How to evaluate CVs more quickly, efficiently and reliably

One of the most painful jobs as a hiring manager or recruiter is wading through the mass of CVs you receive on every recruiting mission. It is hard to properly critique numerous CVs, but if this step of the process isn’t carried out efficiently, you will end up wasting a considerable amount of time later, conducting unnecessary interviews with candidates who, it quickly becomes apparent, are clearly unsuitable for the role.

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In response to this problem, by drawing upon over 15 years in the staffing business, we have developed an easy-to-follow process that should drastically reduce the estimated time you spend on hiring, from three weeks of man hours to just one week. It should also improve your conversion ratios from CVs read, to candidates interviewed, to candidates hired; and it will enhance your own experience of the recruitment process. Here are ten tips for achieving these benefits:

With practice, you should be able to gain a strong impression of a candidate’s nature and potential suitability for the post within the first couple of paragraphs of their CV. To help achieve this, before you dive into the CV pile, you might find it useful to prepare a short checklist of the key boxes that you want potential interviewees to tick. That will focus your mind on the core issues, and thereby prevent you from wasting time weighing up irrelevant information. And don’t fall for waffle. Phrases such as "highly motivated team player" or "strong leadership skills” are meaningless unless they are backed up by hard facts that substantiate these claims. It’s also worth looking out for clues that will enable you to reject inferior applicants at an early stage. Poor presentation, erratic grammar and bad spelling may suggest that an applicant is not good enough, but if the vacancy does not demand these skills – a sales post, for example – it may be worth digging deeper into the CV rather than rejecting them at instantly.
It’s well worth investigating a candidate’s stated reasons for leaving, and their expected income in the new role, if these are mentioned. From an income point of view, having them present a P60 for the last financial year can quickly verify what their previous income was. Then in the interview, by going into detail about the individual’s reason for leaving their previous employment, you will ensure that there is no bad history connected to the applicant. This is very hard to pick up in references, but by asking probing questions, such as “would your company re-employ you” or “what would they change about your performance” you may be able to identify whether there were any complications when they left the previous employer. And if a candidate is immediately available, it is worth clarifying the reason.
Dates of employment can be misleading, so it’s worth verifying exactly which month someone started in a role and which month they exited: vague dates can hide a discrepancy of almost two years in a role! You should also consider whether career moves seem progressive – you would wish to potentially hire someone who has thought about their career and sees the next role as a natural step in their career path. If this is the case and everything else is in line, you have stumbled across a brilliant candidate. Finally, remember that if one candidate has six years' experience in progressive roles, while another has six years' experience in the same role, the former should have more to offer in terms of experience.
Use the personal details and citizenship of the individual to verify that they really are who they claim to be. With increasing employment of overseas candidates, it’s important to check both their personal details and their tenure at the address provided. Even going as far as doing a personal/financial check on their address will give you piece of mind that there are no signs of bad debt or criminal records against the individual’s details. If travel is required in the role, clarification of both driving license and passport is paramount.
When you’re reading a candidate’s achievements section, be careful to look out for the use of the word “we” compared to “I”. If there is repetitive use of the word “we”, it’s important to verify exactly what part the individual played in the project and how influential they were in enabling the results. If testimonials or references are used in the CV, clarify the title and relationship between the applicant and the person mentioned in the testimonial or reference. Quite often candidates may use a manager they developed a good relationship with to obtain a good reference, rather than the manager who was responsible for critiquing their performance. Good questions to clarify this are “who hired you into your last position” or “who under took your last appraisal or performance review”.
In-depth scrutiny of a candidate’s educational background in their CV is key to spotting any red flags. Always check that the awarded grades are listed for each subject. If there are no grades it is likely that the candidate has omitted the information for their benefit. If there is further mention of higher education, apply further scrutiny to unearth any grey areas. If you find there are a fewer ‘O’ levels than ‘A’ levels, investigate further to find out why. If there is no mention of education bring up this fact immediately to learn the reason why. On a positive note, if the candidate presents occupational qualifications, ask if they funded this themselves: it could mean that he or she was willing to invest in their career to improve their knowledge, skills and status.
When checking career history, a loud alarm bell should ring in your mind if there is consistent evidence of short tenure in previous positions. This suggests that the individual cannot stick at one job and perform well consistently. On the other hand, if the candidate has had very few jobs, usually lasting longer than seven years, they may have become institutionalised, and will probably find it hard to pick up new ways of working because they are not accustomed to change. Do bear in mind, however, that each person’s situation is different, so before reaching a conclusion, it’s worth investigating further as there may be a valid reason for the circumstances. But you should be convinced before taking the application forward.
Taking up references should be regarded as the vital last stage of the recruitment process, and should never be overlooked. Unfortunately, many recruiters get so bogged down in the interviewing process, and are so pleased that they have made an offer, they often neglect to follow up references before the individual begins their new job. References should always be taken up just before the offer letter is drafted, and the offer should always state that it is subject to receiving satisfactory references.
How good are your Googling skills? It’s difficult to ignore the usefulness of the internet for checking on the information provided in CVs. In fact, it could be argued that if you don’t use every tool at your disposal to verify that you are recommending or hiring good, reliable candidates, your not doing your job properly. But where do you draw the line with internet use? Social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube are increasingly visited by recruiters, simply because they frequently feature highly in the rankings of Google and other search engines, when a candidate’s name is entered into the search box. The problem is that these sites often throw up information about candidates that could be regarded as negative. This kind of ‘warts and all’ data needs to be carefully weighed-up before being judged relevant: does it paint a true picture of the candidate or does it simply show that they are a normal, sometimes flawed human being, just like the rest of us? One thing is certain: if the information is out there in the public domain, it’s going to be hard to ignore when it pops up during a search.
Here’s our final – and vitally important – tip: always be alert to the fact that many applicants are economical with the truth! It has been clearly documented that over 60% of CV information is not true – but unfortunately, veracity is sometimes very hard to investigate. One common technique is for a candidate to use the word ‘consultancy’ to cover periods when they were out of work for four months or more. In those cases it’s important to verify who they worked for and what work they carried out. It would also be helpful to obtain a reference from two or three of their consulting clients. When you follow up a written or oral reference, have in front of you specific notes of the candidate’s information (such as job title, salary, starting date, leaving date, reporting lines, etc.) so that you can verify facts when you speak to the past employer. Remember, the reference check is not a cosy chat but a business discussion to clarify the facts.

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