candidate pool to a more manageable short list for interviews.

4) Filter your shortlist by screening candidates’ social media presence

I can often shorten my hiring list by another 30-50% simply by doing a quick internet search on their names in Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. There is an amazing amount of information out in cyberspace – I have seen examples including drunken photos, sexual conversations, disparaging remarks about a current employer, boasting about sleeping with the boss/bosses’ daughter, and evidence of poor personality fit.

5) Don’t settle for candidates who don’t meet the critical elements of the job

Even in today’s job market, you may struggle to find the right candidates with good “fit” to your organization and good technical skills. Don’t settle for less than your minimums out of desperation. Wait and keep searching for the right CV and the right candidate! In my twenty years of business experience, I have never regretted waiting for the right candidate but I have regretted, more than once, introducing candidates in haste or desperation.

The outcome of all this work and thought before hand?  A well-qualified short list of candidates to interview and a great candidate who will fit your needs and excel in the job.

The Art and Science of Managing Performance

Managing the performance of your team is always one of the most taxing aspects of being a manager.

Although an organisation may have a swish-looking system in place, with processes to follow and forms to fill in, many people still find the actual face to face situation difficult to handle.

This isn't surprising as it places the manager in the position of judge and jury over the people they have to work with every day for the rest of the year.  It is only natural to feel uncomfortable, especially if there are areas of performance where improvements are needed.

The most dreaded part of performance management, of course, is the annual appraisal.  There are a number of different methods of carrying out an appraisal (for example, see this post by HR Daily for a discussion of rating scales and 360 vs 720 degree reviews).

The best way to mitigate the gut-clenching awfulness of the annual appraisal meeting is to avoid making it the only, once-a-year, element of your performance management.  If you carry out quarterly reviews with each person who reports to you, have regular 1-1 meetings, and above all give informal feedback (positive or negative) on a daily basis as situations arise, then the annual meeting will meld into the regular round of feedback. 

Apart from pulling the teeth from the dreaded annual appraisal, a more regular system of feedback, praise, and constructive criticism throughout the year is more likely to be motivating for your team and to lead to improved performance.  On the other hand, an annual appraisal form that sits in a draw until it needs to be reviewed ready for the next annual meeting isn't a very effective method!

Being a manager means developing a think skin; saying brightly 'let's check over your performance objectives and see where we're up to', in the face of grimaces and rolled-eyes, can be difficult.  It's tempting to just avoid the situation; everyone is busy, it's easy to find other things to do!  Time flies by like this and suddenly it's annual appraisal time again and that form has been in the drawer all year, again.

As the manager it is your role to grit your teeth, put times in the diary for 1-1's and quarterly reviews, and either praise your team members for achieving their goals or work with them to help reach those that have slipped.

How to avoid having your job offer turned down

In today's climate, when you have managed to get sign-off to recruit for a post, you want to make sure that you are successful in finding the right person for the job.

Nothing is more frustrating than sifting a high number of applications, interviewing people, finding a strong applicant who would be a great fit into your team, only to have your job offer to them turned down.

Why does this happen?

It is tempting to think that it is all down to the person's current employer, making them a counter-offer they can't refuse.  However, it is rarely that simple.

If someone is on the job market, applying for jobs and going to interviews, they usually have very good reasons to be seeking a new role:

• lack of opportunity for career development
• stagnant salary
• poor location / commute
• clash of personalities in their team
• poor management

The fact they have applied for your role, met you for an interview and probably returned for a second round shows that they felt your organisation and the job on offer were interesting and could solve one or more of these issues.

So what makes people change their mind 'at the last minute' and turn down a job offer?

Fortunately, it is often factors that are within your control, and so you can reduce the chances of this disappointing and frustrating situation happening to you.

It is important to remember that applicants going through a recruitment process are judging the organisation, the role and the people they meet along the way, in just the same way that you are judging their fitness for the role and the team.

You need to make sure that as much attention is paid to the attractive elements of what you are offering as to the attributes of the candidates.

This is called 'employer branding' by HR, and there are some simple tips to make sure you portray a positive employer brand to your prospective new employee:

1. Promote the culture and benefits of working for your organisation
2. Describe the positive aspects of the team you have in place,
3. Talk about the scope of the role as it stands and the opportunities to develop it further
4. Talk about the challenging aspects of the role in a positive way, as opportunities to develop
5. Explain the training and CPD programme at your organisation
6. Make sure all the people they meet are friendly, welcoming and enthusiastic about their jobs and the organisation

You also need to make sure that other members of your team who are meeting the candidates are aware of these issue and are prepared to answer questions like "why do you enjoy working here" or "why made you decide to stay here so long" in a positive and enthusiastic way.

If you follow these steps then the candidate you offer the job to will be feeling positive and keen to join your team; they are therefore much less likely to be tempted by a counter-offer from their old employer.