It’s hard not to be overwhelmed. With the
avalanche of resumes, I mean. They come crashing
into our companies non-stop these days. And that
makes our job even harder. If identifying
qualified candidates for an opening is normally
a challenge akin to finding a needle in a
haystack, today, it’s more like finding a
molecule in a mountain. There are so many
resumes piling up so fast that our entire
recruitment process is in danger of collapsing.
So, who can blame recruiters for trying to
reestablish some order? But, what are they
doing? A growing number are refusing to accept
candidate resumes unless they are submitted
online. They have declared the old fashioned
paper and fax varieties persona non grata. Only
e-resumes are welcome because they can be easily
downloaded right into the corporate resume
management system where they can then be easily
searched and identified for appropriate
openings.
It’s an efficient solution, to be sure. And,
it has all of the hallmarks of good supply chain
management, which some HR pundits are fond of
extolling. Need to recruit some new employees?
Great! Just rack ‘em, stack ‘em and pump ‘em in
the door. It’s enough to make a logistician’s
heart sing.
Those resumes, however, are not widgets, but
a stand-in for people. That’s right; for all
their inadequacies, resumes have not one, but
two realities. They are records, and they are
relationships. From a candidate’s perspective,
then, the way his or her record is managed says
a great deal about the way an organization will
treat them as an employee. And processes that
are efficient at moving around widgets don’t
necessarily build good relationships.
Consider the following example. An employer
recently asked a staffing firm, Pearson Reid
London House, to recruit several thousand new
employees as quickly as possible. The firm used
two strategies for sourcing prospects: Internet
advertising, where candidates applied online,
and an interactive voice response (IVR) system,
where candidates applied by responding to
automatic prompts on the telephone. The two
approaches generated over 300,000 applicants.
They also revealed some of the inherent problems
in treating people like widgets.
- Problem #1
The exclusive use of Web-based applications
(by resume or application form) may
discriminate against certain segments of the
population. Why? Because in this case, the
IVR system was used by 25.3% of the Native
American candidates, 24.7% of the African
American candidates, and 16.1% of the
Hispanic American candidates. These are
candidates who may not have been able to
apply if the company had relied solely on an
online application. Although progress has
been made in eliminating the digital divide
in recent years, it remains a real and
potent barrier to some members of the
population. Hence, relying exclusively on
Web-based application can inadvertently
cause a recruiter to miss qualified
diversity candidates and run afoul of EEO/AA
regulations.
- Problem #2
The use of Web-based applications may be
off-putting to those prospects who do not
have a resume. In addition to the candidates
identified above, 11.6% of the Caucasian
applicants also used the IVR system. These
response patterns simply confirm what we
recruiters have always known: not all job
seekers are alike. Those who do have a
resume are likely to be engaged in an active
job search, and most (but not all) will
happily send you a resume online. Those who
do not have a resume, on the other hand, are
likely to be passive job seekers. In most
cases, that means they are both impatient
with application processes and concerned
about their confidentiality. Given the
unpleasantness of filling in forms online
and all of the news lately about identity
theft on the Internet, at least some
employment prospects among passive job
seekers will exclude themselves from
consideration if a recruiter relies
exclusively on Web-based applications.
- Problem #3
Although it’s not apparent from this
situation, many of the best prospects—the
“A” level performers among active and
passive job seekers—do not like to be told
how they may apply for a job. Top talent
rightly sees themselves as preferred
applicants, and they want to be treated that
way. Given the shortage of such high quality
workers and the performance premium they
provide, it only makes good sense for
recruiters to comply. That means taking
resumes or applications however the
candidate wants to send them … online, by
telephone, by paper airplane or pony
express.
Obviously, efficiency is important,
particularly in these days and times. The quest
for efficiency, however, must not undercut our
ability to accomplish our mission. We are
responsible for finding the best candidates
possible for our client’s vacancies. And, when
we limit the ways by which candidates can apply
for those openings, we limit the range of
prospects we can recruit. Indeed, the net effect
of designating paper and fax resumes as persona
non grata is to make many very appealing
candidates feel exactly the same way.
-Peter Weddle, CEO, WEDDLE’s
www.Weddles.com