Did your job application fail the bot test?

With unemployment set to increase steadily as we transition through the COVID-19 pandemic, we are set to experience a sharp rise in effected individuals entering the job market. For many, they may not have been in the job market for decades. Social platforms are filling quickly with stories of professional people disillusioned by the process. The more they learn, the deeper the resentment builds.

 The preceding 2 decades has seen the assessment of job candidates literally be digitised to the point of an automated shortlist being the next intersection for recruitment agencies post advertising the role.

 Enter the ATS. When applying for a role, you will quickly discover that you are not dealing with the friendly face you see on the “brochure”. You know the one… the smiling person with a headset on looking into your eyes longingly, seductively suggesting your next corner office, 6 figure role is right around the corner, but rather you are being corralled into the dreaded ATS. The “Applicant Tracking System” is the digital factory that is analysing every word, every phrase, every role from your chronological work history and how you have progressed over your career. In under 2 seconds, it has decided to make the ultimate go / no-go decision on your viability for employment. No malice, no regrets, no conscience, just no…

In under 2 seconds, it has decided to make the ultimate go / no-go decision on your viability for employment. No malice, no regrets, no conscience, just no…

 Today’s clever ATS systems can also tinker with bias. By assessing the employer’s previous talent acquisitions and other elements to either replicate or discriminate history. If the knobs and dials are set 1 notch to the left or right… your application goes straight to the digital archive.

 There are some serious side effects here, however the highest complaint is that of the candidate. Often, the candidate never receives any communications back. After investing the time, thought, and becoming emotionally attached to the role, it is like buying a lottery ticket, and never knowing what the numbers were, or even if the lottery ran! This is where the resentment for both the recruiting agency and the potential employer begins its downward trajectory within the candidate pool and leads to the ultimate demise of their own brand sentiment. 

 There are at least two sides to any story, however there are 3 specific sides to the task of matching ideal candidates to available jobs.

 Firstly… Let us consider the Hiring Manager. Here, an organisation has identified a need to introduce an external person to the business. Now, more than ever, the green light for a new or replacement person breathes life into the business. The feeling of excitement and anticipation builds swiftly as the team gears up for the arrival of someone new to own that “critical function” to make the difference promised to the business.

 Second in our story is the recruitment agency. Specifically, the individual person responsible to provide the best candidate available in the market “right now” to the hiring manager. Here, the recruiter sets about creating an ad (for a role that they cannot possibly hope to fully understand) and then lets the silicon powered hands take the wheel! Recruiters post the ad, waiting for the process to spit out candidate’s names, like a game of bingo! Now the “system” goes about grinding through 200+ applicants drawing on its keyword fuelled code that has been instructed to pair the list down to a mere 10, that will be handed back to the humans to review and work through.

 Lastly, there is the poor candidate. Often new to the process, they invest hours agonising over every word, every idea, looking through their education history, making sure the years align with their accomplishments. Stressing for days that their proud successes in their old role(s) are captured and highlighted so they will shine through, dazzling the final decision maker. Once complete, its’ their whole professional life, all in a PDF document. Submit!

 Now it may seem that I am ragging on the recruitment industry here, and that is certainly not the aim. Every industry needs to build efficiencies to maintain profitability and sustainability. The investment in robots to do the heavy lifting in candidate filtering is clever, quick, saves time and cost - hence warrants the development expense. It is a $6.2B dollar industry! My point is that in the quest for efficiency, the bots cannot measure personality, cultural fit, team acceptance, industry knowledge, broader skills, career progression potential and so on. I need not continue; you get the idea…

 Statistically, there is more chance that the perfect candidate was missed than found. For popular roles, up to 30 times more chance! 

 If we accept the fact that people want to be identified and selected (or rejected) for roles based on their skills, knowledge and all the unique elements that make them truly individual… and couple this with organisations that want the best possible outcomes for their businesses success, upon reflection, it seems a bit “counter-productive” to engineer these traits out BEFORE we even discover more about people?

Upon consideration, using bots to filter candidates “out” before we begin to engage as people is akin to rating apples based simply on height alone. Let that one marinate for a few seconds…

 So, what can we do about it?

There is a way to provide all 3 players in this game a significantly more meaningful experience throughout the job-hunting process. Of course, we cannot lose sight of the fact that there can be only 1 successful candidate for any role, however the process can be easily re-humanised.

In other words, moving away from a world where “I have to like this candidate because they had the most keyword matches…” towards a world where the hiring manager says “I like this person because…” feels about right to me.

Introducing the www.close-line.com business related topics platform. The initiative behind close-line is more than just business-related social discussion, it is about genuinely identifying industry related talent, beyond keyword science. This level of candidate understanding discovers more insights and personality traits than a CV or Keyword search could ever hope to do. For recruiters, this provides a more people-based discussion point when pitching for new recruitment business.

 How does it work?

The close-line.com platform provides a socially styled virtual venue for industry-based business Q&A. However, the platform allows for social proof of the candidates’ legitimacy, and overall acceptance by the community.

For example, Sarah is about to hire a new BD Manager. It is a critical role and will be the success (or failure) of the organisation’s growth plans over the next 5 years. There are some specific elements Sarah needs to know about her candidates, including how they communicate and their depth of knowledge and experience.

Working with her recruitment agent, they conclude that they would like to see how the candidates engage to a range of topics that will highlight their understanding of the market. But more importantly, how the candidate will structure their answers knowing that the industry can also view, respond, and vote for their response. Now we have social proof, the candidate can communicate an idea effectively, they understand the problem proposed, what their “social” communication style leans towards and most importantly, if the response resonates with the company’s ethos.

 Want to try this quickly and easily with your next new-hire opportunity? No problem!

Select a role(s) you are about to begin the recruitment journey for. Working with the hiring manager, identify a few key topics or questions you would like the candidates to respond too. Next, simply create an account on www.close-line.com (30 seconds) and post your questions or topics just like any other social platform. Then advise your candidates to jump onto www.close-line.com and provide their responses. Remember, it is live so you can see responses happening in real time through your notifications.

Posting key questions for your candidates provides some additional benefits that may not be obvious initially. Seeing responses, comments and other engagement from industry helps individuals and companies learn what their industry is thinking and working towards. Most social platforms create long threads allowing the insightful (valuable) contributions to be easily missed or quickly lost. The close-line platform rewards user engagement and builds a daily leader board whilst always showing the most popular (best response) first.

Want to take things a step further? Of course you can visit our career centre at https://www.close-line.com/career-centre at anytime to post a job.

By posting your role(s) on https://www.close-line.com/career-centre you gain the added benefit of a consolidated applicant report. Once complete, job posters will receive a standardised PDF from all applicants showing their profile, and the results of the social interactions with their responses as a “success score”. Imagine all candidates issuing the same document format that shows how they engage with industry-based topics. Let us not forget, this is a new experience for the candidate where they can promote themselves in a social style that we are all familiar with.

 Want to try it? 

We are providing 5 free job postings, no hooks, or hidden agenda, just a great opportunity to see for yourself how talent acquisition can be done better.

 We also welcome partnership opportunities. Partnering with close-line allows companies and recruitment agencies to stand out by placing their branding onto job related posts. This builds trust and candidate confidence whist positioning who represents the role.

 Want to know more? Contact us here> https://www.close-line.com/contact-us we’d be happy to discuss your needs.

 Glen Robinson

Glen Robinson is the founder of close-line.com - an industry based social space for discussion and recognition of talented people.

Email: [email protected]