July 1999

Thoughtful planning before searching the Internet for resumes saves time and money and helps you determine which resume search sites yielded the most qualified candidates.

A tracking tag is a short piece of text used in all communications with candidates that identifies both the job and the recruiting campaign for that job. The source code indicates the media used to attract applicants.

Say, for example, you have a training position open. Because this is the third open job this year, you might identify the job as R99003. Give each recruiting avenue its own code so that you can determine which is the most successful. For instance, all applicants found in a CareerWeb resume database search might have “CW” added to the job number while candidates who saw your ad in the Sunday paper might have “News” added to theirs.

Determine each candidate’s qualifications and correctly categorize them as Level 1 (a keeper), 2 (maybe) or 3 (not qualified). Keep track of the total number of responses each recruiting avenue produced and in what time frame. This will provide valuable information about what Internet sites to focus on the next time you need to hire.