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Here at UpLink, we are focused on improving recruitment, because it is broken.  🤷 Data reveals:

  • 30% of job seekers say they have left a job within the first 90 days of starting
  • 85% of people in work say they are unhappy with their job
  • 84% of candidates say the recruiting procedures are ineffective.
    • It takes too long
    • It is not transparent

Getting it wrong is frustrating, time-consuming and costly not only to employees but also potential recruits.  It impacts productivity both in the short term and long term for all concerned.  There must be better ways. 💭 Improving recruitment won’t happen over night, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t posssible.

The current process relies on filtering out candidates on hard and soft skills. However, most graduates have very limited hard skills due to lack of experience.   Recruiters therefore focus on exam grades, university or subjects taken as the best approximation for hard skills. This process is understandable, but flawed as grades are heavily influenced by teaching and school and the university of subject have very little correlation with whether someone will be successful in HR or marketing….

Employers are not measuring a candidate’s aptitude, attitude, cultural fit or future potential. They are obviously very important and such assessments are left for interviews. This is a major issue as only a very small percentage of people will be chosen for interview. However, humans find it really difficult to measure such soft skills – they guess, use intuition, and have no metrics for comparison.  In fact, tossing a coin would prove just as effective more of the time. Additionally, the untrained interviewer is prone to massive bias.

The top biases beings:

  • Similar to me bias – Favouring someone who you see something of you in e.g. background, humour, affiliations, ethnicity, religion, school, etc.
  • Non-verbal bias – Only 7% of what people say accounts for our opinion, the rest is assumed from body language and the sound and tone of voice.
  • First Impression bias – First impressions take seconds. Nerves often lead to false projections.
  • Halo or Horns bias – Downgrading or upgrading candidates on irrelevant preferences e.g. height, haircut, weight, beauty, age.
  • Contrast bias – Judgements are made relative to those assessed either side of assessment not against hiring criteria. E.g. we look favourably on a CV if the previous resume was poor.
  • Conformation Bias – We make early hypothesis, then to confirm and favour information that confirms our pre-existing views. Questions to candidates based on pre-existing beliefs, means interviews gain little new information and are difficult to compare across candidates.

Scary, but its natural, and although most are subconscious the impact is dramatic, unfair and ultimately bad for business.  In this digital age innovation, creativity and flexibility are key areas that allow companies to survive and succeed, yet lack of diversity hinders all of these needs and therefore threatens the very viability of many companies moving forward.

Fortunately, there are better solutions.  🤗 Not the mumbo jumbo science of Myers Briggs but modern data backed tools that can assess cultural and purpose alignment, assess character – aptitude and attitude and predict whether a candidate is a good fit for a given role, team and boss.  These pre-hire assessments deliver:

  • Improved Results – Results are fairer, faster, more effective, more productive
  • Relevant Attributes – Correct testing selects candidates on relevant attributes needed to succeed in the role
  • Contextual – Work best when specific to a boss, team & organisation culture
  • Consistent Output – Information is repeatable and comparable between candidates in real time and over years.
  • Reliable – Far harder to game than the Psych Tests, keyword or sentiment filters

The sooner these solutions are embraced the quicker candidates and companies will gain the moral and financial benefits associated. Better, non-biased, more productive hiring platforms can measure the effect of change, drives commitment and improve corporate culture. 

Have you got any ideas to aid in improving recruitment? 

Let us know, why not give us a call? We’d love to hear from you. 📞