The inverted A B C D E approach

After many years of clinical practice as a nurse and using some of this acquired knowledge, I thought I could take advantage of it and adapt it to recruitment.

I truly believe that much of the knowledge we have is transversal to various areas so I decided to take an approach that is widely used by healthcare professionals for the initial assessment of patients and bring it to the recruitment area.

The ABCDE (Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure) approach, which I've decided to call the "Inverted ABCDE approach" in order to adapt the concept to recruitment - EDCBA ( Eligibility, Differentiation, Competences, Background, Action).

The aim is to create an approach that helps standardize the recruitment process when it comes to CV analysis, so having one method we can follow will save us time and make the analysis of applications less subjective.

For those who, like me, come from a health background and are starting in recruitment, this method can be useful to help them integrate more easily in this area, through a concept that they are already familiar with so that the whole process of CV screening and analysis makes more sense.

It works by starting on the "E" and moving forward till we get to "A" where a decision regarding the application is made! Let′s break each of these steps down now:

• 1. "E" - Eligibility - Do they meet the criteria for the role? Have they got the requirements asked for the role?

Yes - Move forward do "D"

No - Move straight to the end "A"

• 2. "D" - Differentiation - Is there anything on the CV that makes it stand out from the crowd? Is there anything in particular that caught your attention?

Yes - Score 1

No - Score 0

• 3. "C" - Competences - Are there any other non-essential competences that might add value to the role?

Yes - Score 1

No - Score 0

• 4. "B" - Background - Are the previous experiences relevant?| Any special achievements to bear in mind?| Any relevant further training?|

Yes - Score 1

No (to all of them) - Score 0

• 5. "A" - Action - Accepted/ Alternative. Your options are:

-Accepted: How many interviews can you accommodate? Dependent on the number of successful applications you should select for the next stage based on the scores. That is going to tell you how many of them you will take, so pick the ones that score higher!

- Alternative: For those applications that are rejected you should offer them an alternative when letting them know the outcome. If they applied without having the criteria, use the information you got from their CVs and suggest other areas where their skills could be used and they will have better chances of being successful. If they met the criteria but scored lower than others, give them some feedback on some areas for improvement on their CVs for future opportunities.

I would like to highlight the "Alternative" part of this approach as something that people should pay a lot more attention to and avoid sending some automatized rejection emails (others unfortunately not even those). When possible try and personalize your emails and give everyone feedback, especially for those that apply without having qualifications because they are most likely to be unemployed and desperately looking for jobs. Use the information you got and suggest the areas in which their skills are a better fit. Without knowing you might be making a real difference in someone′s life ??.

Hope you find this information useful and that it helps you make a positive impact on your life and the lives of others!

P.S.: Any feedback will be highly appreciated!