From new businesses to huge corporations, the task of finding the right employees can easily take over your job and drown you in a sea of resumes, cover letters, portfolios, and references. If you need to free up time and make the task quicker and more efficient, apply these strategies to your next round of hiring.

1 – Refine Your Posting

First off, you can make your hiring process run more efficiently by refining how you word your job posting. Think strategically about what you put in each section. If having a Bachelor’s degree or a minimum of five years of experience is non-negotiable, don’t list it under, “Additional Assets,” or, “Desirable Skills.” State your firm qualifications right off the bat, in a section called, “Requirements.” Yes, unqualified people will still apply, but firmly communicating of your must-have requirements will also deter people who are unqualified, rather than opening your posting up to everyone and anyone.

You might also want to consider being specific about the job with a, “day in the life,” or, “day-to day-tasks,” section where you list off exactly what the role entails. For example, if someone loves the idea of being an Office Manager with your company, but reads that they will also be responsible for ordering office supplies or photocopying, they might realize that it’s not the management-type position they’re looking for.

2 – Advertise Appropriately

You might automatically post your job to a big job site like Indeed because you think you’ll get a better response. What you’ll likely get is a bigger, broader response, which is not always ideal.

Founder, Christie Lohr, created the Style Nine to Five job board to give fashion-related companies a niche place to post their openings. This came from her belief that there’s a vast difference between posting on a generic job site versus choosing a smaller option instead.

“There’s a huge difference between all the job boards out there. Indeed is like Craigslist or Kijiji – while you might get MORE applicants, you’re probably getting job-seekers who will take any job as they are actively searching the whole web,” she says. “Big job sites also pull from other boards, so it’s too much and not focused. As an employer, if you don’t have an advertising budget of thousands per month, your job will be listed back on page 10 or more, and top talent aren’t going back that far.”

There are plenty of industry-specific job boards that you can use to help hone your applicant results, depending on what your company does. To give  you a few examples, post a tech position on Jobs in Tech, a healthcare industry role on Healthcare Jobs, or a skilled-trades job on Careers In Trades.

You don’t necessarily want to reach more people – you want to reach the right people. Along with posting on an industry-specific job board, you’ll want to consider the type of role that you’re looking for. For example, if you’re hiring an intern or for a junior-level position, a student job board at universities and colleges would be a great place to post and find eager students or recent grads who are looking to get their foot in the door.

3 – Scan and Skim

While every applicant wants to believe that hiring managers read every word that they’ve written, the reality is that takes a ton of time that you can easily reduce. As mentioned, if you have non-negotiable requirements, like education or years of experience, scan resumes and cover letters for those qualifications to jump out at you. Move the others to your B-list and focus only on those that meet your criteria.

As another example, if you’re looking for a Digital Marketing Coordinator and they need to have education or experience with InDesign, Hootsuite, and Canva, skim your resume and cover letter pile for the ones that specifically mention those keywords. Dig in from there.

4 – Work with a Recruiter

Recruiters are ideal partners for a variety of business types. If you’re a small business and don’t have the extra time to put on an HR hat, or if you’re a global company that doesn’t want to sift through thousands of resumes, a recruiter can be your biggest asset. Their job is to learn everything about your business, your brand, and your needs. Then they do the heavy lifting – advertising the job, reading resumes and cover letters, checking references, and even doing the first round of interviews. This means that when candidates make their way to you, you know they’re the best of the best and you don’t have to deal with anyone who doesn’t meet your criteria.

When a recruiter immerses themselves in your company’s needs, they are able to find candidates that are a great fit. “There are plenty of advantages to working with a recruiter,” Christie says. “You have more time to focus on other parts of your business and finding the right recruiter for your company is like having an addition to your team, as they act like a brand ambassador or spokesperson on your behalf.”

A recruiter also digs deep to find candidates that might not be actively applying to jobs at the moment, and they can headhunt to find the best talent. If your recruiter is a well-known expert in your industry, they’ll have even more success in attracting those ideal candidates. “When people see my name in their inbox as a connection request or on LinkedIn, my response rate is almost 100%,” Christie says.

5 – Learn from Your Mistakes

The pain points from past hiring mistakes are valuable as you move forward in bringing new members to your team. Whether you didn’t get the quality of candidates you were hoping for or you hired someone who didn’t work out, there are always things to take away from any situation. You could learn that cultural fit is more relevant than education, or that hiring someone with the most prestigious background doesn’t necessarily translate to on-the-job excellence. Rather than seeing poor hiring choices as failures, change your point of view so you can build your own list of do’s and don’ts for the next round.

Hiring a new employee can take a ton of time, but it doesn’t have to. By streamlining your process and narrowing down your candidates to the ones that are the best fit, you can easily shave time and resources off of this task and free up your time for other parts of your job.

If you want to make your hiring process easier, consider Christie’s Employer Services, which include recruiting and candidate interviews. She’ll do the hard work and deliver only the best candidates for you to choose from.

By: Jeanine Gordon – Jeanine is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for creating stellar content for global brands and small businesses alike – specializing in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle.

Feature Image: Adobe Stock