Job Seekers Want To Stand Out; It’s Time Hiring Tech Steps Up

Job seekers and employers have more ways to find and fill jobs than ever before, but improvements in speed and scale have been met with a decreasing human experience. It’s time for hiring technology to humanize the process for everyone involved, explains Pooja Maggon, global head of human resources, eTeam and High5.

Despite advances in digital job boards and hiring portals, the process of finding and filling jobs is still defeating for applicants and exhausting for employers.

For job seekers, technology has given people the ability to scale how many jobs they can apply for, but in an increasingly dehumanizing way. For companies, systems and processes have become overly templatized, creating the illusion of applicant expression while failing to reveal the full extent of a candidate’s personal value or what they have to offer.

As a candidate, how many job opportunities have you been denied before getting the chance to fully communicate your capabilities? As an employer, how many times have you made a hiring decision between a handful of great fits by putting a finger to the wind?

With all of the information at our disposal and all the platforms put in place to better utilize that information, why hasn’t the process of finding a job or hiring the right person become easier?

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It’s about context.

Why Context Matters

When recent high school grad Ryan LowryOpens a new window began looking for jobs, he knew applying to a typical portal would limit his ability for his whole self to be seen. He needed a way to show potential employers a glimpse into who was beyond what his LinkedIn profile alone could communicate.

Rather than wading through a gauntlet of careers pages, Ryan simply posted a photographed, handwritten cover letter to LinkedIn, providing details of his personality and competencies as well as challenges he faced due to learning disabilities.

Counter to the standard embellished resume, the letter was authentic. In it, Ryan shared his interests and expressed the overall value he could provide as a good worker. The post gave future employers an opportunity to understand more than just what Ryan was capable of, but who he is. It allowed him to share context — on his terms.

There’s nothing stopping other job applicants from being more honest and upfront with cover letters, but there’s something more human about Ryan’s method. He decided his best chance at getting an employer to take a chance on him was to reject the rigid systems that most companies funnel applications through.

The fact that his post went viral and was followed by numerous companies asking to connect with him proves his assumption. But why? It’s not just the irony of posting directly to his LinkedIn page. It’s about the humanity in his approach and the power gained through it that traditional hiring systems can’t match.

Redistributing Power

Although hiring marketplaces and talent communities are becoming more tech-enabled, it’s time they begin to function in ways that give power back to the users. Though companies may have prototypical talent needs, fulfilling those needs with technology can still be done in unconventional ways. In doing so, hiring programs can meet high-volume needs without sacrificing high quality.

To achieve this, talent platforms should aim to support an experience that provides the following:

1. Flexibility — A flexible system gives talent the power to build relationships with potential employers when and where they choose. Rather than a one-way, exclusive experience, technology needs to support the channels that candidates prefer to communicate with. The ability to respond to job updates or take the next steps in the hiring process via email, text, or a call — all in the same system — behooves the job seeker and the employer in two key ways:

• It provides a better candidate experience, and
• It speeds up the hiring process dramatically.

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2. Advancement — Talent platforms should be focused on finding the right jobs for the right people. Instead, hiring for most companies is often an incredibly wasteful effort, forcing job seekers to go through the entire process multiple times for different roles at the same organization. On the back end, the company then uses resources in incredibly inefficient ways. Modern systems need to be smarter about how they place talent by helping candidates find ways to advance through the process, even if they aren’t qualified for their first choice.

A total talent experience gives applicants the opportunity to express their strengths and weaknesses and support any needs for upskilling with access to learning systems in the platform. With the context of what skill gaps a candidate might need to clear, and the tools to help, access to quality talent is always on the rise.

3. Community — People find people through communities. The power of a community lies in the nuanced understanding its members have of each other and the network it supplies. The value of a community all comes down to context. Modern hiring platforms can create valuable communities by giving talent user-friendly dashboards for greater access to jobs and give employers greater access to talent.

With AI-driven technology, profiles designed to promote unique skill sets and preferences can be created in a matter of seconds, and talent pools can be organized in an instant, customized to specific needs. With the right technology, employers and recruiters can find talent matches at scale without relying on a social post going viral.

Humanize the Experience

Finding and filling jobs creates moments of opportunity for people and businesses. But much of how we hire has become a robotic, cumbersome process, removing the human experience from how people display their value and how companies evaluate people.

The technology we use to source and hire talent must be better equipped to understand candidates as people and give people better options to connect with potential employers. With more flexible ways to engage, a focus on advancement, and a sense of community, you can deliver a superior hiring experience.