While I wanted to start this article with Charles Darwin’s thoughts
on the evolution of species and the idea of "survival of the
fittest", it turns out he actually worded it "the ones most
responsive to change". This ruins my plan to parallel Darwin’s thoughts
with the idea of "cultural fit" when it comes to the match between an
applicant and a company. That being said, I'll stand by my topic of "It's
not the best candidate that succeeds, but the one that is the best fit for the
company." (I know, it doesn't sound that smart if you have to explain it,
right?).
My premise is simple (as I wrote about it here): each position is
unique and your selection is going to end up setting aside awesome candidates
that were either "less awesome" than the one you picked, or just had
a bad day in an interview. To make a long story short, at some point in time
they did apply, and did give you all of their information, they simply didn’t
turn into a hire. But what have you done with the data?
If you have lots of open positions, that makes a lot of potential good fits who
didn’t get hired but you still have access to their info. We should ask the
question: what is all of this data worth over time?
Ok, I'll split that question in two:
• What's the chance Mr./Mrs. Second Best will update their resume in your ATS?
(You probably don't need any tip to figure out it's pretty close to being
"absolutely none, unless they have been dreaming of working for you since
age seven and would rather sleep
on the sidewalk in front of your building than miss the slightest chance of talking
to you again").
• What's the chance Mr./Mrs. Second Best will still be looking at that exact
same job they originally applied to three years from now? (Or, we can rephrase
as "what’s the chance they did actually sleep on that sidewalk, found no
other job, and acquired no other skill?”)
Back to my original question, given we have a giant database of outdated data,
what is your candidate database worth over time?
Probably very little in most cases, and that’s a shame. Not only because
there's not much you can do about it (without spending an awful lot of
resources), but also because that data cost you a lot to obtain (not only the
money spent to get those people to send their resumes, but also the time it
took to evaluate their profiles, interview them, and ultimately—reject them.
What if we were given the opportunity to refresh that data; to keep it live?
It would, all of a sudden, have tremendous value.
I'm not talking about an email campaign to your database asking past candidates
if they will "please update their records". I'm talking about
something that is already available; the ability to connect with a candidate’s
social profile. Whether it be custom development work using public API’s, or
some of the new tools released by LinkedIn or other recent-start-ups, the
solution is closer than you think. The real questions aren’t technology-related—as
we know it can be done. The questions are whether candidates will want their
social profiles accessed as needed by companies, and whether companies will
want the possible privacy concerns that surround this new world of social media
data.
The results? It will likely change the way we look at metrics and performance;
not just black or white anymore—but all shades of grey would become available
once we look at the long-term data. Not only who was hired, but what about the
candidates you did not hire—and in a few years have gained significant
experience somewhere else, or the ones that you can use to refer someone even
if they are no longer interested.
As the ability to report on performance, HR and recruitment departments are no
longer cost centers but major contributors to profits; new technologies
continue to introduce new opportunities; and those willing to embrace
innovation will come out ahead.
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