Don’t Hire a Resume, Hire a Real Person

Lies and exaggerations have become common as the requirement for skilled employees is increasing at a rapid pace. Recruiters around the world find it difficult to screen a candidate as most of them manipulate their resumes.

According to HireRight‘s 2017 employment screening benchmark report, “85% of employers caught candidates lying on their resumes or cover letters.” The number has gone up from 66% five years ago.

Here are top three lies applicants commonly tell

1. Applicants stretch dates of their last employment to cover a time gap between two jobs or increasing the job tenure to embellish work experience.
2. Many applicants tend to add technical proficiencies, soft skills, and competencies even if they are not expert at it.
3. They add job duties and tasks in their previous employment just to enhance their work profile.

Resumes don’t tell the whole story

A piece of paper might not succeed every time to portray a person. For the recruiters, it is essential to look beyond the resume to identify the real capabilities of a person. A proper face-to-face interview could help you to evaluate better whether the person is the right fit for your company. Here is a fine example to show why it is crucial to look beyond the resume.

Two resumes are lying on your table. Applicant 1 is passed from a prominent university with a slew of internships. Applicant 2 is a graduate from a local college, with almost equal skills, and has worked in a courier facility.

Which candidate seems to be a fit for your company?

At first glance, Applicant 1 seems to be a better choice. However, Applicant 2 might come as a resilient person who has developed incredible problem-solving skills. He might also bring the desired qualities to your organization.

There are people out there who can transform your organization, but they get filtered through your selection pipeline during resume screening. So, what must recruiters actually do to find the right candidate? For talent acquisition professionals who are willing to hire actual persons and not resumes, here is our advice –

Use innovative recruiting methods

Recruitment is one industry that has constantly been growing in terms of innovative methods of interviewing and screening candidates. HR professionals can follow numerous methods of interviewing that could help them to get deeper insights into a person and analyze them in a smarter way.

Peer interviewing – Peer interviewing is a new and fledgling interview technique where an existing employee (of relevant field) becomes a part of the interview to assess if the applicant is a good match for the company or not. Read more about peer interviewing.

Competency-based interview – Competency-based interview (also referred to as situational or behavioral) is a style of interviewing used to assess or evaluate if the applicant has the required skills and competencies to match the job requirements. More information here.

Topgrading Interview – Topgrading has achieved immense popularity in the world of recruitment in no time. Many big companies including General Electric, Barclays, Lincoln Financial and others are using the Topgrading methodology to recruit high-performing candidates.

Don’t rely exclusively on technology

Companies are moving towards using automated platforms that screen resumes and applications based on the input you provide. It might make your groundwork easy but doing so may not yield the best candidates. The automated systems might reject resumes that are not according to your input or doesn’t include a particular keyword.

Pre-Employment Tests

Pre-employment tests have become extremely popular in recent years as a way to manage and filter talents from a large pool of candidates. They are a collective form of competency-based tests with an objective of gaining insights into the capabilities of job-applicants for a particular position.

Resumes are amongst the greatest sources of generating preliminary information about the candidate. They make it easy for HR professionals to screen candidates quickly while hiring but recruiters must completely rely on them. However, recruiters must analyze the person to evaluate his or her capabilities and experience. Following the points mentioned above could help companies to hire the right candidate every time.

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