Case study · The story that started Sift
A physio studio.
One role. 1,700 CVs.
A physiotherapy studio advertised one role and received 1,700 applications. Nobody had shown them another way, so they printed the pile and read it by hand after treating patients all day.
What happened
The applications were reviewed manually, which took weeks. That delay created a poor candidate experience and made it difficult to apply a consistent standard across every CV.
What should happen
Every application should be read against the same five criteria, with a written reason beside every score. The owner can then focus on the twenty applications closest to the criteria instead of rereading the 1,600 furthest away.
Your best candidate may be on page forty, or the 1,300th in the pile. Systematically reading every candidate against the same five criteria is a fairer and faster process.