How to Maximize the Number of Candidates You Receive

Recent reports from SHRM mentioned that there is only an average of 12% job application-to-interview ratio. That is quite surprising considering that 20% to 30% is what can be considered as a good number!

12% is very low and might not even bring you the perfect candidate that you’re looking for, which is exactly why it’s crucial to get as many candidates as possible.

Here’s how.

Steps to Getting More Candidates

1. Create a branded career page

Having a career page is undoubtedly important. It can drive organic web traffic, increase employer branding, and provide better analytics if done successfully.

However, you mustn’t forget to put your branding on it. Recruiting is like marketing a product: brand recall is key. If they remember you well and you showcase how amenable the company culture is, it will propel your employer branding immensely, thus increasing applications.

Don’t be intimidated by all the customizations. We wrote a guide on how to create an excellent career page that can help your career page in terms of visuals and content. Click here!

It will also help if you get technical and oversee that it is SEO-friendly. That way, you’ll be one of the first to get noticed amongst the pile of information available online. We wrote about some tips on the do’s and don’ts in this article. If you succeed in your SEO efforts, you’ll have higher chances of popping up on top of search engines.

Manatal has high domain authority, so most of the career pages built through our recruiting software ranks superbly on the likes of Google. You can utilize their free career page builder for this very purpose, too, if you want to get more applicants.

2. Improve the content of your job ads

Of course, you have to create a killer job description to entice them once they find you. This includes writing an attractive copy and listing down clear expectations and employee benefits that might interest them.

The job title and location are already a no-brainer. Apart from those two, what you have to focus on is creating a quick introduction that will hook readers immediately. Talk about the position and why they should work for your company. Use a tone that will reflect your company culture.

Next, describe your perfect candidate. List down what you’re looking for in bullets for easier viewing. Be sure to be clear, so that candidates can easily identify themselves in your requirements.

Lastly,  put yourself in the applicant’s shoes. They know that they qualify, but now they’re probably thinking, “what’s in it for me?” Here, talk about their main roles and responsibilities, as well as the compensations and benefits. For the latter, highlight the important ones that might be unique and interesting like a free 15-minute massage on Thursdays, cool lounging area, free office lunch on Fridays, and many more!

3. Distribute your channels extensively

Another thing that you should consider is where you post your job ads. Our findings are that there are two other platforms that you could look into aside from your company career page. These are the job boards (Google for Jobs, Indeed, etc.) and social media sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.).

These will be crucial in seeding your job ads and receiving the maximum amount of applicants. Recruitment software like Manatal allows you to post on multiple channels automatically such as Indeed, JobsDB, Monster, Linkedin, and many more. Conveniently, all incoming applications will also be funneled into a centralized database-- no need to go through each website one by one!

You can also be creative and post on social media. This usually targets Millennials and Gen Z given the number of users and how often they use it. You can read further about this topic here.

4. Check internal database first

With the perfect cloud ATS, all candidate data are saved right from the get-go. The moment you register information into the system, it will be saved automatically and can be accessed anytime and anywhere.

This is convenient because you already have a handful of individuals that you can contact to fill a position. Don’t go searching externally just yet when you have this.

By sifting through your database, you will be able to save time in screening faster. Why? You already have all their details. Their resumes are uploaded, you know their skills, you have an idea of their salary expectations and many more.

Use all these stored data to your advantage to get the maximum number of candidates per job vacancy.

5. Search on various professional networking sites

Don’t just rely on your job posts. Be proactive and headhunt talents across various professional networking sites like LinkedIn. With over 722 million members, there is bound to be someone who can fit the role perfectly regardless if they’re looking for a job or not.

This can lead you to passive candidates, who are 120x more likely to make a significant impact on the company. That’s an asset that you should target! You can read more about it in full detail here.

6. Build an internal recruitment army

As we’ve mentioned before, it would be better if you build your internal recruitment army.

Recruiters don’t have to do all the work. For one, you can set up an employee referral program and let all members of the team have the chance to bolster the workforce. With a little incentive, they might work hard in getting successful hires for the organization!

You can also ask your employees to share their experiences in the company, which can be highly appealing for some. For example, Life at Agoda had a program where they took a video of new hires introducing themselves, telling more about their role, and calling on other people to join them, as well. Cool, right?

This would be cost-efficient in many ways as you can save time and resources in scouting for individuals yourself.

7. Do events

Even if the world is going more online now, that doesn’t diminish the potency of offline marketing. With the world slowly opening up to events, try joining career fairs around your city. This can be a public expo or it can even be a school event.

Depending on your needs, strategizing the proper functions to participate in is vital. For instance, the latter lets you tap fresh graduates who are eager to work and ready to learn.

8. Hire recruitment agencies

Lastly, you can also work with recruitment agencies to let you reach more candidates better and faster. Such firms have dedicated teams to get you what you need, whilst you go about your daily tasks without worrying about the tediousness of filling positions.

It would be better if you work with agencies that have a vertical focus. JB Hired is a good example. They specifically headhunt senior tech and digital talents. This is advantageous because they have dealt with the same types of clients repeatedly and know exactly what to do, where to recruit, and how to negotiate expertly.

If you manage to create a check-list of these items in your recruitment process, you’ll surely get more candidates than average in no time. It’s all a matter of accounting for what you have and what you put on various channels.

Click here to read more of our insights on recruitment and HR technology, or here to explore our 14-day free trial.