When the “System” Breaks Down, Pt.II
(Cont’d)
Even in my own profession the landscape has changed, most in the recruitment / employment / personnel market niche have also (d)evolved with the times, relying on Internet-sourced piles of resumes, spending productive time sifting through a hundred or so digital resumes they might receive each day hoping for that golden nugget of a resume to match a very generic and non-descript, HR job description. Not all, but many then compete with each other like a bucket full of minnows fighting for bread crumbs to get their pile of resumes into a company with whom they are working. It is curious that some of those folks still call themselves recruiters; more like scavengers (ouch, that’s not gonna get me much love). Like many job seekers, many recruiters have become more reliant on keystrokes and, as a result, lose the interpersonal people skills necessary to be an effective recruiter. Oh, how it must have felt during the dark ages to see the ruins of a Roman aqueduct and realize it represented skills and knowledge lost – okay, so I am exaggerating a bit.
The point is the current model is increasingly less than optimum for neither companies nor those seeking employment. It clunks, it coughs, lurches along and functions – but barely; or another way to describe it – it’s operating at 90% smoke and only 10% horsepower. I know a lot of senior managers at companies who are scratching their heads wondering why piles of online-sourced resumes are not resulting in effective hires. It’s rather Kafkaesque and it would be funny if it wasn’t so frustrating to all but those who thrive on bureaucracy as a means of job security. I’d like to suggest it is due to the fact that they’ve left the people out of the equation! However, within some board rooms they are beginning to realize the current hiring methods are not all they are cracked up to be. And newer and improved personality profile software for example or some other tech fad method isn’t the solution either. The correct medicine for all involved – and you too, is getting back to basics, focusing on interpersonal communication skills but enhanced with some time-saving tech; not the other way around, as it is currently, and leaving everyone somewhat unsatisfied and frustrated. I personally can’t complain, company managers continue to call people like me, who still know how to identify, attract and recruit those who aren’t reading their adverts.
(Part Three in conclusion will be posted on Monday)
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