Hiring new people in an organization is always a challenging process and selecting the “right” person is close to some kind of gamble than real science.
Every company spend lots of time and energy trying to find the right fit as it will obviously impact a lot the company.
This is extremely true for SME, a little bit less for big multinational but still, for all of them, the welcoming of a new comer will bring positive elements with new skills, competencies… as well as potential negative elements if the newly hired person may not go well with the rest of the team and thus create conflicts…
So yes, hiring is challenging and it’s natural to look for help. Hence, in today’s day and age, lots of tools, processes, procedures and theories have been written and proposed on this topic a a way to help organizations to make the right choice.
The downside of these tools is that we’re reaching a point where every job offer, every position description tends to become standardized, polished and relying on keywords.
"The downside of these tools is that we’re reaching a point where every job offer, every position description tends to become standardized, polished and relying on keywords."
Most of the job offers you see today look like this : organizations are looking for “creative”, “energetic” people looking to “make a change” or be “part of an organization that will offer good opportunities” or will “impact the sector” or even more will “help grow your career”…
Organizations are emphasizing of the need to be “flexible”, “adaptive”, “inclusive”… And the list of key words goes on and on.
All this looks very tempting and attractive. Thus all job seekers are trying to do their best to stand out, to be unique, to have THE application that will show that they are different, creative…
Some on the other hand will try to find the best way to fit the need of the company. So they’ll all read the same articles sharing the same recommendations and will present some standardized profile.
Eventually, this later category will have the best chances to win the job. Even if companies are mostly affirming to look for people who are different, unique…
Why? Because today, most of the companies are using so called “artificial intelligence” tools to pre-select the applications.
Those AI (mostly a list of criteria that the software will look for in the resume or the cover letter) will then select only those meeting the specific keywords according to what the organization is really looking for.
These softwares are used officially because lots of companies, especially the multinational ones, receive thousands and thousands of applications that an individual could not manage by herself.
But eventually, this will favor standardized applications, keyword based applications and not those who try to show their personality, their own style, their ability to be creative.
And this will create standardized workplaces and work environment, not taking advantage from the diversity of cultures, backgrounds and experiences from every individual being in the organization.
"And this will create standardized workplaces and work environment, not taking advantage from the diversity of cultures, backgrounds and experiences from every individual being in the organization. "
In today’s world, with more and more technology, more and more distanciation between people, it’s important for every organization to keep the focus on our humanity.
You cannot hire people, select people, the same way you select material goods. People are not “resources” not even “capital” they are living beings with lots of positive complexities that create the creativity and the innovative space needed for our world to move forward.
Thus hiring through standardized processes and AI narrow-minded systems is making your organization losing value.
If you want to be a multinational company, sharing your will, your good will, to be inclusive and diverse, you need to put in place a more human, compassionate hiring process.
You need to dedicate the time and the energy to really look for the people you need and not the “resources” to put in a box or a cubicle. As if you do this, you will lose the real and huge value of every individual.
Standardizing is a natural behavior of the human mind. But as we have to compete more and more with artificial “intelligence” we have to drift away from this tendencies and focus on the original elements of everyone.
So if you want to hire people that will bring real value to your organization. What I will recommend will seem to you completely counter-intuitive and counter-productive. But when you deal with human, it’s never about immediate efficiency, it’s all a long-term journey in which everyone will learn to slowly bring the best of them.
"Don’t expect the perfect match overnight, don’t require the perfect profile. Because most of the things that will make the perfect can’t be written on a resume or a standardized cover letter."
Don’t expect the perfect match overnight, don’t require the perfect profile. Because most of the things that will make the perfect can’t be written on a resume or a standardized cover letter. It will be the natural character of the person, her own self-awareness, her social skills, her personality traits that you will uncover along the way.
So if you want to be a human organization, here’s what you have to do:
1. Develop a process that will really identify the creativity and individuality of every applicant, which means, don’t leave the selection process to an AI.
2. Take the time to really examine each application (if you’re not willing to do it you may not be really ready to be a true multinational company, you are just a national typical company willing to use others’ resources for your own benefit),
3. Give feedback to every applicant on why you didn’t select them. There’s nothing worth than not knowing why you were not chosen especially when you receive dozens of those pre-cooked Email (“thank you for the time given to your application but as this stage we have decided to not move forward with your application”…),
4. Show consideration to the people who took the time to express a real interest in your organization and dedicated their time to create something original and creative.
To sum this up, stick to the human values of your organization at every stage even with people you don’t want to work with. Because eventually, your paths may cross again and you hopefully don’t want to jeopardize anyone’s future.