how the majority of recruitment processes actually work

1 - Hiring Manager allocated the budget to hire a new employee

Generally (there are exceptions) every new vacancy arises because of someone leaving or retiring from an organization, someone is internally promoted leaving a gap below them, or a hiring manager has persuaded the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) that they need additional staff and funding has been agreed to support that request.

2 - Internal HR Department or outsourced Recruitment Agency post the job advert or vacancy advert.

Some organizations have their own recruitment team within the HR department, others choose to outsource all their recruitment to a recruitment agency. These agencies are paid a commission, a retainer, or one-off fee (based on the salary offered to the successful applicant) by the organization and it is illegal (in the UK) for them to charge you, the applicant, absolutely anything for their services. They may ask you for exclusivity rights if they keep you on their books. This means that you should not be using another agency for an application to the same organization. This is allowed and comes with its advantages and disadvantages.

3 - Applications pour in by the hundreds (literally!)

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that after the upheaval of the pandemic there is an average of 506 applications for every low-skilled vacancy and around 132 applications for every high-skilled or management vacancy.

4 - Robot or Human scans all applications

"Scan" does not mean "read"! A hiring manager and the recruitment team (internal) or the agency recruiter (external) will spend around 5-7 seconds on the opening paragraph of your CV. If nothing jumps out at them, it's filed under B for Bin! An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a robot basically. An ATS is software, loaded with algorithms to search for the right words that can make even a robot excited. If the robot is not excited, your CV doesn't even get to be seen or read by a human. At CV Solutions our team of highly experienced recruitment specialists are market leaders in CV design, ensuring the robots and the humans recognize those all-important key words (that's how they become excited) and the CV writing is simple and easy on the eye. (or whatever robots read with!).

5 - Applications are sifted to produce a shortlist for the Hiring Manager to consider for interview

If the robot and / or human is excited about your CV it will go to the hiring manager who now studies it meticulously and makes the decision whether to shortlist you for interview. It's known as shortlist because it will literally only have around 3 names on it. It may have around 6 names if the interview process is 2-stage which will be whittled down to 3 names for the final interview. Now consider that - 3 names to be interviewed from hundreds of original applications.

6 - Shortlisted candidates invited to interview

Those applicants afforded an opportunity for interview now literally have a foot in the door - even a virtual foot if the interview is conducted over video such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom etc.

At CV Solutions our experienced team of recruiters and interviewers are always ready to work with you to ensure you are fully prepared to succeed at interview.