Most managers will look at the number of applicants their job ad has attracted as an important indicator when hiring.
Few applicants is usually considered as an indicator of an unsuccessful Job Ad and a lot of applicants is considered to be a great initial start.
So, how many is the right number of applications?
I was recently helping a client with her hiring. She has done our training and is using our hiring system in-house. She had written her Job Ad and sent it to me for some final critiquing. I edited it a bit and then she posted it.
It was a demanding role and technical too. She received 1 candidate application within a few hours of the ad going up and then there were no more candidates for another day.
She called me and was very concerned about the lack of candidate applications. I asked her if she had spoken with and checked that 1 candidate. She said no. I asked her to do that quickly.
The next time I spoke with this client, the candidate had completed the Performia evaluation with good results, and the owner had also interviewed her. She had completed two reference checks already and was ready to offer the position.
It turned out that this candidate was a very good match for the position and fit most of the important criteria!
Our Split Test Result
We were hiring a General Manager for a client. We decided to run a split test with the Job Ads on the Seek job board.
We wrote one ad, the traditional way that 99% of General Manager ads are written on Seek, and the other ad we wrote the Performia way using our ad-writing technology.
The first ad, attracted over 300 applications.
The second Performia style ad, attracted 11 applications.
We evaluated the productivity of the candidates who applied and from the first ad, we could maybe, look at 1 person from the 300 that we could progress further.
From the second ad, we could nearly hire 10, and we realised the 11th candidate had applied by mistake.
The moral of the story?
Quality is much more important when it comes to candidate applications.
If you really think about it, the most PERFECT Job ad, will attract 1 Candidate and it will be the right candidate.
Sometimes TOO MANY applications can mean the job is not written well and is filtering out the right people from applying and filtering in the wrong people.
Your Job Ad is the first most important quality control filter in the hiring process.
And in hiring, it is important to move fast – be fussy, but move fast and look for all the ways to attract the right people.
If you have a few applications – make it personal, check every candidate and qualify or disqualify them quickly to know where you stand in the hiring, then take more action.
Don’t ever let yourself feel defeated. At that moment you will stop creating, and finding solutions, and find yourself in more problems.
If you have too many applications, have a process to quickly screen candidates to know who you should invest your time in. Our clients use our unlimited evaluation tool to know quickly who to focus on and not lose the most productive candidates.
Are you attracting too few or too many applications, and need help to find the right person?
If you need help with any of these points, do not hesitate to contact us. We will help you troubleshoot this and brainstorm with you to find the right solution to hire the right person. Our goal is for you to be successful in recruiting and building a high performing, and stable team.
I wish you a great weekend ahead.