No matter how many candidates you’re vetting, moving them all through the hiring process is not an easy task.  Keeping track of communication with up to hundreds of candidates for multiple positions at a time can trip up even the most experienced hiring manager. To better manage your applicant flow and get a clearer picture of each candidate, use the following tips to help yourself differentiate between your prospective talent.

Vary your interview questions

Once you’ve asked the standard questions about competency for the position at hand, switch up your additional questions for each interview. Varying your questions will help you better remember which candidate you spoke with and will also give you the flexibility to follow the natural flow of the conversation. Use at least one unique question per interview to act as a memory trigger and chances are you’ll be able to remember the candidate more specifically. Whether it’s a generic question like, “Name your biggest weakness” or something nontraditional like, “What super power would you like to have?”, it will be useful in differentiating candidates when planning your second round interviews.

Take diligent notes

We’ve already mentioned that not taking notes on candidates is one of the common mistakes hiring managers make while recruiting. If you’re struggling to keep track of candidates throughout the hiring process, taking diligent notes is a must. Instead of taking notes in your notebook or journal, take notes on the back of a candidate’s resume so you can easily identify who said what. Jot down anything of interest that comes up in an interview, whether it’s a random fact or an additional skill not listed on their resume. Anything that will help you remember the conversation will come in handy even if it seems trivial at the time.

Digitize your process

The best way to keep track of candidates throughout the hiring process is to record all your candidate communications digitally. Not only will it help with compliance, but it will be easier to remember where candidates are in the process. A popular method is to create recruiting tracking excel documents to help you organize your feedback both individually and as a team. However, the best way to track candidates is in a CRM system. Candidate relationship management systems automatically store any activity taken on a candidate and allow recruiters to digitally move candidate through the process using tools like workflow stages, folders, and cloud-based resume books.

Trying to remember which candidate said what while interviewing is a struggle. Add all the organizational aspects of moving them through the hiring process and you’re bound to get confused at some point. Instead of pouring over resumes trying to jog your memory, incorporate these tips while recruiting.

This post originally appeared on the OneWire Resources blog. Still struggling to keep track of candidates while recruiting? OneWire's talent management platform can help.