True or False? Recruiters Favor Early Applicants

When I was in college I had a coach who used to say, “If you’re early, you’re on time, and if you’re on time, you’re late!” And that might just be the case for applicants looking to score their dream job.

A new study is confirming that early applicants are in fact looked at more favorably by recruiters. Researchers from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Harvard Business School analyzed a decade of data from more than 9,000 MBA interviews, and found that interviews done earlier in the day had a negative impact on the interviews that followed.

Similar to the “Gambler’s Fallacy,” also referred to as the fallacy of the maturity of chances, recruiters believe that a run of luck is sure to falter. In other words, if a recruiter has already met with three strong candidates, the following interviewee is more likely to receive lower scores.It’s as if you tossed a coin into the air and it landed on heads four times in a row. Wouldn’t you suspect it would land on tails on the fifth toss? When in fact, the odds will always be the exact same; 50% heads, 50% tails.

Case in point, speed matters in the staffing industry. Getting there early can help you in most situations where human judgment comes into play. The right staffing technology will accelerate your firm’s success and connect your recruiters with the most desired candidates faster than your competitors.

It’s no surprise that 83.9% of North American recruiting professionals recently said that mobile access to their ATS and CRM system was important. Today, being armed with up-to-the-second information about clients, jobs and candidates while on-the-go is an extremely competitive asset in the staffing industry.

So the next time you are interviewing candidates ―ask yourself, am I giving higher scores to early applicants?

This Bullhorn Blog post was written by Ashley Healy.

Ashley Healy specializes in integrated marketing communications and a wide range of marketing activities including social media management, SEO copywriting, content marketing, promotional strategies and employment branding. She previously worked as Content Marketing Manager at Bullhorn and prior to that, as a copywriter and marketing coordinator at Verndale, a full-service digital agency.