Trying to automate the recruitment process

A company recently tried to implement an automated recruitment process to try to reduce or eliminate the vast amounts of wasted time going through CV’s and interviews. It seems like a good idea and as a 3rd party to the process I have watched the results with interest.

They have developed the software themselves and seem to have had reasonable success. As a 3rd party watching the process I have noticed a couple of things.

1) There were a number of emails to the info @ email account indicating that the software didn’t work.

2) The process of applying was very stringent, with only one correct pathway to completion.

This automated application process did indeed reduce the number of valid applications from 700 to 100. That of course was the general idea. For many internal, simple roles that are infact automated themselves, this may actually be a good thing.

The question I raised though was this: Would the automation process actually drive away the kind of candidates that you may actually want?

To explain, take sales for example. If I were a sales executive applying for a job, I would want to be able to sell myself in some way. To be channeled down a pathway would put me off, as I would feel that they were looking for a “me too” person. Not someone with unique skills.

Another example, A network engineer, If I were an engineer, I would want to show case my skills. Especially if I knew I was good. Would it annoy me to be lead down a path? Would I pre judge what kind of person they were looking for? Would I feel that they were after a “me too” engineer?

Automation is great, it provides great efficiency’s in running business. Is recruitment a place you can automate? Can you cut corners carefully enough to make gains in the process?

Tell it like it is

One thing that employers hate is the unabashed lying that sometimes goes on in CV’s. Or maybe I should call it fabrication. It ends up wasting everyone’s time when it is found out. Most of the time it is found out well before someone is employed. Sometimes it isn’t.

Likewise, potential employees don’t like it when employers fabricate how grand and best fit the job is. This fabrication of the job description leads to disappointment down the track for all as well. In fact I would go even so far to say that it is the start of a dissatisfying spiral for employer and employee alike.

I had a chance to see this in action recently. The employer had talked up an aspect of the business that was new and exciting. The (potential) employee got excited at the prospect of working within this new area. It wasn’t until a third party provided a reality check on what the job was actually about that put a halt to this mis-communication.

What would have happened should this person been employed.

1) The employee would have become disillusioned because the job wasn’t what they thought it was.

2) The employer would become frustrated because the employee was always after a different ball

3) Management in the process would become annoyed because they had to drive the employee to focus on the standard (boring) stuff.

4) The employee would leave or be sacked after a very short tenure and the whole process would start again.

What’s the message here? Make sure you are clear up front what the job description is. Don’t get carried away talking up the cool stuff if it isn’t what is real. Ultimately it costs a lot to hire someone new. Don’t waste it.

Personality Employment

One thing that many employers are caught by is what I call personality employment. This is where an employee looks good on paper and do fantastically in the interview. They come across as charming and onto it and willing to learn.

Yet when they arrive and settle into the job the employer goes “Woops that was a mistake” they may be lazy or not up to the job. Maybe they just don’t have a personality that gets on well with the rest of the team or just don’t fit the company environment well.

Unfortunately it is pretty hard to remove these personality employees. It isn’t even a great thing for them and I often wonder what drives people to apply for and smooth talk themselves into positions they just can’t handle.

The bigger question (and I don’t have an answer) is how do you identify these clowns before they become a part of your show. Lots of recruitment agency’s provide you with personality profiles, and say they can’t be faked. Well I am afraid while you may not be able to be the reverse of your personality, you can sku the results in your favour for particular positions.

One of the things I can suggest is gut instinct. Everyone you meet over the first 30 minutes you get an impression of that person. This impression may not be 100% accurate, but it is a good judgement system you can rely on. It is almost like a fight or flight impulse that is programmed in from birth.

If your instinct has warning signals popping up, even if the person appears great. It is worth a bit of exploration.

The problem with recruitment agencies

Many people I talk to find dealing with recruitment agencies very frustrating. Some horror stories as well. Just like real estate agents they seem to charge the earth but deliver very little. Let me caveat my last statement with that there are good agencies out there. But in general the reputation isn’t that hot.

Anyway the main dissatisfaction that I hear out there is that the quality of the candidates sent through don’t seem to be high enough. In some instances people get the impression that they are just firing anyone that answers the ad. If this is the case why do you bother with the agency in the first place?

The main reason for the lower quality is that in general the agencies don’t get the best people on their books. They get people looking for jobs but not the best people looking for jobs. Here is my reasoning.

If you rated candidates from 1 – 100 in a recruitment drive the results would look something like this

The top 1-10 candidates don’t use recruitment agencies, they network. These people are the cream.

The next 11-20 candidates are the best candidates that the recruitment agencies can attract. These are the ones that get sent for interviews.

Followed by 21-40 candidates, you may get some of these if none of the 11-20 candidates applied. The agency doesn’t come back and say no one suitable they just go down the list.

finally 41 -100 candidates. You should never see these candidates but it has happened. Sometimes the odd one will slip through on their personality sales

So the main problem is that in general agencies can’t attract the cream. That is why the frustration creeps in. And of course the worse the agency, the worse the candidates, and the worse your problem becomes.

An article stating the obvious, but a good read

Computerworld today has published some thoughts on the skills shortage in the IT market place. It is an article well worth a read. You can read it here. People hiring technical people are increasingly finding it difficult. I found it interesting that this article points to the more technical skills being the hardest to find.

Part of the reason that the more technical skills are harder to recruit for that hasn’t been mentioned is that those with more mature skill sets see the advantage and capability of contracting. They understand the value of their services and can get more income & flexibility through contracting.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One area that Professionals on Demand is putting a lot of time and energy into is how we can help companies find and hire and retain these contractors. It is about facing up to the fact that it is happening, and then finding a vehicle that will allow companies to tap into these resources easier.

Is it really an employees marketplace

The Stuff website recently reported on a survey from Westpac (Westpac McDermott Miller Employment Confidence index) about confidence in the job market. There are more optimists than pessimists according to the survey.

I agree that the job market is definitely tight, and I also agree that this tightness is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. The market is tight and employers are having to be less picky or wait longer for the right candidate to come along. However the thing to remember amongst all this optimism is that the employer still makes the ultimate decisions.

In many of the lower skilled positions, the tight labour market won’t make a huge difference. You can train up people to take on these roles quite easily. In the higher skilled positions yes it is harder, and employees are expecting more from positions. However if they demand too much, as the employer you can simply not employ them.

This can of course place strain on existing staff and the company. However patience is the great game leveller. The right person will surface.

And then of course there are options opening up that could be explored. Bringing people in from the global market place, or outsourcing portions of the business.

The box seat still remains with the employer. Even the general feeling of confidence that the job candidates have can be a benefit rather than a concern.

A great article on the gap between tertiary and the real world

Computerworld has reported on the 25th conference on tertiary-sector ICT which carries some messages that make a lot of sense to me. You can read the article here. There are a couple of points of interest worth exploring further.

The first paragraph talks about the gap between what students learn and the things practiced in the workplace. My belief is that this is not only true of ICT but also of many other areas of Tertiary education. We have a graduate marketing person working with us at the moment. It is interesting how some of the basic theories and ideals taught in university are very different to application in the real world.

The second important point that this article mentions is that the shortage is not actually about applicants, rather about suitable skills. This obviously relates very closely to the first point. And it is quite possible that Tertiary institutions are at fault here because not enough real life experience is added to the courses.

The third and most interesting point to me is the paragraph that states

Applicants typically have “grossly inflated expectations” both in pay and in the nature of the work they think they will be doing.

In the IT industry in particular this is definitely a very true statement. Many graduates have a false expectation that they will be able to slot into a high pay packet without paying the dues in an actual working environment.

I saw this with one particular person in the marketing industry. She spent 3 years getting educated in marketing and business. This person was actually very good and had a natural nose for the industry. However she still had to do the 2-3 years hard yakka to get any credibility. Unfortunately her expectation was that she shouldn’t have to do the job experience because she had just spent 3 years at university.

Education is valuable, but ultimately it is experience that allows a person to sell themselves for the higher rate.

Hiring for the right reasons

Seth Godin has posted this interesting blog post about hiring staff. I find his thoughts right on the mark and I couldn’t agree more. While having good job interviewing skills is a nice thing for candidates to display, it doesn’t show you any of their real capability.

Almost all candidates looking for work are going to put on their freshest, brightest and most seductive side to sway you into thinking they can do the job. More time needs to be spent on developing questions or tests that will prove they have the actual skills.

I know a guy within the IT industry. He would make a great salesman. However he keeps going for and getting IT engineering jobs. He sells the companies he works for with his charm and apparent ability. However when the crunch comes he isn’t that good as an engineer.

It is almost always better to hire the right person 6 to 8 weeks down the track, than the wrong person straight away. It might provide you with some short term pain, but will avoid long term terminal pain.

Article on the 4th IT boom

Here is a great article written by Ben Pearson of Beyond Recruitment. It talks about the 4 IT booms of the last 10 – 15 years. I agree with pretty much everything he says. You can read the article here.

There is a general perception around these days that the quality of graduates has fallen substantially. We also experience the same problem as described in the article when hiring engineers. You may look at 100 – 200 candidates to find the one or two good ones.

I believe it is a combination of two things. Firstly the IT industry has received a bad name through the 4 booms. In particular the Y2K and the dotcom booms. I believe that this has discouraged candidates of truly exceptional calibre away from IT and into other careers. Secondly the ability to get a qualification in IT has become relatively simple.

I have heard time and time again from people over the years saying that they are going to retrain in IT as it provides a good pay. They pay money for the courses and get the piece of paper but not the skills. You need to be a particular type of person to be a good IT person.

Most candidates just don’t have the qualities & personality that they need to really make it in the IT industry.

This is an interesting video worth a look

I have just found the blog site that belongs to Rowan Manahan. On the blog today is a great interview he gives on TV (I think) about all the redundancies happening in Ireland. It is interesting to note that large scale redundancies is a global thing. All developed countries are losing jobs to developing countries, and not just the factory jobs either.

He talks about this and has some really interesting points about how to reposition yourself in the market place should you become redundant. You can find the interview here. One of the things he says that I found of particular interest was that the average 14 year old would completely change career on average 3-4 times by the time they are 38. I look at my career and I think I could almost match those numbers. I am in my 3rd career and transitioning into my 4th. By the way I am not quite 38 yet.

Take a look. I found the interview hitting some real home truths about the world today.