This tired recruiting flow causes both candidates and employers too much grief. It’s exhausting for job seekers, who are crafting, tweaking and submitting resumes and cover letters for every opportunity they’re even slightly interested in. The process is just as miserable for the people on the other side. Recruiters and hiring managers are besieged by documents, scheduling and meetings — and that’s before they have to approach the decision-making process.

Here’s the good news: There’s no law that says employers have to require resumes, cover letters or interviews. You’re free to design a recruiting process that works for you and your candidates. In today’s blog, I’m going to discuss the shortcomings of the status quo and the opportunity of a reimagined recruiting.

Rethink the Resume — Look Harder, Faster

Did you know 40% of hiring managers spend less than one minute looking at a resume? Resumes communicate a list of accomplishments that help hiring managers quickly decide whether to grant a candidate any more attention.

But the data resumes provide for this incredibly important decision is inherently flawed. It’s a widely known fact that many applicants lie on their resumes. Even when resumes are 100% honest, they don’t do a good job feeding hiring managers valuable information. They may sum up a candidate’s experience, but they can’t provide a deep knowledge of someone’s skills, talents and potential. It’s just a piece of paper.

The Cover Letter Doesn’t Have You Covered

A cover letter communicates more about a candidate’s capabilities than a resume, and hiring managers’ reliance on them backs up that fact. 83% of HR pros say cover letters are important for their hiring decisions.

But do cover letters offer insight in a way that’s fair and illuminating? I say no. A candidate with decent writing chops may be able to tell a convincing story about their professional abilities. Meanwhile, a job seeker with less prowess for the written word might come off as inexperienced or dispassionate. Ultimately, cover letter-writing skills may not say much about a candidate. If the workers are applying to positions that have little to do with writing, their ability to showcase their experience in a short essay shouldn’t matter to you.

Reimagine recruiting

Imagine recruiting without the resume and cover letter. There’s less work for recruiters and candidates alike. There’s fewer formalities, headaches and papers. But what’s left?

If you take resumes and cover letters out of the recruiting equation, you have to find something to take its place. Are you recruiting 24/7?  Are you announcing your open positions to everyone in the company, so THEY are your hidden recruiters? Remember the great person at Starbuck’s who always seems to know what you order and has it ready?  Don’t laugh — one of our clients found their best reps this way.

A reimagined recruiting process should eliminate the frustrations once caused by the recruiting tactics of old. Instead, it should provide data-driven insights into candidates’ skill, potential, and passion. It should help you see where job seekers belong in your organization, streamlining and fireproofing the talent decisions that were once messy and haphazard.

PB takes the guesswork out of the candidate search. No bias, no discrimination, no opinions, no agendas… just looking at who can or can’t do a specific job. To find out how PeopleBest can make this dream a reality at your organization, book a demo and set up a time to chat with one of our specialists.

PeopleBest is a revolutionary, simple and powerful way to capture the exact ‘DNA of success’ inside people, teams and companies