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Better guidance during selection is a necessity
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06-02-09 Better guidance during selection is a necessity
A recently published study shows that worldwide 53 percent of all employers - 44 percent on the Belgian front - read the résumés that land on their doorstep with a certain amount of suspicion. Seventy percent of those being polled state that it is especially the candidate’s last work experience that either gets covered up in a vale of mysticism or strongly embellished. Other than that, employers also have doubts about mentioned management qualities and technical skills, followed by the last earned salary, software knowledge, language knowledge and courses the candidate is supposed to have taken.
An accepted phenomenon
“When first reading the article we were surprised but at closer inspection that 44 percent seems a bit low,” Beatrijs Stevens suggests
. “From out of every corner applicants are hit over the head with publications and websites recommending them to write their résumé tailored to the needs of the company in question. That explains why some ‘smart’ applicants emphasise their last work experience more strongly or disguise their being made redundant from their last position by dating their last work experience as ‘from… to the present.’ Moreover, it’s often subjective estimations of their own competences that candidates place on their résumé and that explains why some applicants see themselves as being very communicative, while an interview show the contrary. Estimating management skill, language skills and computer knowledge is another subjective exercise. That type of knowledge only surfaces during an interview or during an assessment later on in the selection process. We therefore recommend that applicants leave subjective information out of their résumé. A company can protect itself from this phenomenon by using known standard résumés, which concentrate on factual experience and diplomas. Yes, it makes the system more rigid but the chance that the truth gets danced around is limited.”
The résumé remains a primary selection criterion
Although a certain amount of suspicion towards personal résumés is quiet understandable and in some cases perhaps even founded, one should stay clear of the temptation of completely copying a résumé. Beatrijs Stevens:
“For Kern Selection, the résumé remains our first selection criterion. If you can read over whatever subjective competences are mentioned, you can still get a clear overview of the experience and studies a candidate has. In a normal selection procedure, the acceptance of a résumé is followed by an interview in which the résumé is the main topic of conversation.” A trained recruiter can, according to Beatrijs, quickly learn which elements of a résumé have been slightly blurred out and which elements are emphasised perhaps to strongly.
Professional recruitment is recommended
Adding all this up provides Beatrijs Stevens with an extra argument pleading for the professionalising of recruitment. Stevens:
“Recruitment is and remains a trade and in times of uncertainty, trade-knowledge has its significance. Now more than ever, attracting crucial colleagues needs to be done quickly and efficiently. In order to limit any distrust towards résumés it almost seems obvious that a company is professionally guided in their selection process or that a company’s recruitment officer has at least taken a course on interview techniques. To overestimate oneself or estimate oneself incorrectly is human; that’s why the detection of disrupting elements in the selection procedure needs to be monitored closely.”
