|
|||
|
|
|
||||||
|
No Resumes, Please
Looking for those hard-to-engage passive job candidates? Then consider getting rid of your current resume-dependent hiring system.
There's been a great deal of buzz about passive candidates -- those coveted potential employees who are not actively pursuing other job opportunities. Obviously, companies prize and pursue them because they represent the most talented and productive segment of the workforce. As top performers, chances are they're not looking for other opportunities because they're comfortable, engaged and justly rewarded in their current positions. It is also likely that they're not actively looking because they view the job-seeking process with dread. Many carry lingering negative experiences, whether they submitted their resume to a recruiter or an online repository, or imported one using a Web-based system. They know how time-consuming, inconvenient, fragmented and ultimately frustrating the process is -- which is why most would just as soon opt out and maintain the status quo. With so many incentives to stay put, and with such stubborn structural barriers -- or disincentives -- to exploring other potentially more rewarding opportunities, why leave? Most people would make the move to a new job if it offered the right role in the right company, along with an attractive compensation and benefits package. Previously, finding and reaching passive candidates presented the greatest barrier and challenge. Today, hiring managers have ample tools and venues to find them. Once found, the challenge is to engage passive candidates in a meaningful way -- which is where the process often breaks down. Put simply, few organizations offer passive candidates an easy, intuitive and smooth path that takes them through each phase of the screening and assessment process. But imagine a system that could give candidates a real sense of the opportunity, then allow them to pursue it immediately, in real time, without requiring an updated resume (which passive candidates, by definition, don't have), while hiring managers on the other end get more complete, multi-dimensional perspectives on each candidate entering the system.
Current Strategies A number of Internet-based professional-networking tools (i.e., LinkedIn, Jigsaw) that have cropped up are also being used to identify and engage passive candidates. These sites, among others, are typically populated by working professionals. They feature tools that can be used to build networks based on referrals and searches for specific preferences, such as industry or job function. In short, these sites can help hiring mangers expand their potential pool of candidates by building networks. The key benefit of such sites is their ability to leverage the Web's unique ability to propagate a message while also containing that message within a relatively well-defined "universe." That universe is populated by high-achievers who are, by definition, those much-sought-after passive candidates. However, while recruiting messages delivered through these social-networking sources are reaching a wide readership, the call to action is, unfortunately, to send a resume. In today's employment landscape, at any given moment, 20 percent of the nation's workforce has an updated resume while the other 80 percent does not. That 80 percent is not likely to respond to such a request for a resume. And, perhaps most important, the 20 percent with a resume are increasingly disillusioned with resume-centric processes. No matter how easy it is to submit resumes, the process of guessing what should be put on paper, and then receiving no response, is a negative and unsatisfying experience. In essence, all candidates become passive when applying for a position via conventional solutions that are resume-dependent. In addition, employers who are searching from this 20-percent pool are competing with one another for a limited number of candidates with resumes. In other words, while resumes traditionally serve as a career passport, they also represent a roadblock. Imagine going to a conference to network and immediately after being introduced to someone, he asks you for a business card. You don't have one and the conversation abruptly ends -- before it really begins -- and the other person simply walks away. Resumes are considered calling cards, and most HR professionals and hiring managers won't initiate the recruiting process without one. So much for engaging passive candidates! Companies need to change the paradigm and start thinking about ways to leapfrog the resume dilemma and connect with passive candidates.
Creative Recruiting Perhaps finding passive candidates is as easy as inviting them to meet you. For example, one company scheduled a free seminar at its location that focused on eldercare, a timely and important issue for many people with aging parents. The seminar was open to the public and publicized in the local media. The company also set up a small table at the seminar announcing that it was looking to hire and emphasized that no resume was required to apply. There was an overwhelming response from seminar attendees, who were provided with information cards detailing how to access the company's automated interview, screening and assessment solution. The company not only attracted passive candidates and made it easy for them to apply, it presented itself as an employer-of-choice by focusing on work/life issues. Creative recruiting tools promote a positive user experience while conveying what makes the job and the employer so compelling. To take creativity one step further, a Web-based solution can incorporate a streaming video that showcases the company's culture and what it offers employees in terms of benefits and perks. The message that the company is progressive and dynamic is reinforced once these "interested" passive candidates engage the screening and assessment solution. The core of any creative recruiting strategy for passive candidates is an automated screening-and-assessment solution that bypasses the need for a resume. While HR has long embraced technology as a means of streamlining the recruiting process and vetting candidates, most conventional solutions are resume-dependent. As a result, they're not well-suited to screen passive candidates for a number of reasons. First, many solutions use "filtering" technology as a screening tool. However, filters use key word searches and parsing to turn up matches in the resume to the job description. From another perspective, filtering has also proven to be inefficient and ineffective because many qualified candidates are "screened out" because their resumes don't contain the desired keywords. A relatively new tool, intelligent searching, has taken parsing software to another level -- however, this methodology also has some significant drawbacks and inherent problems. In short, intelligent searching matches conceptual and contextual information from a candidate's source document (i.e., a resume or application) to another document (i.e., a requisition or job description). The result is a list indicating which candidates present the closest match by percentage. The primary drawback is that the results are based on the accuracy of the candidates' source documents -- i.e., resumes, which can be subjective and prone to misrepresentation. Finally, some solutions are simply "resume builders." They walk candidates through a process that requires them to input information that will construct a resume. The process can be tedious and time-consuming -- one that passive candidates are not likely to engage in. Again, the solution is also likely to rely on filtering or parsing to identify potential candidates. In short, conventional screening processes are largely ineffective because they simply weed out unqualified candidates who do not meet basic criteria, such as education or experience, most often based on information obtained from resumes -- which most passive candidates do not have.
Engaging Passive Candidates In many ways, employers are asking candidates to speak through their resumes rather than engaging them in direct questioning in a later stage of the interview process. Candidates are often frustrated at the prospect of having to condense all their achievements and skills in two pages while trying to guess what keywords to include. Advanced technology exists that can engage passive candidates in a two-way conversation without requiring a "career passport." The conversation, which is facilitated by naturalistic Web and phone-enabled technology, provides and solicits information from candidates. In essence, once candidates enter the automated system -- whether they were invited to apply because they were in the hiring manager's professional online network or were otherwise engaged -- they are technically no longer considered passive. Most important, these solutions account for the candidate's experience within the process. At the most basic level, traditional candidate screening involves a review of the candidate's application or resume, a manual pre-screen, a phone interview, a face-to-face interview, and perhaps a skills, behavior or personality assessment. While all stages are interrelated, they are typically conducted separately. From a passive candidate's perspective -- indeed any candidate's perspective -- this process can be time-consuming, stressful and inefficient. However, it's even more challenging for passive candidates to deal with a staggered or time-consuming screening process since, by definition, they are doing something other than job hunting. Any inconvenience -- no matter how small -- may prompt a passive candidate to opt out of the process in frustration. Keep in mind that passive candidates do not have the sense of urgency that active candidates do. Finally, the non-interactive nature of conventional screening processes and an over-reliance on resumes provides passive candidates with little or no opportunity to demonstrate their skills. This new model seamlessly integrates all these critical components in an automated process -- realistic job preview, prescreen, technical interview, behavioral interview, skills assessments, job simulation and, finally, auto scheduling for an in-person final interview. Using a Web-enabled or integrated telephone-based solution ensures that each candidate experiences a seamless and convenient single-session process. Assessments can also guide the "screening in" process by gleaning personality and other relevant data. The result for the employer is a complete, 360-degree "whole-person snapshot" -- one that assimilates a candidate's experience, skill set and behavioral characteristics, and provides a solid indicator of potential performance and success within the organization. Conversely, passive candidates can demonstrate their skills in real-time rather than simply convey their expertise via a resume.
Susan's Story Here's a theoretical example: One weekend, Susan Armstrong attended a family wellness fair that was sponsored by a local company. While at the fair, she stopped by the company's employment booth. Although she was gainfully employed, she noticed that the company was looking for customer-care representatives for its call center. She was ultimately one of a dozen "passive" candidates who was handed a card with a URL for the company's online recruiting portal. Later that afternoon, Susan logged on to the site. Instead of the usual resume/application preliminary procedure, she was immediately directed to a Web page where she was whisked through a brief interactive prescreen process. Passing that segment, she was then moved to an assessment phase that uses integrated Web and phone capabilities to simulate and replicate the procedures associated with the call-center position. Actual data-entry screens were replicated on Susan's browser window, at which point a call came in and she was prompted to respond to the automated call and enter data in the appropriate places. Susan experienced a realistic job preview while, at the same time, a superior assessment was created whereby she demonstrated her ability to think on her feet, formulate a correct response (as compared to most current assessments that only measure the applicant's ability to recognize a good answer from among a list of options), speak coherently, talk and type at the same time, probe for information, and project enthusiasm and empathy. Conventional processes, on the other hand, can lead to hiring decisions that are based solely on job history, not competencies. Similarly, engineering candidates may be presented with a number of schematics or programming codes over the Web while the automated phone capability is simultaneously engaging them in a discussion of how to redesign the example for greater efficiency.
No Resume, No Problem Talent acquisition and retention is what ultimately makes companies thrive. That's why finding true talent is so critical and yet, such a challenge -- particularly when you consider that the majority of talent is not on the market. Hiring managers who continue to base the hiring process on resumes are trading in outmoded currency; this is particularly the case with passive candidates who, by definition, don't have up-to-the-minute resumes readily available. And when you really think about it, the only resumes that are really important are for the two or three finalists for a position, as confirmatory evidence; you're much more likely to get passive candidates to produce one after this much mutual interest has been established. As we've seen, the trick to engaging passive candidates is with a seamless process, from engaging their initial interest ("This is an interesting opportunity."), to engaging their time ("I can do this in just 10 minutes from my laptop without a resume?") and, ultimately, engaging each person in a meaningful exchange that makes the candidate even more interested in the position. Meanwhile, HR and and hiring managers will have a powerful and efficient means of screening and, ultimately, hiring passive candidates.
Ron Selewach, a graduate of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, is the founder of Human Resource Management Center Inc., a full-service consulting and technology firm offering outsourced human resource solutions.
October 2, 2008 Copyright 2008© LRP Publications |
||||||
Print
Email
Write to the Editor
Reprints
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
© Copyright 2010 LRP Publications. All rights reserved.
|
||||