When Will Employers Hire PEOPLE Again?

The dating site Match.com claims they are responsible for over 120,000 weddings in 2013 alone.  They use their “compatibility algorithms” that match similar interests and behaviors so it will hopefully lead to a long-term relationship.  In other words, they use big data to take all the guess work out so their clients know they will have a good chance of having a great experience.

Employers should take note.  Wouldn’t it be nice to get a better hire using technology to automatically match the perfect job seeker to your opening?  Isn’t that what your ATS (applicant tracking system) system already does?  If your ATS is like most, it doesn’t find matches as well as it eliminates any candidates that don’t have perfect backgrounds.

What would happen if employers start using a Match.com application to find their next hire? In place of posting jobs, you access this database of candidates.  Instead of getting start and end dates, job seekers basically will have their “career profile” which includes a picture, skill sets and information to what they are looking for in a job and employer.  At that point, an employer can than determine who they want to interview based on more than just skills.  Could you handle that? 

If you are looking for a paralegal you would access this database and find profiles that match basic criteria.   Instead of start and end dates, job seekers talk about what they like in a job, what motivates them, de-motivates them, their interests, and management style compatibility and its success.  To keep it legal, this profile would have to eliminate all the taboo stuff like religion and disabilities (you find that through their social profiles anyway!). 

Many career sites over the years have tried to come up with a Match.com model for recruiting, but most have failed for many reasons.  For example, it takes too much time to fill out the information, the candidates are concerned about security, or they are worried that too much information may actually eliminate their skill set.  However, in its place we are seeing many companies “people aggregate” instead.  Employers comb the web and gather job seekers’ social profiles and any information they can find and add it to a database without the person’s knowledge (eliminates forms). It requires the employer to search databases and reach out to unsuspecting talent; but isn’t that what we do anyway?  Examples of these sites include Gild, Swoop Talent and Talentbin.

Not sure if anyone has a technology that will solve all sourcing and recruiting efforts.  However, one thing is for sure, some of the systems out their today eliminate great people before you ever get a chance to meet them.