It’s not new news, but the United States Department of Labor reported at the end of February 2011, there were 13.7 million unemployed nationwide, with 6 million of those being unemployed long term, over 27 weeks. To break this down further, the Insurance & Finance field, which employs 5.7 million people, currently has an unemployment rate of 6.4%.
On a lighter note, the number of open job positions is on the increase, since the all time low in July 2009, job openings overall, have increased by 31% to 2.8 million openings in January 2011. At the beginning of the year, there were 208,000 insurance/finance related open positions.
So with a huge pool of job seekers out there, this is good news for insurance companies looking to fill open positions, right? In reality, no. Due to the current economic climate, insurance companies large and small, are typically running with reduced Human Resources staffing levels and limited budgets, and some companies are leaving the entire recruitment process to the hiring managers, who may not have received training in employment law, discrimination or diversity and with vast numbers of job seekers applying for any and every job opening, this is overwhelming employers with an avalanche of job applications, from potentially unsuitable candidates.
To give you an example, Insurance Journal recently posted a temporary administrative position, with some minimum experience requirements and received over 200 applicants and not all of them were “up to par”.
So how can you combat the influx of applications from job seekers, who could potentially be under qualified for your job and save you from having to sift through hundreds of resumes?
One suggestion is to advertise your job opening on niche, industry specific job sites, to target your ad to a particular audience, rather than advertise on a generic job website, which encompasses jobs from all industries and disciplines. This may cut down on the number of responses you receive and hopefully increase the quality of candidates, with experience in your chosen field.
Many job sites offer these beneficial features:
- Ability to control the duration your job is advertised and deactivate it if response levels are too high. You can always test the water, by uploading the ad for the minimum duration and extend the ad if needed.
- Online application process and application/resume filtering, allowing you to easily review and separate candidates with the experience or qualifications you require, saving you time manually checking hard copy resumes.
- Bookmark and save suitable candidates, offering a quick way to manage and contact applicants regarding next stage, interviews etc.
- Capability to send automated rejection or next stage confirmation letters to candidates, cutting down on time and postage.
Make your job ad work for you
You want your job ad to stand out and appeal to the right people, the candidates with the necessary qualifications and experience. So ad content is key.
Some job websites allow unlimited text to be posted, take advantage of this, so you can describe your job and requirements in detail.
- Keep the ad simple, concise and to the point – use paragraph formatting and short sentences.
- Include a descriptive job title and job location if relevant.
- Tailor your text and language to your intended audience.
- Describe what your company does and who they are, don’t assume the reader is familiar with the company. Why is it a good company to work for, what differentiates you from competitors, detail company achievements and goals.
- What is the actual job, responsibilities, who will they report to or manage, will any travel be involved – try to be as specific as possible.
- Who exactly is the company looking for, what are the person specs; qualifications, experience, skills etc. Use this section to spell out the requirements needed to qualify for this position. Try to stay away from age or gender, unless the job requires this.
- How should candidates apply – what method would speed up your application review process? Would you rather candidates applied online, emailed their résumé & cover letter, go to your website? Detail specific instructions.
Before the applications start to arrive, have a strategy in place for managing response, know exactly the type of person you want. If you have to filter the resumes manually, look through a sample, to gauge the quality, you may find suitable candidates in that first batch, if not, keep sifting.
As with every situation, you will always get people who don’t read instructions and apply even though they aren’t qualified, but hopefully some of the above tips will cut these figures down and you can focus on the next steps of the recruitment process.
Topics Talent
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