SIfting through the Resumes

How do we as HR professionals sift through the hundreds of resumes that we receive for job postings? I remember at my previous job posting a resume for a mailroom clerk. I received over 300 resumes for this posting. People who were overly qualified, people in between and people with no work experience.

How did I sift through it all? It took me a couple days. I had piles and piles of resumes all over my credenza and the floor. I could have looked at this with many bad thoughts. Instead I took this as an opportunity to build our candidacy pool. I had the data entry clerk enter those who would most likely be qualified for positions within our company.

That took it down to about 145 resumes. Then I went through and reviewed resumes with receptionist experience, or anyone with 2 or more years of mailing, copying and ordering experience. That of course dropped the qualified down to 15. I ended up with only 3 qualified persons in the end. We did hire someone out the three.

However, over the next couple months I never had to post a job because I was able to find and hire qualified applicants from the resumes that were acquired through the mailroom clerk posting. Out of 7 postings I only had to post for two. Not only did I save myself and the company time but also money. Sometimes, the many resumes that we receive can help us out in the long run.