When you have so many applicants to sift through, recruiting can seem a huge ordeal. Dan Hughes offers a lifebuoy and explains how it has worked for Waitrose.
Many employers experience the challenge of sorting through a sea of job applications to find the select few with the greatest potential for success in their organisation. This is particularly accentuated because of the recent slow-down in recruitment due to the recession. For some sectors and levels, there is now a much greater supply of candidates than there is demand from employers.
In graduate recruitment, the number of graduate positions offered by organisations has decreased by around a quarter this year according to the latest survey from the Association of Graduate Recruiters. A year ago, there was an average of 31 applications per vacancy; now this has increased by more than a half to 49 applications per vacancy. Graduate recruiters need to find smart ways of managing this application surge if they are to continue to find the best talent.
Put simply – more applicants for fewer jobs means more work for employers’ HR teams.
One of the main things recruiters can do to overcome this challenge is to use the power of technology to make the process of filtering candidates more efficient and effective. Manually sifting through application forms or CVs is time-consuming and typically there is only limited information available at this point to judge the suitability of candidates. Online tests can be used alongside the CV or application form to provide additional objective data about candidates’ capabilities.
Online tests can take a number of different forms. Timed ability tests, such as numerical and verbal reasoning, are a common approach. Alternatively, some employers use questionnaires that ask about a candidate’s preferences and work style, which is then used to identify the level of ‘fit’ with the role and organisation. A third approach, which is gaining popularity, is a type of assessment called a ‘situational judgement test’. These tests present candidates with a series of work situations and assess their judgement and decision-making skills in response to these. They can be automatically scored and can therefore be used to sift candidates quickly and easily online.
One company that has recently enhanced their online sifting process is Waitrose, the premium UK food store. This year, Waitrose has already received over 2,500 applications for its graduate scheme, and will take on 20 aspiring store managers. This equates to a massive 125 applicants per vacancy – a significant task for their graduate recruitment team.
In readiness for this, Waitrose have introduced a new online situational judgement test, Graduate DILEMMAS™ from A&DC, into their graduate recruitment process. This tool is helping the recruitment team to filter out the less suitable candidates in an efficient way and ensure that the 150 candidates progressing to the assessment centre stage have the potential to succeed as future store managers.
Anglie Johns, manager recruitment services at Waitrose, stated: "We anticipated an uplift in applicant numbers this year, and therefore wanted to introduce a new, robust selection tool to our graduate assessment process, to address the challenges of the recruitment market, and the growing numbers of applications."
The scoring of Graduate DILEMMAS has been tailored to reflect "what good looks like" for graduates within Waitrose. Store managers with detailed knowledge about the role were asked to indicate how top candidates should respond to the test and this data was used to create a bespoke scoring key that can be used to filter applicants.
From the candidate’s perspective, it is also important to ensure that their experience of going through an online sifting process is straightforward and seamless. A number of online test providers are able to integrate their tests within an organisation’s e-recruitment system using web services technology.
For example, the HR-XML Consortium (www.hr-xml.org/) provide standard communication protocols that can be used by e-recruitment systems to order online tests from a provider and process candidate results. Candidates can be directed seamlessly to the test website from the e-recruitment system when they advance to the online sifting stage. Test results are then automatically returned to the e-recruitment system for processing.
For Waitrose, Graduate DILEMMAS has been integrated by A&DC into their e-recruitment platform, provided by WCN, and branded so that it is consistent with the online application process. This helps the organisation to present a professional, efficient image to its candidates during the recruitment process.
High-quality online tests can provide employers with reliable, objective data to ease the daunting task faced by many employers of filtering through huge numbers of job applications. Without this, some recruiters may end up drowning in a sea of CVs. By harnessing the power of integrated online sifting, employers can enhance their selection processes as well as delivering a streamlined recruitment experience for candidates.
Dan Hughes is product development manager at A&DC Ltd
