3 Tips to Reduce Time Spent on Candidate Shortlisting for SMBs

Applications per job ad continue to rise, shifting the job market further from a candidate-driven market to an employer-driven market. If, like most HR professionals, you’re dealing with more applications than you can handle, here are 3 tips to streamline your shortlisting process, so that you can:

save significant time
achieve better hiring outcomes
ensure a positive candidate experience, and
enhance your employer brand.

Shortlisting can be a particularly time-consuming part of an internal recruiter’s role. This is especially the case when you have a high volume of applications, and you need to evaluate potentially hundreds of candidates against role requirements. Here are three tips to help you speed up your shortlisting process and how Scout Talent can support your efforts (for less than what you might think!).

1. Implement AI-Powered Screening Tools

Competition for roles at the moment is extremely high, with applications per job ad rising 3% in May 2024 (source: SEEK). At Scout Talent, we have clients who are receiving over 200 applications for a single role! Sorting through this volume of applications can be overwhelming without the right tools and resources in place. This is where AI-powered candidate screening tools can help, like Scout Talent’s AI Screen.

AI screening tools have revolutionised shortlisting. They can summarise hundreds of applications in seconds and quickly identify top candidates whose skills and experience align with the job criteria. Not only does this save a significant amount of time, but it also enhances hiring outcomes and reduces human bias. These tools continuously learn and adapt, refining their processes to meet evolving organisational needs. By quickly identifying unqualified candidates, internal recruiters can focus their time on progressing the most promising candidates.

Scout Talent’s AI Screen helps internal hiring teams quickly evaluate a large number of applications, ensuring a more efficient and effective shortlisting process. AI Screen is available to add onto Scout Talent’s lite ATS (:Recruit Essentials) for a total cost of just $450 per month. Or, when you run a recruitment campaign with Scout Talent, we’ll include 12 months of access to :Recruit Essentials, making access to AI Screen even more affordable at only $300 per month.

Reach out to the Scout Talent team today if you’d like to find out more.

2. Automate Candidate Communication and Interview Scheduling

Communicating with candidates and scheduling interviews is another time-consuming aspect of shortlisting. In fact, it is estimated that these activities account for over 40% of an internal recruiter’s role. Tools that automate this part of the recruitment process, like an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), can significantly reduce the time spent on candidate shortlisting. Here are three ways to use your ATS to reduce time spent on shortlisting:

Set up automated communications for different stages of the recruitment process. For example, an email or text message to acknowledge a candidate’s application, an update if their application has progressed to the next stage, or unsuccessful feedback if they haven’t been selected.
Auto-assign candidate statuses based on responses to application screening questions. For example, a very simple screening question might ask if a candidate has an open drivers licence. If this is a key requirement of the role, you can configure your ATS to mark anyone who answers ‘no’ as ‘unsuccessful’ and automate subsequent communications.
Use scheduling tools that allow candidates to book interview slots that suit their availability. This eliminates the back-and-forth communication typically involved in setting up interviews and helps to prevent scheduling conflicts and errors.

Investing in recruitment software like an ATS can be out of reach for many SMBs. But with Scout Talent :Recruit Essentials, you can have a fully implemented system and achieve incredible ROI using features such as those listed above for an affordable investment of $1800 per year. That’s only $150 per month! Or, if you run a recruitment campaign with Scout Talent, we’ll include 12-month access to :Recruit Essentials for no additional cost.

3. Leverage Expert Shortlisting Services

Shortlisting the right candidates from a pool of applications is often cited as the most challenging part of recruitment. As mentioned above, we’re currently seeing hundreds of applicants apply for some roles. Reviewing this volume of applications can be a significant drain on resources, and partnering with an outsourced shortlisting specialist can make a substantial difference.

Examples of expert shortlisting services that Scout Talent offers include:

Shortlisting & Selection: Our specialists can act as an extension of your team, completing tasks such as rating and ranking candidates against job criteria, conducting first-round video interviews, scheduling second-round interviews, running necessary checks and tests, and more.
Group Interviews: Our Shortlisting and Selection Specialists are experts at delivering customised Group Interview and Information Days (GIIDs). These are perfect for roles with high numbers of applications. A GIID 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, and this is where it’s best to get a specialist involved. Having a specialist facilitate the day 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: Internal HR professionals often partner with Scout Talent to act as an extension of their team 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. Our shortlisting team also helps HR managers to make the most of the test results, both during and after the recruitment process, by unearthing 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: Our specialists conduct video interviews using detailed and probing questions that go beyond the surface. The key is framing questions in a way that encourages candidates to dive into their past and ask them to recall their challenges and triumphs. It is also helpful to ask them to relate this back to the role they’re applying for. We gain a three-dimensional picture of a candidate’s skills by using these 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?’ By encouraging candidates to discuss their past experiences and challenges, we gain a comprehensive understanding of their skills and potential. This method allows for a more thorough evaluation than standard interview questions, ensuring you have a well-rounded view of each candidate.

By leveraging our shortlisting services, you are free to focus on other important aspects of your role, and reach your ideal candidate sooner. Plus, with specialists applying best practice shortlisting techniques, you can be confident that candidates are having a positive experience. This not only helps attract and secure top talent but also improves your company’s reputation in the job market.

Optimise Your Shortlisting Process Today!

Scout Talent offers specialist shortlisting services backed by leading talent acquisition technology to support hundreds of SMBs Australia-wide in hiring top talent. By partnering with our team of experts, you can enhance your hiring results, and reduce time to hire.

If you’re looking for support to streamline your shortlisting process, get in touch with us today to learn more about our solutions.