As unemployment continues its seemingly inexorable rise, and jobseekers compete ever more fiercely for a smaller number of vacancies, recruiters are faced with a growing problem. Employers and recruitment agencies are in danger of being snowed under by a tide of CVs.

Richard Wright, chief executive of finance recruiter Martin Ward Anderson, says this year the company has seen a 30% increase in applications for roles.

Wright says the big danger comes from damage to the company’s employer brand - caused, for example, by a deterioration in how candidates are handled as staff become overwhelmed by a rising backlog of work.

Bad news travels faster than good news, says Wright. “What recruiters can’t do is just focus on the cream and ignore everything else, because that is a very short-term measure, and will come back and haunt them when things improve.”

As if that is not challenging enough, Wright says that coping with the deluge of CVs has been made more difficult as, because of the downturn, Martin Ward Anderson now employs fewer staff.

Geoff Newman, managing director generalist recruitment agency Acorn Recruitment, based in Sevenoaks, Kent, says the “huge increase” in applications, which the company experienced in February, was unsustainable. “Commercially, it was unviable because we weren’t able to offer the customer care we had provided before,” he says.

Recruitment agencies are not the only ones to have experienced a big rise in applications from candidates. Samantha Weston, head of resourcing at accountancy firm Grant Thornton, says this year the number of applications for the 175 places on its graduate training scheme has “pretty much doubled” from over 2,000 last year to 4,500 this year.

So how have recruiters reacted to this surge in demand? After all, it was only 18 months ago when many found it impossible to get candidates for love or money.

Isabelle Hung, head of resourcing and programmes at Harrods, says the company has seen “a definite rise in applications”. At the same, she says the quality of applicants has gone down, particularly for middle manager positions.

Hung says that one response has been tighter filtering of candidates. For example, more screening questions using its ATS (applicant tracking system) such as ‘Do you have management experience?’. “Really simple stuff,” says Hung, “but the majority don’t [have the experience].”
Another response has been greater use of questions, which allow candidates to self select, such as ‘If you are counter offered, would you stay with Harrods?’

Hung has also improved the quality of Harrods’ recruitment team. “We have really up-skilled them, taking them from a £25k role to a £30-35k one,” she says.

Writing job adverts in a tighter way helps reduce the number of applications from unsuitable candidates, she says. Harrods has also streamlined its recruitment process by improving its website. This year 95% of applications have come through its website compared with 40% last year.

Hung is aware of the potential damage that can be done to Harrods’ employer brand in not coping with the surge in applications, for example by not responding promptly to unsuccessful candidates. “Every single candidate is responded to by email,” she says. Grant Thornton has also introduced tougher selection criteria for candidates, says Weston. For example, in addition to good academic records, it now looks for people with “extra skills” such as leadership.

We leave the consultants who make money to make money, while the candidates are managed, inevitably by different people

Having the right attitude and being “interested in the business of business, and in providing excellent client service”, are also given more importance than previously. To achieve this, the firm uses a variety of aptitude and ability tests, all conducted online, she says.

The efforts to improve the quality of applicants have been enhanced by maintaining Grant Thornton’s presence on university campuses. A web-based initiative, called ‘live chat’, allows the company to communicate directly with students, and provides them with advice on applications and how to present themselves at interview. “This has led to a higher quality of candidate,” says Weston.

For Martin Ward Anderson’s Wright, the answer has been nothing less than a change in the company’s business model. Whereas previously, responsibility for managing the flow of candidates was spread around the consultants, now “we leave the consultants who make money to make money, while the candidates are managed, inevitably by different people”, he says.

The alternative is no longer feasible in today’s conditions, he says, “as everyone would be snowed under looking after candidates who we couldn’t find jobs for”. This would also have led to a drop in employee productivity, he adds.


“It’s really a process question,” he explains. “The smart businesses will be reorganising their processes accordingly.”

Wright says the benefit of changing the business model in this way is that “the company’s brand has kept working for it” and this, in turn, he believes has boosted its gross profit.

Many of those in recruitment have turned to technology as a way of coping with the expansion in their workload. Acorn Recruitment’s Newman says that rather than relying on expensive job boards, the company has linked up with a couple of databases, giving it access to 5m CVs.
And rather than advertising jobs on job boards and being inundated with unsuitable candidates, the company now prefers to focus on headhunting only those who meet clients’ precise requirements. “We no longer let people find us, we find them,” explains Newman.

At the same time, Newman says the company has trained its staff in how to make better use of the databases - in particular by showing them “how to think laterally” when searching for candidates. One example is asking clients for the names of their competitors and then searching databases on those firms to find candidates. “This helps give us credibility with our clients,” says Newman.

As a consequence of these changes, Newman says Acorn now receives only 20 CVs a day compared with 80 in February. Another benefit is that that the company has been able to reduce its costs, he adds.

Wright also acknowledges the role played by technology. The company recently invested in a database, which allows consultants to search according to precise criteria, such as location and experience. “The more technology can do for you, the quicker the whole process becomes,” he says.

Paul Burgess, managing director of recruitment software provider eploy, says that both agencies and in-house recruiters are using the enhanced capabilities of recruitment software in ways that save time and make the recruitment process more efficient.

Software can now routinely flag up duplicate applications or those candidates who have already been vetted by colleagues, as well as picking out those who have applied in the past, says Burgess.

Similarly, hiring managers are taking advantage of specialist areas provided by recruitment software so that as applications come in “they can get involved in the sifting process, taking some of this responsibility away from the HR team”.

The tide of applications flooding into recruitment agencies and employers has the potential to overwhelm those handling them, and in so doing
to cause serious damage to employer reputations.

While a few companies may have the capacity to increase the staff to cope with a bigger workload, for many in these straitened economic times this is not an option.

However, with an effective action plan the tide of CVs can be turned, and those who grasp the nettle now will be better placed to take advantage when the market improves.

power points

• Tighten your selection criteria
• Give candidates more opportunities to self select
• Improve your job adverts so you attract only the most suitable applicants
• Utilise the power of technology
• Train and up-skills your staff
• Consider changing your business model
• A higher workload is not an excuse for treating unsuccessful candidates badly