Application, interview, decision. The hiring process may look simple, but that three-step process is a disaster at most companies.

Here’s the reality: Applicants are piled with forms; talent professionals are slammed with busy work; managers are overwhelmed with interviews; and employers are debating decisions.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Companies are stuck in the traditional hiring process, but it doesn’t serve their needs.
Future-focused employers are headed another way, and you can join them.

Resumes — Are They Really Worth It?

The vast majority of employers use resumes as a first line of defense in selecting a new worker. Applicants — sometimes thousands of them — hand in a single sheet of paper detailing the proudest moments of their professional lives, and talent teams spend hours examining each delicately crafted scroll.

Right?

Not so much. Research shows that recruiters look at a resume for an average of seven seconds. Seven seconds may be more than a glance, but it barely constitutes a quick scan. It’s certainly not enough time for talent professionals to understand whether an applicant can do the job they’re looking to fill.

Of course, resumes aren’t necessarily the most reliable sources of information. A 2020 report from ResumeLab revealed 36% of Americans admitted to lying on their resumes.It appeared the fibbing stemmed from insecurity; most of those who confessed their dishonesty said they lied because they didn’t have enough experience.

There may be a better way. Instead of relying on a resume to kick off your recruiting process, consider identifying the most important aspects of the role you’re looking to fill and screening candidates based on how their strengths match up.

Go Beyond The Interview

Recruiters need to understand the candidate on a fundamental level — not what they’ve done, but who they are. Most employers assume they accomplish this in an interview. Most employers are wrong.

As one Stanford lecturer wrote in the Harvard Business Review, many employers pass over great candidates because they’re asking the wrong questions. “If you are working on innovation, you need someone who can think with you,” Nilofer Merchant wrote in the article. “And by focusing on capability over experience, you increase the chances you find that person.”

The problem with interviews goes beyond bad questions, however. Interviews can’t produce completely unbiased assessments of a candidate’s strengths. Assessments can. With a standardized assessment, companies can measure the strengths and opportunities each candidate presents. Equipped with that information, they can select the person who best fits the needs of the job.

Getting To Yes

PeopleBest assessments find the unique ‘code of success’ inside of people, offering insights and identifying critical missing areas that may frustrate an employee — or drive them to quit. By discovering how workers score in each category, companies can better understand what workers want, how they stay motivated, and where they can grow to better contribute to their team.

To find out how PeopleBest can serve your team, 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.