Drowning in a sea of applications

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.