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Are you being inundated with applications but find yourself struggling to recruit the right person for the job? You’re not alone, organisations across all sectors are receiving significantly more applicants per vacancy than in previous years. On the surface, it sounds like a positive to have such a wide pool of candidates to choose from, but if the quality just isn’t there, finding the best person to fill a role can still be a challenge.
Luckily, there are plenty of tactics to help you tap into the widest, deepest and most diverse talent pools available from the first stage. Here, we look at what you can do about candidate shortages and how to recruit the most qualified and passionate applicant.
1. Use an Applicant Tracking System
Managing an excess of applications manually is a thing of the past, thanks to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). An ATS can help you organise applications, keep track of your candidates and make sure no top talent slips through the cracks.
CharityJob’s ATS is an end-to-end hiring platform that helps you streamline your recruitment process, save valuable time and promote diversity in your workforce. Our ATS is FREE to use when you post a job using CharityJob Apply, and offers a wide range of tools to help you improve candidate attraction, such as:
- Manage the full application process, from sending emails and scheduling interviews to shortlisting and rejecting candidates.
- Add screening questions to easily identify candidates with the skills you need.
- Use anonymous recruitment to hide identifying details and reduce bias, allowing you to select the best candidates based on skills and experience alone.
2. Make your job ad as attractive as possible
The job advert is a candidate’s window into both the role and you as an organisation. Keep it focused, avoid jargon and don’t make it longer than it needs to be – aim for 500 words or less. Make sure applicants can scan through to quickly see if they’re right for the job or not, and if your organisation is right for them. Writing the perfect job ad is worth it to ensure you draw in passionate people.
- Include the salary, as this increases applications and encourages fairness and transparency. Use our salary checker tool to check if the salary is competitive for the role.
- Be clear (and realistic!) about essential skills and requirements the candidate will need to have.
- Mention any flexibility that you will consider, such as part time hours or hybrid working.
3. Show off your culture and value
Salary is just part of the equation that makes work enjoyable. Candidates who look for roles they’re passionate about and want to stay in long-term are looking for more than just financial compensation. They might even be willing to look past a slightly lower salary if they can imagine themselves feeling at home in your culture.
It’s important to demonstrate evidence of your employee value proposition (EVP) on your website, social media, and even in job ads to help jobseekers get to know your organisation on a qualitative and social level. Consider how you can communicate various aspects on key web pages, regular posts online and in videos, including:
- How are employees recognised for their efforts, such as promotion cycles?
- What’s your company culture and work environment like?
- What training and development opportunities do you offer, such as an annual training budget or access to events?
- What are your benefits and perks like, such as discounts and retirement plans?
- How do you support employees, such as flexible working or mental health initiatives?
5. Prioritise candidate experience
People remember, and people talk. The experience you create for candidates can make them feel good about your organisation or leave them with a bad perception – whether their application is successful or not.
If applicants have a poor experience, they’re unlikely to reapply if a more suitable role comes up, and they could deter people they know from applying too. Whereas someone who feels you handled their application with care could refer a highly-qualified colleague to you in the future.
Taking the time to respond to each and every candidate can be time consuming, but can make a world of difference to your reputation for prospective jobseekers. And this is much easier to do with our Applicant Tracking System.
- Reply to all candidates to let them know whether their application will proceed to the next stage or not.
- Communicate regularly to show applicants you respect their time.
- Offer to provide feedback to help them improve their future applications.
- Interviews are paramount to candidate experience. The interview should run on time, be held in an appropriate setting and make the applicant feel at ease. If they require any adjustments, make sure these are organised without making the candidate feel like a burden.
- Always end on a positive note. If a candidate isn’t successful, thank them for their time and encourage them to consider applying for future roles.
6. Make applying straightforward
It should be as easy as possible for candidates to apply for your vacancy. A complicated and lengthy application process could deter qualified candidates through pure frustration.
The fewer steps an application has, and the more accessible it is, the more applications you’ll receive. Don’t let your ideal candidate be the one that gives up on an application just because it’s taking too long!
If you usually ask for an application form, perhaps consider just asking for a CV and cover letter instead. Application forms often ask people to repeat a lot of the same information found on their CV, which can be laborious – especially if they’re applying for lots of roles that all want them to do the same thing. A cover letter is a much better way to get to know a candidate, and you could also ask a few key screening questions to help further narrow down the criteria.
7. Ask employees for referrals
Current employees could be the key to finding the perfect addition to your team – using less time and costs to do so.
An employee referral scheme could incentivise your staff to recommend people they know and feel are suitable for a vacancy. Perhaps they’ve worked with someone in a previous role they know has the capabilities and skills required, or maybe they know a passionate individual who’s fresh out of an education programme but would be a perfect cultural fit.
Employees who are referred tend to settle in quicker, as they have someone they already know to guide them into the organisation. They’re also more likely to stay in the role for longer and deliver long-term value.
Don’t forget to recognise and reward employees who refer candidates. This could be a small financial incentive, a gift card or perhaps an extra afternoon off.
8. Remove bias to improve diversity
Diversity is key to finding the best talent. To ensure your vacancy appeals to a diverse group of applicants, you need to remove unconscious bias of any kind from your job advert and application process.
Consider your wording carefully, as you could unconsciously put off whole groups of potential applicants from applying. Review the language used in your job advert, removing any potentially age-biased words like ‘energetic’ or ‘dynamic’. Adverts with stereotypically ‘masculine’ words can be less appealing to female applicants. Use a gender decoder to spot any gendered language and take a gender-neutral approach.
Any images you include should be representative of any and all groups who might want to apply for the role. For example, only using images of young people may make older applicants feel unwelcome. It’s a good idea to ask a diverse range of people to look at the advert before you publish it, as they might have a unique insight you could miss.
If your charity has a diversity or inclusion statement of any kind, include a link to it in your advert. You can also directly state in the advert that you welcome applications from a diverse range of groups to provide reassurance that people of all backgrounds are welcome.
Don’t forget, removing bias is still important after you receive applications. Our ATS can help to do this by anonymising applicants and recording equal opportunities data.
9. Be flexible and open
Taking an open-minded and flexible approach to recruitment will allow you to access untapped talent pools. From working parents and people with disabilities to those located further afield or with unique transferable skills, broaden your net to find incredible candidates.
Essential and desirable criteria
Some people might only feel confident to apply for roles where they meet 100% of the criteria, while underqualified people might feel they’re suitable if it’s not made clear which criteria is necessary or not. Ask yourself what your essential job requirements are, remove anything not essential, or list it as ‘desirable’ instead.
Qualifications vs skills and experience
Consider whether you really need the role holder to have a degree, or if testing their skills would be more valuable. Some candidates worry that prospective employers value experience in one sector over transferable skills. If appropriate, you could make it clear that you welcome applicants from other sectors to encourage them to apply.
Flexible working arrangements
Open up a whole new spectrum of candidates in terms of location, circumstances and even age by promoting flexible hours, remote or hybrid working, or part-time options. If you offer flexibility, make sure you state this, but be clear about exactly what you mean – otherwise potential applicants may not apply if it isn’t clear what’s on offer.
Different locations
While it’s possible to find a great candidate close to home, the perfect person could be located elsewhere. Consider accepting applicants from all over the UK, or even recruit from overseas. These people could become permanent remote workers, or might consider relocating just for the opportunity to work with you.
Improve job candidate quality with CharityJob
It’s a strongly recruiter-led market at the moment, so you’re probably spoiled for choice of candidates. But with a little extra thought and planning, you can give yourself the highest chance of finding the best talent, ready and raring for a new challenge in the sector, while saving time and resources.
Ready to get started? Post a job with CharityJob and get free access to our Applicant Tracking System to support your candidate attraction strategy. Our all-in-one recruitment platform will do the hard work for you to simplify and streamline your entire recruitment process. We make it quicker and easier to find the perfect candidate.
We offer four job ad packages to suit your needs and budget. Choosing the right package is important, as it dictates the pool size, type and quality of the candidates your ad will reach.
If you’re not sure which is right for your organisation, contact us for personalised advice. Give us a call on 020 8939 8430, or email us on [email protected]
This post was originally published in 2021 and has been updated in 2026 to ensure relevance and to reflect the current job seeker and recruitment experience.
Tags: attracting the right candidates, charity recruitment, charity sector recruitment, hiring the right people, job market, recruitment process
