How do I recruit the best of the best?

Hi, I’m Donna of DOHR. Today is day four of our 52 Top Tips. We have our 52 top tip playing cards from our HR in a box and we are working through the diamond suite and diamonds are for recruitment so today is all about sifting CV’s.

We’ve already covered job descriptions and then marketing the role and now we come onto the different selection techniques. So the first thing you have to do once you have a load of applicants is to sift their CV’s. 

You must be consistent when screening applications. Develop some set criteria for an initial screening, such as location, qualifications, relevant experience, salary expectations, and the right to work in the UK. Have these in mind or documented when you’re looking at each applicants CV. Reduce your applicants to a short list, which you’ll then go on to either telephone screen or to test in some way, so the CV is the tool that applicants send to you when they are applying for a job. 

Now more and more people are either using blind CV’s, so leaving out their name, their age, their ethnicity, anything that will give you any personal information about them. But at the other end of the scale, people are also using video applications and actually, rather than using a traditional CV, they’re applying online. Both make it quite difficult to recruit, especially if you’re not an experienced recruiter. It also leaves you a little bit subject to risks of discrimination claims. So certainly if you can see the person in front of you, you make an assessment, that’s human nature. 

The whole objective when you are sifting CV’s is to identify the people who are going to be best in the role that you have to offer them. And it’s not a science. It’s very much a blend of art and science and identifying people with the skills and then going on to test their fit within the team and the right attitude.