Deciding how many potential employees you need to line up for interviews for a given vacancy of your company’s can be very tricky indeed. There is no one single ‘magic’ number to bolster your chances of finding the right person, as this depends on so many factors.

Different recruitment agencies and applicant tracking systems can certainly throw up widely varying results in your hunt for quality candidates. Then, there are the aspects that your company has more direct control over, such as your interview process and the speed of your recruitment campaigns.

 

Don’t over-obsess about attracting ‘enough’ candidates

It’s so easy for organisations to fall into the trap of trying to reach a certain minimum number of interview-worthy candidates first. The reasons for this are understandable, as it sounds lovely, at least in theory, to have lots of applicants to choose from.

However, the key will always be to attract the right people, rather than a specific minimum number. Focusing on the latter may mean you compare candidates to each other, rather than against your pre-set requirements for the role. This, in turn, could lead you to pick a mediocre candidate, simply because they happen to be the ‘best’ of a so-so field.

 

So is there not a single number to aim for?

While we would suggest that five or six highly qualified candidates should be an adequate number to aim for in your next talent search campaign, if the quality of your candidates is high, it should be realistically possible to make a decision from fewer than this.

 

Are you working with the right people and technology?

Of course, a great recruitment company should make a big difference here, as they won’t simply throw candidates at you, instead thoroughly identifying and vetting prospective applicants in accordance with the skills and qualifications that your organisation requires from its next employee.

However, technology can also be instrumental in giving you a better complement of candidates to choose from – not least in speeding up the hiring process and empowering your HR team to make the most informed decisions.

The most innovative applicant tracking systems, such as Webrecruit ATS, will empower you to better manage your recruitment pipeline, post job adverts quicker and set up interviews with candidates. This will enable you to reach a satisfactory number of high-quality candidates all the sooner, with a given applicant’s relevance and suitability determined using advanced metrics, reports and search options.

 

We could be your invaluable hiring partners

Factors like the above help to show that quality matters more than quantity when you are considering the optimum number of candidates to invite to interview.

A swift, well-managed hiring process will be crucial if you are to snap up the right talent in timely fashion, whether or not you also work with Webrecruit as your recruitment agency and one of the premier applicant tracking systems now available on the market – Webrecruit ATS.