Don’t make the mistake of choosing quantity over quality: here’s why

The best way to hire, if you have the luxury, is by running a Group Information and Interview Day. The quality of the candidates you invite into any group situation is telling for candidates, including your top potential talent, about what you think of your own organisation and what you think of them.

If you are going to run a Group Information and Interview Day (GIID) quality absolutely overrides quantity. The reason is, if you go for quantity simply to have a big room full of people, you’ll end up with a room full of 70% great candidates and 30% filler candidates. Those great candidates will sit in a room among filler candidates wondering, “is this my potential peer?”, “Is this how this organisation sees me?” and, “Are they categorising me the same way they are categorising that person?”

The quality of the candidates you invite into any group situation is telling for candidates, including your top potential talent, about what you think of your own organisation and what you think of them. So you never want filler candidates, and you never want quantity over quality. It’s far better to have a group of really high-calibre candidates, which demonstrates your talent pool, the level of interest in the position, and your ability to recruit the top talent in the best possible light. Ideally, you will have interviewed these candidates prior to meeting them face to face.

Another added bonus about opting for quality over quantity means that instead of buying a tray of average-quality sandwiches, you can buy a gourmet cheese platter instead!

Recruitment is all about sales and marketing. In sales and marketing, we know it’s important to widen the funnel. While it’s important that you’re starting with a broad reach of exposure for your opportunities, it’s equally important to have a funnel. You absolutely need to use your funnel to effectively screen and shortlist your talent pool.

At the top of your funnel, quantity is important, as you need a wide range and reach. From there, as your candidates move through your recruitment funnel, the more it will cost you to screen and shortlist. Therefore, you need to be efficient when screening and shortlisting.

Be 100% authentic in your attraction strategy. When marketing your organisation and the job opportunity to the best candidates out there, be ruthlessly authentic about the role, its responsibilities, and requirements for candidates because your goal is to educate and inform candidates so the right ones progress through to application and the wrong ones opt themselves out early.

Include the right information in your recruitment advertisement. If you can, it’s great to have an enticing advertisement on a job board that links to an attractive landing page for each opportunity. This way, you can market to the best candidates out there, fully educate them about your organisation and the role, and if you can include screening questions, better still!

Don’t fall into the trap of throwing advertisements on job boards and having to plough through piles of resumes, many of which are from unqualified, disinterested, or unsuitable applicants. Fully educate and inform your candidates before they even apply.

Use a shortlisting and selection process that’s rigorous and disciplined. Use selection criteria that you’ve established beforehand across the board.

The more you can avoid a huge volume of applications from unsuitable candidates, the better.  (Check out our great articles on how to write a great recruitment advertisement and the best screening questions you can use.)

Use video interviews wherever possible to conduct high-quality behavioural-based interviews. Hiring managers can then view (even an edited 10 minutes of a behavioural-based video interview) before they meet the candidate face to face). So instead of a huge volume of face to face interviews, you can opt for quality and being judicious about who you spend your time with.

Be mindful how you present the opportunity to candidates in naming your event. A “Group Assessment Day” is a less attractive term that can put candidates off. At the same time, inviting your candidates to a “Group Information Day” doesn’t communicate to candidates they have the opportunity to progress, which may result in a low attendance rate. Naming your event a “Group Information and Interview Day” solves this problem.

At the end of the day, time is money and we’ve got to keep our recruitment processes optimised and commercially viable without missing out on the best talent that’s out there. Your talent is your biggest asset. When a great candidate comes into your organisation either for an individual interview or a Group Information and Interview Day, or to start work on their first day, don’t ever let them feel like they’re being lined up against a candidate who’s far from their level who was brought in to fill numbers.