Employers get hooked on applicant numbers, why?

Posted by

Carolyne Burns

Surely, better staff retention is key?

Quality is far more important than quantity when it comes to sifting through a vast pile of job applications in search of the perfect hire. Yet, employers foolishly get hooked on the notion that high applicant numbers to their job ads is vital. Surely, better staff retention is key?

When looking to fill a role, many employers seem to suffer from a form of FOMO – “fear of missing out” on the one perfect person for the job. They assume that the more applications they review, the better the chances of finding that one perfect candidate. Instead, they end up absolutely swamped.

Looking far and wide for applicants is a smart strategy, especially amid the times of talent shortage. But do you have the underlying feeling that you’re missing out if you’re not flooded with applications?

You’re just making life harder for yourself

In truth, you’re just making life harder for yourself, while actually increasing your chances of making a poor new hire choice. Especially if you’re only skimming CVs and glancing at skills, which they may or may not actually have, in order to decide who makes the first cut.

Back in the days when job seekers had to mail off resumes in the post, they’d only apply for half a dozen positions. With the advent of job boards this grew to 35 positions. Now with all of today’s technology it’s risen to an amazing 105 applications per job seeker. Things will only get worse now that people are turning to artificial intelligence bots like ChatGPT to write their CVs for them and job boards encourage the 8 second application.

For some people, part of the drive to fire off a vast number of applications is to retain their Centrelink benefits, even if they have no real interest in most of the jobs. It makes it very difficult for employers to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Paralysed by choice and short on time, people tend to make bad decisions

When we’re overwhelmed, paralysed by choice and short on time, people tend to make bad decisions. It’s called “resume fatigue”, when we get overloaded and throw up our hands in despair looking for that perfect person. At this point, instead of approaching the problem logically, we can make a snap decision and hope for the best – which is certainly not a recipe for hiring success.

One of the biggest impacts of poor hiring choices is a high employee churn rate. Some businesses just take high staff turnover for granted, even though it can take a heavy toll on productivity, morale and the bottom line.

After a while, you can even start to lose people who really are a great fit for the job, because they’re fed up with the revolving door and constantly needing to train new people. Now you’re even worse off than when you started.

Some employers struggle with hiring and make poor decisions because they approach it as if they’re searching for their one true soul mate. Assuming there’s only one perfect person out there for the job, they undertake an exhaustive search but then get exhausted when it comes to choosing “the one”.

The truth is that no one is perfect, but there’s certainly more than one person out there who would be a good fit for any job. Finding one of those people requires focusing less on their skills and more on their attitudes – something which is difficult to divine from a CV. It helps improve staff retention too.

Take advantage of new recruitment tools to retain staff

The solution to hiring great people is to place less emphasis on covering letters and CVs because they are likely to be written with the aid of ChatGPT. Instead, take advantage of new recruitment tools which focus on asking the right set of screening questions.

Using short surveys, Expr3ss! quickly and cost-effectively pinpoints job applicants with the right skills, attitudes, temperament and cultural fit. Surveys typically only take around six minutes and can include. deal-breaker questions to ensure applicants have all the necessary qualifications before they are recommended for an interview.

Staff retention is key

The results speak for themselves. Signature Hospitality Group operates 50 venues across Australia and New Zealand, including the Sporting Globe Bar, TGI Fridays and Varsity. They employ more than 2,000 people and have an amazing 95 per cent staff retention rate, which is simply remarkable for the hospitality sector.

They don’t find and keep all of these great people because they scour the earth and wade through piles of CVs. Instead, thanks to Expr3ss!, they can easily find people who have both the right skills and the right temperament for the job.

Whether you’re looking to hire one person or one thousand people, you can’t run around town with a glass slipper expecting to find your happily ever after. If you really want to know who’s a good fit, you need to ask a few pertinent questions up front to help narrow down your choices.