HR director Andrea Caldwell had no problem finding job applicants for open positions. It was just that none of them were qualified. Here’s how she solved the problem.
As part of an ongoing series, we’ll have practicing HR managers present real problems they faced and how they solved them.
Filling positions had become a painful process for us. It wasn’t that we weren’t getting enough applications — in fact, it was the opposite.
We were getting flooded with resumes — way too many to sit and read through. And a lot of the people were unqualified, or probably had little intention of actually taking the job.
The problem was the way we advertised online. Mostly, we posted the open positions on general career Web sites. Since so many people could see them and reply easily, the applications poured in.
The people we want
To get a handle on the process, we decided to tighten our focus. We still use a lot of online ads, but now we put them on specialized sites instead of big job boards.
For example, if we need an accountant, we post an ad on a local CPA association’s Web site. And for a general operations job, we advertise on sites related to our industry.
That makes sure the people who see it have the right experience, or at least an interest in what we do.
It’s made our job a lot easier. Now instead of getting hundreds of random resumes, we get a smaller number that are actually worth seeing.
(Andrea Caldwell, HR director, Stampede Meat, Inc., Bridgeview, IL)
