Whether you are working in internal our outside recruiting, when there are too many candidates something is wrong.  The problem is that the job specs are off.  They are either interpreted and written incorrectly or given incorrectly.

Too many candidates is an enormous time waster and has a numbing effect.  Great candidates can be lost in the process.  Many times great candidates are left without being reviewed if there are too many.  Filling a job is not necessarily recruiting and not all jobs require recruiting.  Recruiting kicks in when the effort is made to expand reach and find candidates.  When done correctly, recruiting expands reach and funnels appropriate candidates to the hiring manager.  When there are too many, the sites are too wide and the position either does not require recruiting or the screening criteria need to be tightened.

Good communication between all involved is the key to writing and adjusting specs that will expand reach to find appropriate candidates.

Todd Kmiec 

Todd Kmiec and Associates

todd@toddkmiec.com