How Tech Hurts Hiring - A Warning
I was reading this article from Forbes that explored the top 11 complaints from Job Seekers. Each one of the complaints boiled down to one simple point: you don’t care about me. From asking candidates to submit a resume only to then ask them to manually fill in pages of fields which request identical information to low-ball offers or ghosting, Job Seekers are more frustrated than ever with how they are treated. I consistently hear from candidates something to the effect of, “I understand I wasn’t the best candidate, but why……” and you can add every complaint from that Forbes article, and more, to complete that sentence.
I’m going to write several articles about the various complaint that Forbes outlined, but I wanted to start by first addressing the paradigm of technology in the hiring world. Since the advent of AI, it has been sold as a means to automate and improve efficiency. AI will make you better at your job because you can sort, manage, and reject candidates faster! But is that the goal, is that why we hire? I may be confused, but to this Recruiter, the goal is to make help the company grow and succeed by finding the right individual who will love the job and thus sink their heart into it. Take one step back and the goal is to provide the best experience possible so that the best candidates will be interested in working for the company so the role can be filled by the best candidate who will help the company grow. Take one more step back and the goal is introduce the position as thoroughly as possible and explore each candidates background equally as thoroughly so right individuals can be interested in working for the company in order to help the company grow…… you get the idea. You don’t have to take too many more steps back to realize that the goal should not be efficiency unless efficiency includes a positive experience for every individual who applies.
“I’m not interested in that company, I applied before and it was just an awful experience” is a phrase I hear more often than any company would like to know or recognize. I learned early on as a Recruiter that I can separate myself from the competition by 1) being polite and courteous, 2) knowing the position and company inside and out and getting any questions answered that I can, and 3) staying involved through the entire process so that I can be a consistent presence with candidates to provide with them updates, coordinate interviews, and reject them with a phone call, not an email. Your company may sell products to customers, but you must also focus on job seekers as another form of customer. Mistreat them and you will also see your sales go down.
