For a long time the brand name has been the selling proposition for the big companies in attracting qualified candidates for jobs. This no longer works and internet has emerged as the most suitable tool, thus enabling all companies irrespective of their sizes the opportunity to communicate their job vacancies to potential applicants cheaply. This way the companies have the opportunity to recruit from a wider pool of applicants.
It is imperative that for the companies to recruit high quality employees they have to shift focus to communicate the most vital information to the candidates about the company and job opportunities that they are offering. As the companies advertise these jobs, there is need to find ways to minimize the number of unqualified candidates sending their application for the advertised posts. This helps companies save time and resources in the selecting the best qualified among the applicants.
According to Bohlander & Snell (2009), to avoid getting applications from unqualified candidates, the companies can be developing pre-screening questions, which systematically measures the most important attributes required for the job on offer. The pre-screening questions help the human resource personnel to classify candidates thus enabling screening out of candidates who do not meet the minimum requirements.
The companies must ensure that the advert for the job on offer clearly communicates the key information about the job on offer to the applicants (Kleiman, 2004). The next step should be to carry out ‘screen-in’ in which the staffing personnel do an in-depth evaluation of the abilities of the qualified candidates. This helps them get the candidates who exhibit the greatest potential of performing the job in question. Automating these screening process helps save time and money that is valuable during the final phases of candidates’ evaluation (Bohlander & Snell, 2009).
According to Bohlander & Snell (2009), the employers can also carryout background check on the applicants before inviting them for the interview. This helps weed out fake and unqualified candidates, and identify potential, fit, and well-mannered employees. The background information helps the company know the criminal records, financial discipline, family, educational, and commercial history of the candidates.
The employers can reduce getting unqualified application by targeting certain segments of qualified candidates (Kleiman, 2004). The company can target graduates from specific institution that offer exceptional training in the company’s areas of interest or alternatively target employees who are working or have worked for certain organization. This helps the company to be able to get application from the potential candidates only (Kleiman, 2004).
The students suggested that the company should also not be allowing unsolicited applications for jobs that have not been open (Swanson, Tennito, & Taylor, 2005). This help the company avoid dealing with applications that clog their systems. To avoid unsolicited application, the company can limit their URL exposure thus being careful where to place their career ads. The company should carry out research on what magazines or journals their top performers read and then focus their adverts there to be able to get the most suitable candidates (Swanson, Tennito, & Taylor, 2005). The company should also limit their use of mass media in putting their career ads thus reducing the number of unqualified application that they receive. The company should also avoid running the advert many times on the media.
My classmates talked of the employers insisting on very strong referees with a good reputation. The applicants must provide strong background information about the people they are referring and their field of skills (Swanson, Tennito, & Taylor, 2005).
This should discourage the employee giving referrals from people they really do not know and thus reduces the number of unqualified applicants. Another way my colleague suggested was that the company could encourage its top performers to recommend referrals. This helps increase the population of applicants that passes through pre-screening thereby the resultant candidates are only the most qualified (Kleiman, 2004). For the company to achieve best results, it need to only request referrals from top performers in the particular field in which they want to recruit. We can conclude that for the company to minimize the number of application from unqualified candidates they should avoid putting their ads in mass media and frequently visited websites.
References
Bohlander, G. & Snell, S. (2009). Managing Human Resources, 15th Edition. Ohio: Cengage Learning.
Kleiman, L. (2004). Human Resource Management, 3rd Edition. Ohio: Atomic dog Publishing.
Swanson, C., Tennito, L., & Taylor, R. (2005). Police Administration. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.