Recruiters: How To Handle High Volume Applicant Flow and Reduce Applicant Overload?

By Kendrick Mendiola

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Recruitment Funnel

The recruitment landscape is full of startups aiming to change the industry. We’ve seen how platforms have evolved. There’s a whole variety of platforms wanting to optimize the recruitment process. We’ve seen how platforms and business models have changed as recruitment boutiques carve out their niches on sourcing, talent pooling, rec-to-rec, recruitment outsourcing, recruitment marketing, predictive analytics, etc.  

As markets become mature, how is the recruitment industry thriving in third world countries? I recently got in touch with Ahmed Noor Yusuf, CEO of Employfy, to learn from him about how his startup is revolutionizing recruitment especially in third world countries.

1) Can you tell us what Employfy is all about?

Ahmed: Employfy aims to partner businesses in developing countries in fulfilling their human resource needs. Human resources is by far the greatest asset for these countries, it is in abundance but often not with the right skills for the opportunities on offer. The management of companies are at times constrained in making the right people selections at the right time to enhance productive capacity.

One particular problem is the disproportionate number of job applicants for each job advertised. This causes hiring managers to spend an inordinate amount of time processing applications. Employfy responded to this need, explored and built a technology solution that will aid the applicant processing, tracking and decision making process.

As a result, and as a first step, Employfy has provided a unique platform that employers can use to quickly test, filter, discuss and select candidates in a collaborative environment. The platform seeks to professionalise the engagement between employers and job seekers and help elevate the recruitment process in all targeted countries.

                                                                                                                                       

2) Why did you start the company? What was the inspiration? How did you identify the opportunity?

Ahmed: We sought to help companies make good hires. We assumed that existing methods, like newspaper advertising, were expensive and outmoded. We did some research to validate our view, and soon Employfy was introduced to the marketplace. We quickly found the problem we addressed was not the most pressing issue for our target audience: a change of direction was needed – asap.

We were given the exceptional opportunity to collaborate with the Institute of Human Resources in Kenya, and together we conducted further research. A survey of over 400 hiring executives delivered volumes of data and invaluable insight. Much feedback was given, but a single issue resonated across all data sets: too many applicants for every job advertised.

Growing economies with increasing populations and above average youth demographics were seeing disproportionate applicant flow as a major issue. Made worse were candidates who apply for every job, taking on the tag “serial applicants,” clogging and slowing down the recruitment process. The task of screening every application to find the right candidate becomes arduous. The problem was evident: hiring had become a burdensome chore.

 

3) You have clearly put a lot of thought into your ideal customer profile, how is Employfy different from job-listing sites?

Ahmed: Employfy is distinctly different from the countless job-listing sites that offer online job advertising and continues to distinguish its identity in the industry. Ironically, employfy started as an online job-listing site. Its origins, as with many sustainable businesses, arose from the desire to solve a problem: to help recruiters and job seekers connect for an outstanding hiring experience. It quickly became evident that, while our intentions were good, we weren’t offering a solution that was unique in the marketplace.

 

4) Tell us about your experience of doing a pivot for Employfy?  How has this phase helped you clarify your messaging?

Ahmed: Employers sought shortcuts and workarounds to reduce the pain: some employed people simply to examine every application received – a costly proposition. Others sorted by sampling. Because of administrative burden, the objective of recruitment was lost. Hiring quality people is always the goal and the challenge was to reinvent Employfy to enable efficient  candidate processing for better hiring decisions.

Employfy uses smart technologies to help hiring professionals reduce applicant overload. We help recruiters connect quickly with the right candidate. We offer a variety of tools that help from sorting, to collaborative viewing, video screening, and more. Our message is clear - “Resolve your hiring headaches so you can get back to ‘recruiting to hire’ instead of ‘screening to exclude’ with Employfy.” We can help get the grunt out of hiring.

 

Ken Mendiola is a digital marketer at MeshTelco - a telecommunications startup in Australia which aims to eliminate poor internet connectivity. He is also a growth hacker at SparkRaise - a crowdfunding platform and social network in Hong Kong. He loves to write about growth hacking, branding, digital marketing strategy, social media marketing, and recruitment marketing. He also writes for Business2Community, e27, TechinAsia, TechWireAsia, Recruiter, and YFS Magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @ken_mendiola

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