How to Narrow Down Your Massive Pool of Candidates

man overwhelmed by papers floating around

While some people have been struggling to find applicants, others have faced too many. It’s extremely overwhelming for a hiring team to narrow down a pool of hundreds of applications. Not to mention it could take weeks to do so. The big question hiring teams face is how to go from hundreds of applicants to a much smaller pool, while ensuring that you are choosing the best quality candidates.

Resumes are tiring to review, and they only tell you so much about a candidate. It’s difficult to get a true sense of an applicant’s character through a piece of paper. Rather than spending days reviewing hundreds of resumes, try something more engaging and efficient. Speed interviews may be the perfect solution to this problem!

Why Speed Interviews?

Video speed interviews are exactly what they sound like; it’s like speed dating but with candidates! They provide the perfect opportunity for employers to get to know their candidates in a short amount of time. Speed interviews are quick 5–10 minute interviews, conducted in a consecutive manner. This means that a single recruiter can meet upwards of 12 candidates in just an hour.

Speed interviews offer the chance to meet a wider range of applicants that reviewing resumes cannot. Recruiters cannot gauge certain aspects of a candidate through a resume. Traits like passion, enthusiasm, and commitment are all important qualities in a candidate, but these are things you can’t see from a resume. Seeing and chatting to the candidate can provide a good sense on their enthusiasm and commitment for the role.

A candidate’s self-assessment of their skills can often be biased. They may be over or under exaggerating their own abilities in their resumes. By using speed interviews, recruiters can see where candidates’s abilities truly line up with the skill level expected for the role. Being able to do so can make it much easier to see which candidates have the most potential to fill a role.

How to Find the Top Talent in Your Pool of Candidates

By reviewing a much wider pool of candidates, recruiters are more likely to find the best applicants. As mentioned earlier, resumes can only provide employers so much information about the applicant. The truth is resumes are outdated, and they’re not very useful to mass screen applicants. By using speed interviews to meet all your candidates, you can feel assured that you will be reaching the best of the best in your candidate pool.

When conducting speed interviews, have a set of questions prepared to ask each candidate. By choosing questions that show off the candidates personality and character, you can better determine whether they’ll be a good fit for the company. You may also want to ask about basic skills required for the role. Having these questions ready for the initial screening can make it quicker to choose who moves further in the process.

If you’re currently facing an overwhelming number of applicants and want to try something new and effective, try out Hellohire. Hellohire offers an easy-to-use speed interview platform, perfect for screening lots of candidates. Learn more about the platform by booking a free demo.