Thanks to social media, it has never been easier for your company to advertise open positions to a wide audience. You can cast a wide search net with minimal investment. LinkedIn groups and those who tweet are delighted to spread the word for you. An open position is good news.
But, each time your company posts a position, your staff members who are charged with reviewing applications face the daunting task of sifting through the scads of résumés that pour in – many of them inappropriate for the job requirements. It wastes your employees’ time to “search through the haystack.” The Wall Street Journal reports that more than 50 percent of applicants for a typical job fail to meet the basic qualifications for that job.
The unwelcome combination of the high volume and poor quality of résumés received can be attributed to several factors:
- The weak job market has caused many candidates to send their resume in response to nearly any posted offer. The discouraged applicant may apply to jobs for which they are over-qualified or under-qualified. And some so-called résumé slingers, whose qualifications are not a match at all, may apply for irrelevant reasons like, the job is accessible by bus.
- Job seekers are not taking adequate time to judge the job requirements against their own credentials. A study by The Ladders documented that applicants spend an average of 76 seconds reviewing the posting before applying. Some applicants spent less than 50 seconds before acting.
- New tools have lowered the time investment required by an applicant. LinkedIn’s “apply now” button allows applicants to apply with one mouse click, allowing the applicant’s online profile to stand in for the resume. Several other job boards have a similar feature. Without the time and expense associated with assembling and mailing a resume and cover letter, the act of applying has never been easier for applicants.
Sifting through the pile of résumés to find candidates worth considering is wasteful of your employees’ time.
Many large and mid-sized companies have purchased applicant tracking systems (ATS) to help their staff sort through the haystack of résumés. But those systems can cost from $5,000 to millions of dollars, making that approach out of range for many.
But what if you had a partner? A partner who could present you with only qualified applicants ready and able to do the job you have in mind.
Talencio can be such a partner for your life sciences company. We listen closely to your needs – the skills, experiences and expertise for which you’re looking. Talencio vets all candidates, weeds out the unqualified, interviews the potentially qualified. We request that those who seem to be a fit complete a T-Chart which aligns your requirements with specific examples of their expertise in those areas. We submit to you only the very best applicants, saving you both time and money. And, because of our deep expertise in the life sciences and our extensive and talented cadre of life sciences colleagues, we work with you quickly and efficiently so that you and your staff can get back to doing what you do best.
To learn more about how Talencio has helped other life science companies, just like yours, to find the right person to meet your staffing needs, contact us directly at 612.703.4236 or email Paula Norbom, pnorbom@talencio.com.
Sources:
Why You Can’t Get A Job…Recruiting Explained By the Numbers. Dr. John Sullivan, May 20, 2013.