Job seekers work on computers at a Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas employment center in Irving, Texas, Nov. 19, 2009.
For Companies: ‘Always a Bit of Luck’ Involved
According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, 7.6 million people applied to Starbucks for 65,000 corporate and retail job openings during the past year; close to one million people applied to Procter & Gamble for 2,000 positions, and two million people applied to Google for 7,000 openings. Approximately 90% of big companies, the article adds, use applicant tracking systems to screen and rank job candidates. Research from CEB shows that only 35% of applicants meet the basic requirements of the job they have applied for.
Firms of all sizes find that the online application process can be daunting. Last year, when Jacobs/Wyper, a 28-person architecture firm in Philadelphia, posted two openings online for architects, they received 400 applications. A staff member screened each resume and made an initial selection based on certain criteria that were written into the job description, including specific experience with the types of projects the firm does (such as sophisticated research and manufacturing facilities and corporate offices); technical expertise in the software used by the firm for drafting, and location (the company only wanted to hire local people). “Essentially, we were looking for ways to de-select applicants,” says Jamie Wyper, one of the firm’s founders. “We narrowed the pool down to 12 and did telephone interviews, then selected four to come in and meet with various people in the office.”
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The two architects they hired have worked out well, Wyper notes, but the process is “one of the most difficult tasks we have. Even after getting all the information we ask for, it’s still very hard to tell how good someone will be in an office setting. There is always a bit of luck in the process, although you try to reduce that element.”
In an economy like the current one, says Wharton management professor Matthew Bidwell, the hiring process clearly favors employers. “If you have thousands of applicants for every position, you can find somebody by using very blunt tools, because you feel you will get a great candidate no matter what. Yet companies that rely on this approach might unintentionally rule out” applicants whose expertise could benefit the company in unanticipated ways. For example, during years when the economy was booming, consulting firms often looked beyond the applicant pool of MBAs in order to hire PhDs from the science and humanities. But given the glut of people in the labor market now, “an employer doesn’t need to worry about finding people in slightly more unconventional professions,” states Bidwell. The downside is that “formulaic hiring” can result in a less creative workforce.
Bidwell also notes that the easier it becomes to apply for a job, “the more narrow minded and automated the screening of the CVs becomes.” If a company made the process harder, candidates then would only apply for those jobs they think they might get. “Universities charge an application fee [for students]. I’m not sure companies could do that. There would probably be a riot,” he says. Instead, companies could make the application very specific to their own organization. “The more questions an applicant has to think carefully about, the fewer applications he or she will have time to fill out,” Bidwell adds.
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Josh Bersin, head of Bersin & Associates, a human resources research and consulting firm based in Oakland, Calif., agrees. The most important task for employers looking to hire is to clarify “their employment brand,” he says. That means spelling out the job that is offered, the qualifications needed to fill it, and the company culture. Consider furniture retailer Ikea, for example, which is known for “a minimalist culture and [a focus on] the environment, good health, fitness, design and so forth.” A candidate for whom these values aren’t important would probably not apply there. In other words, Bersin says, “employers should make it really easy for a candidate to self select. They don’t want 200 resumes. They want 10 great ones.”
Already, adds CEB’s Ellehuus, employers are becoming “smarter in terms of using messages that not only attract applicants, but filter them.” Whereas in the past, companies might have described themselves as “the best place to work,” with “the most opportunities for growth,” they now are finding ways to differentiate their companies from others, focusing on facts that are more relevant to a specific job search. For example, if a company says it typically hires only candidates with graduate degrees, or only those whose writing experience includes published articles in mainstream media, then some job applicants might opt out of applying.