Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash
My 21-year-old daughter slammed her door in frustration.
Turns out she had not heard back from her 101st job application for over five weeks.
“Why don’t you go to their office and ask to be interviewed” I asked her.
“I’ve tried that a few times and was told to go home and apply online” she retorted in disgust.
“Why don’t you send them a short video then” I offered.
“Because there’s no scope in their online forms for that” was her answer,
- Apply online only.
- Keep your CV short, they don’t have time to read a long one.
- They never get back to you unless you get shortlisted.
These are common complaints.
As an executive coach, I’m seeing more staff, including executives, turning out to be the wrong fit.
I’m hearing selectors say they don’t have time to scrutinise all applications, especially the longer ones.
At the same time, I’m hearing them say they it’s a real challenge to find the right people.
Here are the statistics for the top five sources of job applications:
- Job Boards - 52.17%
- Career Sites - 33.90%
- Referrals - 3.07%
- Internal Hire - 2.26%
- Agency - 1.76%
(Jobvite 2017 Recruiting Funnel Benchmark Report)
Alarmingly, the statistics show that 46% of employees hired through referral programs stay for three years or more, while only 14% of those hired through job boards stay.
(Jobvite Index)
Is there any wonder why talent location and retention are a major challenge?
I use profiling (DISC, motivators, EQ, workplace skills and acumen) followed by in-depth carefully designed interviewing of a shortlist to make my recommendations to my clients with full success.
However, there is still room for improvement in choosing that shortlist in the first place.
I’m certain that superb candidates are being overlooked due to ‘busyness’ and current limitations in the way technology is used.
The other major factor is the need for replacement staff in the first place.
Good people leave bad bosses.
Employers need to become the ‘employer of choice’ on their journey to becoming the ‘provider of choice’ for their ideal clients, then staff churn will be minimised.
Part of becoming the employer of choice, is choosing the right employee in the first place – and the common system of recruiting and selecting isn’t achieving that.
Too much focus, especially in large and public companies, remains on shareholder returns.
I say shift the focus away from shareholders, to improving employee selection and retention, which also means thoroughly canvassing the market for the right people.
The improvements to the business will also benefit the shareholders.
Of course, that will take courage, better practice and learning, to overcome the current fears, habits and ignorance being displayed by too many recruiters, selectors, executives and supervisors.
