The Internet is both a blessing and a curse for recruiting departments. Technology was supposed to make all of our jobs easier. However, it also makes it easier for job seekers to fire off lots of résumés to job postings for which they may not be remotely qualified.

Most job seekers don’t realize the effort recruiters make to screen and qualify applicants. Many a job seeker may realize that he does not qualify for the position, but will submit a résumé anyway with the goal of “getting a foot in the door” with the company.

Many companies try their best to respond to both e-mails and phone calls from applicants. However, this puts a real strain on limited resources and does not permit recruiters to focus on filling open positions.

Here are some suggestions to help alleviate the pressure on your recruiters and still maintain courteous relations with your applicant base:

  • Drive as much applicant traffic to your company’s career site as possible to force applicants to apply online. Make sure that the online applicant submissions via your career site go right into an applicant tracking system (ATS). It should permit your company to send out an automated response letter in which you can thank the applicant for the response and let them know that they will be contacted only if there is interest from your company. Mention this in the automated response letter: Please, no phone calls.
  • With any online or newspaper ads that your company runs, make sure to drive the traffic to an online site that will automatically go into your ATS.
  • Don’t place phone numbers for any of your recruiters in any ads.
  • Try running more blind ads for your open positions. This will permit you to answer only those applicants in whom there is interest.
  • Consider using a third-party firm to be your first line of screening. For example, have this firm run all your ads and pass on only the names of applicants who truly are qualified. This should cut down on your applicant traffic directly to your company.