Recruiting dates back to military beginnings in early Greece, Rome, and Egypt. While we still continue to use tactics from these ancient worlds, recruiters have found more effective ways to recruit employees. In fact, here are three of the most successful ways recruiters and HR professionals can improve applicant screening.

Social Applicant Screening

Double-tapping, tweeting and hashtagging are almost considered second nature in today’s age. The average American spends up to 11 hours per day on electronic media.  Whether it’s a status update or new hashtags for an event, professionalism needs to be maintained throughout all social sites. The various social mediums have consumed us both professionally and personally.

A report by Reppler reveals how recruiters use popular social screening across the board. The results show 91% of HR professionals and hiring managers consider social media a necessary applicant screening tool. Furthermore, 76% of recruiters primarily screen Facebook, 53% of recruiters screen via Twitter and a small 48% of recruiters check LinkedIn.

The Reppler survey digs deeper and asks what big turn-offs for recruiters were when applicant screening socially. Common responses include:

• Lying about qualifications

• Posting negative comments about past employers

• Posting inappropriate content

• Demonstrating poor or lack of communication

Not all social screening desperately searches for candidate flaws. 68% of recruiters admit they have hired a candidate because of positive content displayed on social mediums. Positive posts from social review include:

• Pleasant display of personality

• Social content showed creativity

• Proper set of reasonable professional qualifications

• Candidate provided usable references on social sites

Just as you would in your resume and cover letter, honesty and your demeanor on social media are important to consider. While some might argue social screening to be an invasion of privacy, it’s public information that is fair game for anyone to view, even recruiters.

Let Your Candidate Shine

If there’s one topic everyone likes to talk about, it’s personal success. Give your candidates an opportunity to brag about themselves and allow them to display some past projects. Looking through a portfolio before an interview can give recruiters an image of the candidate’s quality of work. Also, having a creative portfolio in the hands of a recruiter can prompt them to ask how long the candidate took to work on a project, how effective their work has been in the past, what they did to promote it, etc.

Access to a portfolio is a better way for recruiters to view a candidate through a creative lens. Many times, job postings can pull between 200-300 candidates; which makes resumes and cover letters blur together. The ability to refer back to recorded content developed by the candidates removes these blurred lines. 

One-Way Video Interviews

The interview process frightens 92% of job seekers. Reduce stress by offering your candidates to participate in one-way video interviews. This style provides the candidate with a set of questions to answer and then the candidate can simply film themselves responding to the questions and submit recorded responses to the hiring manager. This reduces recruiting pains for nervous candidates and aids hiring teams with the following in:

• Narrowing the talent pool

• Separating candidates when resumes/cover letters begin to blur

• Increasing convenience for both parties

• Providing a more relaxed first impression

The ability to screen your candidates via video is vital when an individual is far from the headquarters office while giving recruiters a better understanding of a candidate’s communication style. Eliminating candidates quickly through screening can provide better results to find the best fit for your company culture. Implement social applicant screening, personal performance and video interviewing into your next round of recruits for a more manageable hiring process.

Bio: Julie Salerno, VP Sales

Julie Salerno provides guidance and leadership to GreenJobInterview’s sales team and is responsible for the ongoing growth of the company’s revenues and profitability. She is involved in strategic planning, helping to managing the company’s resources, and improving its business processes.

Previously, she served as a partner and senior executive recruiter at Personnel Strategies, Inc.

Tweet us at @GrJobInterview