The New Year is an ideal time for a fresh start and, as a result, more people decide to make a career move than at any other point. So, with companies likely to see a significant increase in the amount of applications from which they must shortlist, how can they ensure that they pick out the right candidates? Here are our top five tips.

1) Before you begin to look at the applications, it’s vital that you define your ideal candidate. Use your job description and person specification to create two checklists: the essential criteria and desirable criteria needed to do the job. The standards are likely to relate to all of the following key areas, plus any others that are relevant:  education, work experience, skills and knowledge, competencies and personality traits. Be very strict about the criteria you term ‘essential’: these should relate to the qualities and traits of top performing employees in the role.

2) The next step is to begin the shortlisting process. At this stage, some employers choose to utilise the services of a specialist recruiter that knows the market inside out: they can identify the right talent quickly and may already have people among their network of candidates that might fit the role.

3) If shortlisting in-house, do so in stages.

Stage 1: Go through the applications and discard any that don’t meet all of the essential criteria. You now have a list of candidates who can all do the fundamentals of the role. At this point, it is also worthwhile noting where applications have come from so that you know where to advertise future vacancies.

Stage 2: Decide how many candidates you want to interview. Go through the remaining applications, weigh them against each item in your list of desirable criteria and record the number of criteria they meet. Some recruiters like to use a spreadsheet as this helps them to rank candidates at a glance. During this stage, you should also check that there are no inconsistencies in their CV and that spelling, punctuation, grammar, presentation and attention to detail are in line with your expectations.

4) You can now decide who to select for interview. It is important to think outside the box here: you may have a list of desirable criteria, but it’s unlikely that an individual will meet all of them, so decide which combination will have the most impact. Also, if you are replacing a current post holder, don’t have a vision of replacing like with like: think about what they could do when they joined, rather than what they can do now.

5) In addition to notifying the candidates selected for the next stage, ensure that you also contact everyone who applied –even if there were hundreds- to thank them for their interest, but letting them know that, unfortunately, this time they have not been shortlisted for interview. A superior candidate experience is crucial in today’s skills short environment. After all, a candidate that isn’t the right fit for now might just be, in the future.

If you have a vacancy and would like to talk to us about how we can help you shortlist the right person for the job, contact our specialist team of recruiters.

Our managing director, Lynn Sedgwick, has written a guest column for job site TotallyLegal. In it, she discusses the factors which are influencing the increase in regional demands for legal professionals in areas such as Yorkshire and the Midlands.

Below is an excerpt of the piece:

“Even as recently as five years ago the vast majority of employers were based in the capital with only smaller, independent firms having a physical presence in the wider regions of this country. But why has the shift taken place? There are a combination of contributors, perhaps most notably, the exorbitant cost of property in the capital. Firms are finding they can cut their rent costs in half by moving to other areas. In addition, many have struggled with a ‘churn’ of talent brought on by being based in a legal hotspot like London. And, by moving further afield, they hope to be able to retain their staff for longer. In purely geographical terms, being based somewhere like Birmingham, or Leeds, for example, means firms are better positioned to serve the needs of their clients, wherever they are located. There’s also the matter of Brexit. The wider uncertainty this has caused in markets across the UK favours the legal sector and drives greater activity, which increases demand for services and therefore specialists across the country.”

You can read the full column on the TotallyLegal website here.

We usually use this blog as a platform to offer advice, tips and updates on the legal landscape. However, we’re expanding rapidly and are on the lookout for individuals to join our team. Do you have what it takes to make it as a recruiter? Here are the top five skills you’ll need to succeed.

Confidence

You’ll need to be able to hold your own with people who are experts at what they do, and don’t appreciate their time being wasted and that means you have to be confident. Nobody wants to be consulted on a potentially life changing job move by someone who they suspect might know not their specialist field as well as they say they do. You need to be confident enough to take on new areas of expertise, but also be able to portray that confidence to clients and candidates. In addition, you’ll have to be comfortable picking up the phone and engaging with people who don’t know what your credentials are and likely to be at least mildly sceptical about what you’re doing. Many jobs require people to be confident, but not many where it’s as important as it is in recruitment.

Communication

Along similar lines, you’ll need to be an effective and concise communicator and able to get your point across quickly. You’ll probably be speaking to people who are busy in their current roles and don’t want to waste hours of their lives chatting to a recruiter. You’ll also need to be able to master your email communications and online marketing on platforms like LinkedIn. After all, you’re not going to have much success if your job advert iz ritten lyk dis.

Resilience

It’s not just applicants who face rejection, recruiters do too and you need to be able to take the bumps on the road and still be able to perform to the best of your ability. You’ll have good days and bad – that’s a given – but the secret is being able to prevent the bad days from affecting your output.

Target driven and motivated

At the vast majority of firms, you’ll have certain KPIs to work to. That’s an approach that’s not suited to everyone and not all organisations have the same model, people who are motivated by the idea of working to specific goals will do well here.

Multi-tasking and speed

As a job applicant it’s unlikely you’ll have used just one recruiter to help your job search and organisations are the same and will look to multiple sources for their own talent. This means that if you can move quickly and efficiently, then you’ll be able to beat your competitors. However, you’ll also have a lot to do at once and will likely be dealing with a lot of vacancies and therefore multiple companies and even more candidates. Consequently, you must be able to juggle multiple projects and various tasks simultaneously. You’ll have to keep in mind the details, experience and motivators of a large number of people and this requires a lot of organisational competency. If you can master the idea of ‘less haste, more speed’ then you’ll do well.

Do you have what it takes?

If you’re looking for a career in a challenging and fast-moving, but also highly rewarding, industry and want to join a successful, supportive and rapidly growing organisation, then get in touch with one of our expert consultants for a chat.  And for more insights from the team take a look at our other blogs.

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