Ideally for any job vacancy you want to generate a good number of suitable applications. And over multiple interview rounds you can select the best one from those and feel satisfied with your new hire. One of the key areas where I find companies hiring wrong, is when they simply ask for CVs to start the application process. To me it feels like they quickly want to get the hire done and over with. This is not a good idea and increases the chances of a bad hire – which would be costly to the company in terms of salaries paid but also reducing team morale / productivity.

How Many Candidate Applications Do You Need To Arrive At A Really Good Hire?

If we properly think about it, then we want to generate at least 20 or so really good applications to evaluate. Out of these you would shortlist maybe the 5 best ones. Some candidates will be removed due to logistical unsuitability like salary expectations or commute problems. Some others might even get another offer before you reach your final decision (that often happens with the really good candidates). This means the total applications that you need to generate will be anywhere between 50 to 100. Because there will always be a good amount of noise or unsuitable applications. Moreover, if there are any factors that make your job tougher or undesired by the candidates then you want to generate even more applications, for example, if you are a startup and bootstrapping in a cramped office or you are into a tough industry domain.

If we think about the fact that we need to go through 100s of candidate applications before selecting 1 best suited candidate then we have to think very carefully about our application process right from square 1.

I have preferred a test form right at the beginning of the application process so as to quickly filter out the unsuitable candidates.

Advantages of the job application test form

Objective application tests keeps evaluation easy:​ you can choose to keep the test form fairly objective in nature. Asking about domain expertise or definitions. Or of specific prior experience. With objective responses, the evaluation could be delegated to a junior or mid-senior team member. Or different people could evaluate the applications and the results would be more or less similar. (This only happens if your test form is largely made of objective answers and not subjective ones. Depending on the position you can decide on this)

One central spreadsheet:​ the form can automatically fill up a spreadsheet so the evaluator only needs to look at this one sheet and evaluate. They can quickly compare a couple of entries if they like. This will expedite the process of evaluation significantly.

Let’s you test the RIGHT skills:​ with your form you can test for the skills you feel are most relevant. Instead, if you rely on the CV alone then you may miss out on a good candidate due to their bad CV-making skills or even some technical glitch.

Filters out candidates because they don’t fill the form: sending out a CV with a semi-decent cover letter is very easy. And can be done in as little as 5 minutes. After you shortlist them for an interview, often they disappear mid way without intimating you. When you set an application test form, then it pushes the candidate to invest more in the interview process. Thus, reducing the chances of a later disappearance. Sometimes very time intensive test forms could disinterest genuine candidates too, so you need to be careful and find your sweet spot.

From my experience hiring the digital teams for multiple startups,

a simple entry form filters out as many as 60% of the candidates and the time spent by an evaluator is minimal about 5 min/entry.  If individual cover letters and CVs were to be evaluated of each candidate then I estimate the time spent would be as high as 15 mins/entry and a lot more entries.

What are your thoughts on this? How do you hire candidates? Do you still ask for the CV as step 1? If so, why?

Read more about my Recruitment Process to hire kickass marketing teams in my whitepaper: