We’ve recently seen the shift from a candidate-driven to an employer-driven market. If you’re dealing with more applications than you can handle, here are some reasons why you need a shortlisting specialist. 

56 per cent of leaders say their hiring volume will increase; one of their key measures of success in recruitment is time to fill (LinkedIn Global Trends report). Today’s fast-paced recruitment landscape demands a high-performing, flexible and decisive HR department. This department also needs to accommodate job seekers throughout each stage of their candidate journey. But with a significant number of internal HR responsibilities, this isn’t always possible. Key candidate-management practices can slip through the cracks. Read on to discover the top three reasons why you should leave Shortlisting to the experts.

Here are three reasons you should engage a Shortlisting Specialist in 2020.

1. Gain unprecedented insights about candidates

Group Assessment Days, Behaviour and Skills Testing, Reference and Background Checks and Video Interviews. It’s clear that this part of the recruitment process demands a range of skills (not all of which may sit within an HR department). With more than two decades in the recruitment industry, Scout Talent has tried and tested a range of candidate management tools to optimise shortlisting. We also offer a suite of valuable services, delivering them in a way that garners the most useful candidate insights efficiently.

Group Interviews

Our Shortlisting and Selection Specialists are experts at delivering customised Group Interview and Information Days (GIIDs). These will help you uncover top talent through a range of activities, games and tests. Anyone can run activities or interviews, but it’s the design of the activities and interviews that is pivotal. This gives hiring managers the opportunity to observe candidates for a range of relevant behaviours. With experts designing your GIID to uncover relevant behaviours (and running it on your behalf) you’ll be able to focus on reading candidate behaviour. That is, instead of being preoccupied with the administration of the day.

Skills and Behavioural Testing

Hiring managers partner with Scout Talent to distribute skills and behavioural tests to candidates efficiently. Our  Shortlisting and Selection Specialists are trained to interpret the sometimes-ambiguous language appearing in skills and behavioural test reports (which can be up to 40 pages long!). For example, ‘dominating,’ ‘analytical’ and ‘social’ can differ depending on the industry. It’s these nuances that can mean the difference between a behavioural fit and a poor choice. Our Shortlisting Specialists can convey these results to you, equipping you with accurate interpretations that you can refer to later during interviews.

Need a Shortlisting Specialist? Find out more about Shortlisting support here. 

Our shortlisting team also helps HR Managers to make the most of the test results – both during and after the recruitment process. They also unearth opportunities for employee development. If a candidate expresses passiveness in social situations, for example, you’ll know they’ll need extra support when it comes to stepping into a leadership position.

Video interviews

Interviewing a candidate using standard (and fairly predictable) questions is one thing. The interview is a crucial two-way communication platform to garner as varied insights about applicants. It’s another ballpark altogether. That’s where we play.

The key is framing questions in a way that encourage candidates to dive into their past. Ask them recall their challenges and triumphs. Also, you can ask them to relate this back to the role they’re applying for. By the same token, we gain much more of a three-dimensional picture of a candidate’s skills through more detailed questions. For example, ‘How do you adapt your communication style when liaising with people across different levels of the business?’ rather than simply, ‘Do you have good communication skills?’

2. Save Time

It’s important to ensure that each stage of the recruitment process is conducted in a timely manner. At the same, candidates need to be kept updated so they can respond promptly. This, in turn, leads to a faster time to hire for you. At Scout Talent, our experts streamline the shortlisting process while ensuring both you and your candidates remain informed and a part of the process.

Forget email tennis between candidates and other members of your department, or interviewing 30 candidates yourself. Our Shortlisting and Selection experts will take care of the recruitment process from the get-go, ensuring a positive candidate experience until you’re ready to conduct the final face-to-face interviews. With Shortlisting off your hands, you’ll be freed up to focus on internal HR, nurturing your current talent, which in turn, reduces turnover in the long run.

3. Capitalise on expertise – where you wouldn’t expect to

It’s a common myth that background and reference checks are easy and don’t take long. However, while administrative tasks like this seem quick and routine but, in reality, hours can disappear if you need to conduct a number of checks. Not only will having an expert will save you time on these tedious tasks, but with years of experience behind us, our experts know who to call and when. Small errors, such as calling the person or failing to ask the best question that would help you garner fresh insights about your candidates will mean that these ‘easy’ tasks become pointless time-vacuums.

The more robust your recruitment process, the better chance you have of finding the right person for the role. If you need a Shortlisting Specialist, give your organisation the best chance of uncovering top talent. Get in touch with our Shortlisting and Selection Specialists, call us on 1300 366 573 or email info@scouttalent.com.au.