This isn’t as odd as it may sound. This week we read an article on the Forbes website written by a well-respected corporate HR executive in the States who thinks that tech is, in fact, killing recruitment and the argument is very compelling. During the heady days of the 80s and 90s when tech was slowly creeping into the everyday operations of businesses, a mantra from business analysts and programmers suggested that before you automate a process, it has to be a sensible process on its own.
One of the first processes to be automated in businesses was the job application screening process. Essentially it was a process of screening from the 1940s and ‘we simply threw the sucker online’. The aim was for the automation to separate the good from the bad, but it did everything but… If you have ever attempted an online job application, you will know what a soul-destroying chore it is.
It asks you hundreds of questions including right at the start, where you worked and for how long and what your job title is. Anyone should be able to extrapolate from those three pieces of information what you major duties, tasks and responsibilities were, but it goes on to ask you anyway – as if the things you did day-to-day are more important that what your accomplishments were.
One of the first processes to be automated in businesses was the job application screening process. Essentially it was a process of screening from the 1940s and ‘we simply threw the sucker online’. The aim was for the automation to separate the good from the bad, but it did everything but… If you have ever attempted an online job application, you will know what a soul-destroying chore it is.
It asks you hundreds of questions including right at the start, where you worked and for how long and what your job title is. Anyone should be able to extrapolate from those three pieces of information what you major duties, tasks and responsibilities were, but it goes on to ask you anyway – as if the things you did day-to-day are more important that what your accomplishments were.
Here’s a perfect (hypothetical) example of why automated online job screening can never, ever replace human intuition:
Imagine the brightest, hardest-working and most switched-on person you’ve ever worked with and then think about the laziest, good-for-nothing waste of space you’ve ever worked with. For you, the contrast between them is as clear as day. However, if they both had the same role in the same company and they both applied for the same job putting down their tasks and duties in the application form, no automated screening process in the world could tell them apart.
As an employer, what do you really want to know? That the same tasks and duties you want them to do at your firm have already been done elsewhere? No. That should be a given.
You want to know what they learned on the job and how that education will stand them in good stead working for you. You want to know what legacy they left in their wake and you want to know their key accomplishments.
Of course they can say all this on the application form but it will be passive and without context. Speak to them and you will (or should) hear passion in their voices and a genuine desire to work for you and make a difference to your business.
Any Managing Director will tell you that the hardest person to find is one with the requisite skillsets as well as a perfect corporate fit and the worst thing you can do is make the job application process as mind-numbing and as off-putting as you can. Nothing says ‘we love you and we want to hire you’ like a 40-page online application form designed to suck the life out of even the most charitable of candidates.
Tech is good, we all know that and you should use it wherever you can, but it will never replace intuition and old-fashioned instinct and nor should it. Don’t hide behind tech. If you’re a manager, manage.
http://assetresourcing.com/
Imagine the brightest, hardest-working and most switched-on person you’ve ever worked with and then think about the laziest, good-for-nothing waste of space you’ve ever worked with. For you, the contrast between them is as clear as day. However, if they both had the same role in the same company and they both applied for the same job putting down their tasks and duties in the application form, no automated screening process in the world could tell them apart.
As an employer, what do you really want to know? That the same tasks and duties you want them to do at your firm have already been done elsewhere? No. That should be a given.
You want to know what they learned on the job and how that education will stand them in good stead working for you. You want to know what legacy they left in their wake and you want to know their key accomplishments.
Of course they can say all this on the application form but it will be passive and without context. Speak to them and you will (or should) hear passion in their voices and a genuine desire to work for you and make a difference to your business.
Any Managing Director will tell you that the hardest person to find is one with the requisite skillsets as well as a perfect corporate fit and the worst thing you can do is make the job application process as mind-numbing and as off-putting as you can. Nothing says ‘we love you and we want to hire you’ like a 40-page online application form designed to suck the life out of even the most charitable of candidates.
Tech is good, we all know that and you should use it wherever you can, but it will never replace intuition and old-fashioned instinct and nor should it. Don’t hide behind tech. If you’re a manager, manage.
http://assetresourcing.com/