7 Recruiting Hacks To Save You Time

Boring job descriptions attract boring applicants. A vague job description will be the death of you. Keep it tight, specific and interesting to engage relevant job seekers and avoid hordes of unsuitable applications. Yes, this takes time, but it will 100% be worth it down the track. 

Which brings us to, save your inbox. Create a new recruit or jobs@yourdomain email addy to keep things neat and tidy when receiving (fingers crossed, amaze) applications. Template responses for unsuccessful applicants and a sweet filing system will also come in handy. Or, even chuck in an “only successful applicants will be contacted”. 

Still overwhelmed with applications and need a quick way to cull? This might not be everyone’s cuppa tea, but Ruslan Kogan, Founder & CEO of Kogan, swears by culling applications by email accounts. If your email account is @gmail or @yourdomain, you’re in. @hotmail? You’re automatically out of the game. Harsh? Yes. Likely to lead to more tech-savvy applicants? He thinks so. sexy_bunny_69@hotmail, be gone. 

Annoyed by the above? Same. If grammar/spelling/punctuation is literally in the job description, the easiest way to weed out fakers is a quick glance at their email/cover letter to spot obvious errors. This is also a great way to get an idea of a candidate’s ability to communicate professionally and form full sentences. TBH CBF with all the acronyms. 

The easier the application process, the more likely you’re going to get quantity over quality flooding into your inbox. If you want to aim high and only hear from peeps who are legit excited about your role, make them complete a task to submit with their resume and cover letter. Hiring a journalist? Get them to write an article. Social media manager? Three draft Instagram posts and captions. Having that extra step means you’ll avoid anyone not committed enough to complete it, and also get a taste of the skills on offer. 

You know what’s great? When you call someone, leave a message, and they call you back. You know what doesn’t always happen? That. An easy way to test someone’s phone manner, and their reliability, is to call to organise an interview. It’s also a great way to save time by avoiding the back-and-forth of a long email convo. 

Check your vitals AKA socials. A quick way to get get a sense of someone’s vibe is to take a squiz at their presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You’re looking for the good (culture fit, yay!), the bad and the ugly, and also for anything related specifically to the role. Hiring a social media manager and looking at the world’s most boring captions on Insta? Alarm bells, they be ringing.  

So, go forth and find your new employees with ease.