5 Ways Resumes Could Be Attracting Low-Quality Talent To Your Business

July 17, 2019

Let’s face it: resumes are the cornerstone of recruiting. HR teams, job sites, staffing agencies, and other hiring managers use them to screen candidates and hire quality talent. But it’s time to reevaluate and rethink the use of traditional resumes.

The job market is a battlefield, and candidates have mastered the art of surviving resume screening. This is why a staggering 85% of job seekers lie on their resumes. So if you are still weeding through thousands of resumes, you could be losing many hours, thousands of dollars, and quality hires. Are you wondering how?

Here are five ways some of the resumes you are receiving could be driving low quality hires to your business or organization.

Overlooking Character And Potential

A resume is a self-reported narrative of a candidate’s history. It focuses on past work, personal details, and the educational background of a candidate rather than offering the information needed to hire. Often, this can be prone to bias and selective memory.

For instance, it can result in inaccurate descriptions of what really occurred in previous positions. And obviously, resumes don’t say much about a candidate’s character, their potential, their weaknesses, and their ability to perform the job duties at hand.

Making Decisions Based On False Information

You already know that resumes contain misleading information. What you might not know is that you could be making decisions based on those lies.

For example, references are usually not checked until the final hiring stage. By that time, most candidates will have been eliminated or selected to proceed to the next stage based on false information. This is unfortunate because a high-quality (honest) talent can often be penalized or eliminated.

Omitting Negative Information

Apart from inaccuracies, resumes also have numerous omissions. The most sensitive omission is negative information, such as a candidate being let go. In most cases, you will never find out whether a candidate was fired, convicted, or performed poorly by going off of their resume.

Although you may discover it later, you might have already made your decision based on incomplete details.

Ignoring The Future Of Your Business Or Organization

As mentioned earlier, resumes are historical descriptions. They only cover what the candidate has done for other companies or organizations. But recruiters need to project into the future to make the correct hiring decision.

For instance, you must know how the candidate will act in the position and at your company when faced with challenges. Since resumes don’t include future projections, you’re left to “go with your guts” when making decisions.

Restricting Potential Candidates

Most companies and organizations require job applicants to submit updated resumes. However, most passive candidates don’t update their resumes regularly. Therefore, you could be eliminating these potential candidates. Some of them can’t find time to do so, while others feel updating their resume might be a sign of disloyalty.

So, what is the best way forward?

Recruiting high quality talent is an art and a science. You need a scientific approach that is not predictable, but is user-friendly to attract quality talent. NEXTAFF’S X-FACTOR is that strategy.

Our criteria uses key questions about your company or organization to create the perfect profile for each position, automates early stages of the recruitment process, taps into passive candidates, and tests potential candidates to narrow down your search. If you want to learn more, download our ‘Perfecting The Perfect Hire‘ white paper below.

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