Kathryn Moody says recruiters and employers are already looking beyond what the résumé provides, signalling the end of this long-serving hiring tool.
By Kathryn Moody*
Is the résumé dead?
Depends on who you ask.
Talk to any recruiter, and it’s likely they still depend on résumés — even if they wish they didn’t, as some experts told HR Dive.
These (sometimes digital) pages remain a staple of the process in part because applicant tracking systems still require them in some form, and employers still consider them the standard by which to evaluate and sort through applicants.
Yet those same recruiters and employers already look beyond what the résumé provides.
Recruiters can look into social media accounts, personal blogs and online portfolios for a snapshot of a candidate just as easily as they can skim a résumé.
“Résumés are dead,” Carisa Miklusak, CEO and co-founder of tilr, told HR Dive, especially for some parts of the new workforce.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a new story in HR.
Recruiters have tried to kill the résumé for years now, and still, reports of its death remain somewhat exaggerated.
But will a new focus on machine learning and algorithms, in combination with a more personal approach, sound its final death knell?
Why the résumé is dying — still
As workplaces focus on employee engagement — and increasingly, becoming a workplace that welcomes the humanity of its workers — employers want to see a snapshot of an actual human person.
“Résumés are a point in time and not reflective of the human,” Penny Queller, SVP and GM of Monster’s staffing business unit, told HR Dive.
“There’s nothing on a résumé that demonstrates the individual’s aspirational self.”
Miklusak agrees, saying résumés are “a very static presentation of who you are”.
One of the biggest flaws of a résumé may also be why it has persisted for so many years: it is a history of a person’s work shortened into a page or two.
Ankit Somani, co-founder of AllyO, spoke of two kinds of résumé, one being a “history of stuff you have done” that you update when called to do so.
The other is harder to capture — the footprints an employee may leave on projects and in the world, generally.
Demands for workplaces to remain agile, however, put pressures on recruiters to take a look at these real humans at fast speeds.
While falling back on the résumé may seem like an easy solution for now, it’s become a real barrier of entry to certain segments of a burgeoning workforce — notably gig workers.
“There are people in the new generation that don’t even have one,” Miklusak said of résumés.
“It has become a barrier for entry.”
Will video make a comeback?
To tear down those barriers, Queller wants to bring the focus back to humanity.
And to her team, the solution is video and voice.
Video can help both employees and recruiters cut through the noise, as it immediately feels like a more personal experience than first learning about someone through lines on a paper.
While employees sending in video résumés or answers to pre-packaged interview questions is not exactly a new innovation in the space, Queller also imagines recruiters using the medium to their advantage, perhaps replacing voicemail in some respects.
This “super human” take on recruiting is a bit of a pendulum shift for an industry that has taken the opposite tack to erase unconscious bias and ease diversity hiring issues up front.
Many organisations have decided to erase the names and addresses of applicants on their résumés — dehumanising people for ease of consumption and improved access on both sides.
Queller says that a more personal experience on both sides could lead to better understanding of candidates from all backgrounds.
Use of video is still somewhat controversial, however, on the candidate side.
Miklusak said she prefers the front-end filters, like name erasure, to prevent discrimination and unconscious bias upfront.
“It’s more difficult for me today to support video as a full replacement format for résumés,” she said.
Generally, with more personalised takes on recruitment, hiring managers have to carefully walk the “fine line between personalisation and bias,” Somani said.
All platforms have their pluses and minuses.
With a more personalised experience, recruiters must be careful the platform doesn’t allow them to take things into account that shouldn’t really be taken into account during the hiring process.
What’s old is new again
With more sophisticated technology at the ready, the industry is primed to try other techniques for résumé replacement or, at least, résumé transformation.
The skills gap has placed great pressure on employers to up their search game, and résumés aren’t making the hunt any easier, Miklusak said.
Ironically, the skills gap has pushed for recruiters to focus on just that — skills, rather than titles or specific job experience.
Lumped skills portions of résumés have returned as a way for potential employees to put themselves at the top of recruiters’ lists.
Efficiency, rather than title, is attractive.
Résumés as they stand are “built on the old currency of the workforce,” Miklusak said.
In this agile business environment, employers have to seek out who is poised to do the job and who has the right skills, rather than focus on who a person was in the past.
Is the future in algorithms?
For organisations to better grasp their talent strategy, more hiring managers and HR execs will need to have a keen understanding of the skillset of every individual so that talent can be allocated appropriately.
To execute that pretty intense demand, some have turned to algorithms, Miklusak said.
A well-created algorithm based upon your organistion’s already existing talent framework can make decisions on candidates for you, depending on what is needed.
The technology is still developing, and naturally has some potential potholes if not built appropriately.
In other words, no matter what tool is touted as the next big thing, it will have its own set of challenges.
The résumé’s days, however, are likely numbered.
* Kathryn Moody is Editor of HR Dive in Washington, DC. She tweets at @KatMMoody.
This article first appeared at www.hrdive.com.
