04 Jul In the War for Talent, a Skinny Resume Could Grow into a Champion
With a booming economy and unemployment levels at an all-time low, why is it so hard for many companies to find the right talent?
In 2018, Inc.com published an article that stated around 67 percent of recruiters felt that it’s much harder to find top talent now than it was just five short years ago. LinkedIn’s most recent talent solutions statistics included research that showed 70% of the global workforce are passive candidates.
Even though you may have a high number of applicants, many of them are unqualified for the roles. Hiring managers and recruiters know how tedious it is to have to sift through a stack of mismatched resumes. Given the current state of the economy coupled with a low number of qualified job seekers, the catch-all resume has become a much less effective way of screening talent.
Just looking at a resume, even if it is a qualified one, is no guarantee of a good match and won’t predict how well a person will perform on the job. You could have an applicant whose resume ticked all the right boxes, they aced the in-person interview, and several weeks into the job realized that it’s not the right fit and either disengaged—or worse yet—quit.
Why does this happen?
Interviewers will often spend a short time reviewing a resume and spend more time in the interview focusing on questions that are centered around experience and cultural fit. However, they really have no way of objectively determining if the person is “wired” to perform in the role.
This is where a lean resume holds just as much promise as one that’s full of experience. A skinny resume is one where the candidate does not have much experience in the job or field that they’re applying. They can be a recent college graduate, returning to the workforce, or someone who’s looking for a career change.
If employers were to consider a combination of values, alignment, experience, and whether the candidate is “wired” for the role, a skinny resume is just as good as someone with years or even decades of experience.
Under this method of consideration, the way a person is driven and motivated in alignment with the demands of the role is just as important or maybe even more important than their experience.
As Baby Boomers start to retire, the war for talent is only heating up and leaving many jobs open in which qualified candidates are getting harder to find.
Even though there’s a recession in the forecast, skinny resumes are not going to go away—In fact, they’re only going to increase as time goes by.
When Could Skinny be Good?
The Silver Tsunami is currently in full swing, and statistically speaking, there aren’t enough GenX’ers to fill the executive spots left open by the retiring Baby Boomers. It can be tough to find enough qualified Millennials to fill the needs in today’s companies, as many of them are purpose driven with a strong desire to avoid institutionalization and instead seek to embrace the self-employment lifestyle.
So, who’s left?
Recent graduates and those transitioning careers may have significant gaps in experiences or skills. On the surface, they may not seem very attractive. However, when matched with the demands of the job, these candidates have the natural ability to be a long-term high performing employee.
With just a little bit of on-the-job training, a person who’s “wired” for the job will have stronger sustained performance than someone whose resume ticks all the right boxes.
How PI Can Help
As human beings, we have a natural inclination to want to compartmentalize things and put them in a proverbial box. We want a way to instantly evaluate a resume or potential candidate without spending a lot of time.
Resumes and in-person interviews are quickly becoming obsolete as the sole indicators as to whether someone will be a good fit for a role–and provide sustained performance.
This is where PI comes into play.
Job applicants are asked to take a short 6-minute survey. This is an important consideration in a market where most candidates are passive and will not spend time taking a 30 to 60-minute assessment.
PI is the only instrument on the market with such a small amount of time invested by the applicant that’s combined with a rich history of science and validity (over 350 validity studies performed confirming accuracy and reliability).
Upon completion of the survey, the PI software uses scientifically validated methods to produce a report outlining the person’s motivating drives and needs. This report can be used by the hiring manager to determine if the candidate is hard-wired for the job.
For example, a job candidate with a high need for rules and structure may not be the right fit for a team that is newly created and tasked with innovating new products.
On the surface, the candidate might appear very attractive to the hiring manager because they offer a wealth of relevant experience. However, the candidate has needs that do not align with the work and goals that the current team is pursuing.
This team would be better served hiring someone that seeks change, is flexible, and has a low need for established rules and structure.
This is what PI measures. The ability of a person to do a job well over a sustained period. This is more critical now than ever as the cost of a wrong hire can lead to disastrous results.
Conclusion
The point of a skinny resume is to widen the overall talent pool when qualified resumes aren’t available or are cost prohibitive.
PI can help identify which skinny resumes are worth considering. It’s a way to quickly identify potential long-term candidates who will not only fit well into their new job but adapt and evolve as the company moves forward.
If you’d like to learn more about how PI can help with the hiring process, take the PI assessment today via our website.