When it comes time to hire someone to fill an open position in your organization, until you actually meet a candidate face-to-face, all you have to go on to evaluate applicants is a resume. And we all know, a resume does not tell the whole story. But unfortunately, until something better is invented, it is all we have to rely on.

If you’re going to do it right, there really aren’t any shortcuts. There are numerous steps that must be followed. Even then, following all of the steps perfectly does not guarantee that you will find qualified candidates.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a cost-effective, time-saving solution. We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, let’s review the unavoidable rigmarole necessary to make sure you don’t end up just hiring a resume.

What You Want

The first step is to identify the position you need filled and determine what qualifications and experience you’re looking for in a candidate. This may sound simple, but if you’re overly-vague in the job description, you’re going to be inundated with resumes from non-starters. At a minimum, the job posting should include:

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• What experience, in terms of years and field, is required to even be considered
• The minimum educational requirements for the position
• A precise and comprehensive description of the position, including all foreseeable responsibilities

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After you’ve spent the time and effort putting together the job description, you still need to figure out where to post it. You want to find out where the qualified candidates for your position go when they look for jobs—posting anywhere else is a waste of time and money. Of course, they could be going to newspapers, employment agencies, job fairs, or any one of the thousands of online job boards.

What You Get

Now that you’ve got a solid description and a place to post it, get ready to be deluged with resumes from many people who you can expect to fit few, if any, of the requirements. Before you start going through the resumes looking for the best candidates, you have to go through and eliminate the ones that don’t even qualify. Of the hundreds of applications you might receive, you may end up with a few dozen worth a closer examination. Once you have whittled it down to those few dozen, you can actually start the vetting process:

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• Verifying work and employment histories
• Contacting references
• Determining the employment and legal status of potential candidates

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We Meet at Last

After all of this, you finally get to sit down and start interviewing candidates. You’ve spent all of your time and effort up to this point just to get into the same room with people who meet your minimum requirements. With nothing but their resumes to go on, you still have no idea if any of the candidates will be what you’re looking for. It’s taken countless hours, and more than a little aggravation, to just get to what is essentially the first meaningful step in the hiring process.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to get to this point without having to go through all the tedious work that comes before it? If only there was a way to avoid all that time-consuming advance work. Well, there is! – Hiring a permanent recruitment agency.

Jump Right to the Most Important Part First

Instead of yourself giving to go through all of the tedious and time-consuming steps, you can cut right to the chase. Instead of posting your job description and hoping for the best, the recruitment agency matches the description to their existing pool of qualified professionals. Instead of poring over resumes to eliminate unqualified candidates, they’ll provide you with a list of candidates who already meet your requirements. Instead of spending all of your time trying to find qualified candidates to interview, you can immediately begin interviewing applicants who have the education and experience you’re looking for.

Permanent recruitment agencies excel at finding qualified candidates while weeding out the non-starters. By using a permanent recruitment agency, you’ll get nothing but the wheat, without all the effort needed to separate the chaff. Spending less time trying to find potential candidates means you have more time to spend running your business.

When it comes time to interview, you know you won’t be wasting your time. And you’ll be able to focus on hiring the best “real” people, rather than a resume.