Few things in life are less fun than the hiring process. No matter which side of it you are on, it is simply not a pleasant experience. Since people tend to move from firm to firm more often now, though, chances are you are going to spend more time in this process than you want. The thing to do is to make it as painless as possible for you and your potential employees.

One thing you can do to help is make it very clear what the job actually is. When you advertise the position, have a job title and job description that match up. Calling someone a “Senior Copywriter” and then looking for someone with 1-2 years of experience seems a bit of an oxymoron. Do not use words like “senior” or “manager” unless you really mean it (it is amazing how the word “executive” has often come to mean someone at the lowest level in a function, much as “HR executive” is often used in Southeast Asia to mean an administrative person with little or no authority). Otherwise, you are liable to get a lot of overqualified people applying, and that fills up your inbox. Save yourself some hassle by being really clear about what you want.

Be clear about the urgency of the role. If you are building a pool of potential future recruits and simply want to have CVs on file, say so. Alternatively, if a position needs to be filled now, then make that clear. Potential candidates who are just browsing – and that is a LOT of people, it seems – may want to drop their name into your hat, but someone who needs a job right now does not need to waste their time or yours by applying from a job that does not exist yet.

When you make decisions about candidates, do not leave people wondering. If you are not interested in an individual for this position, let them know (but if there is something else for which they might be suited, let them know that too, and find out if they want to apply). If your job is the one they really want, but they are getting interest from other firms, you are really putting them in a dilemma if you do not let them know that they are not even being considered. If they end up holding out for your job and then later learn they did not really have a chance, you are definitely going to turn them off in terms of any future employment with you, and worse, they’re likely to share their experience with other jobseekers, people who may in fact be the ones you want to have applying. Try not to damage your employment brand unnecessarily.

If you know you want to interview someone, do it as quickly as possible. Saying you want to interview them but then leaving them waiting for a month suggests you have got some poor human resource skills, and it makes them wonder what else is wrong with your firm. There is no point in dragging out the hiring process. If you see someone who warrants further interest, then pursue that, and if you find the person you want, hire them. This does not need to take forever, and the sooner it is over, the sooner you can get back to your real work.

Effective hiring is time-consuming and involves telling a lot of people “no,” which is no fun. The trick is to minimize the workload and reduce the amount of time you spend on the process. Get it over with as quickly as you can by putting some effort into it and getting it done rather than letting it drag on, since that may leave you with nobody but the people who cannot find a job anywhere else. The employees you really want are going to be the ones in the most demand, so you need to be good at hiring. The last thing you need is someone to start working for you with a bit of a chip on their shoulder because the hiring process was handled poorly. You also do not want people bad-mouthing your company to others since that gives you a bad reputation you really do not need. Help yourself, and help your recruits, by making hiring as easy as you can.