Have you ever compared resume screening with buying a house? Well, after this blog you have for sure.
At the end of this blog I will tell you a bit more about Equalture and how it works, but what I already can say now is that we are no longer asking candidates for a resume and we are providing our customers with an alternative candidate profile. In this blog I will share the three reasons why, and as I mentioned, by comparing a resume with a house.
It’s all about insights: Three reasons why we should all forget about resumes ASAP
Before diving into the reasons why we firmly believe that resumes are a broken hiring tool, let me start by saying that I completely understand why it’s scary for people to let go of resumes. After all, resumes were introduced in the 1950s already – and as we all know, habits are hard to change.
However, although it might be hard to change, this is a habit we should really combat in the next 5 years together, because it has not only proven to be a deep-seated hiring tool, but also an extremely dangerous one, that often leads to poor hiring decisions. And the reason has everything to do with candidate insights – things we have learned about a candidate. Or when basing this on a resume, things we wrongfully think we have learned about a candidate.
These are the three problems with candidate insights when looking at resume-based hiring.
Problem 1: Inconsistent insights (The three houses)
Let’s say you’re buying a house. I know that deciding which house to buy is not comparable to deciding who to hire in most respects – except from one, and that’s the fact that both decisions are huge, having significant consequences.
Now let’s imagine that you have seen three interesting houses, but you have different information for all three of them. You have an architectural report for the first and second house, information about the ‘age’ of the bathroom and kitchen for the second and third house, and you only know the neighbours of the first and third house. Since it’s such a big decision to make, I can imagine that it might feel uncomfortable to not be able to weigh all three houses against the same aspects.
The same thing applies to candidates. When making such an important decision, you shouldn’t settle for unsimilar insights per candidate. However, that is in fact what you’re doing when working with resumes. Everyone can decide for themselves what to put on their resume and what not to put there – and you just have to deal with the information you’re getting to base your screening on. Would you also accept that when this was actually about buying a house?
Problem 2: Misleading insights (The old kitchen)
Another thing about candidate insights is that they can be misleading. Now let’s go back to the housing example and imagine buying a house with a very nice looking kitchen – at first sight, brand-new. What the previous owner of the house didn’t tell you, however, is that behind these stunning kitchen cabinets and under that beautiful countertop, there’s an oven, dishwasher and microwave, all 15 years old and working improperly. And the worst of all here: You even paid more for the house than it was on the market for, because of this amazingly looking kitchen. Well, that’s a bummer.
I can hear you think: ‘’What does this have to do with resumes?’’ Well, actually quite a lot. When we are reviewing a resume, two things will likely get our attention most.
Layout
When it comes to the layout, we tend to be able to assess someone’s sense of being accurate, structured or creative. Now, how often in your life did it happen that someone asked you to check a resume and provide comments? And would you be able to make an estimation of the number of websites on which you can generate resumes? Well, maybe I heard this extremely often since I’m working in the field of recruitment, but I can’t imagine that you never got that question in your entire life.
People don’t create their resume on their own, and therefore there’s no use in trying to reveal structure or creativity here. In fact, all you’re doing is misleading yourself.
Previous work experiences
The second thing that people focus on when reading a resume is previous experiences, especially for jobs that require some years of relevant experience. And the biggest focus is even on job titles. Cool, so now you have an overview of someone’s previous jobs. And maybe you will even see that someone worked for two companies you’re a big fan of. What you still don’t know, however, is whether someone actually performed well in these jobs, since the duration of a job doesn’t necessarily indicate how well someone performed in that position.
So you know what someone did, but you don’t know how someone did. An astronaut at NASA sounds impressive, but who can tell you whether (s)he actually got the skill set that could get him on the shortlist to travel to the moon?
Problem 3: Lacking insights (The furniture)
That brings me to the last problem: Lacking insights. Now let’s go back to the housing example one more time.
Even if you’re viewing your potential house a thousand times, there’s one thing you will never know before moving in, and that’s how your furniture will look like in that house – if you did get the chance to move all your stuff in there just to test it out, you have got an extremely friendly house owner. 😉 So maybe the sofa and table all of a sudden don’t go so well together in your new living room, while it was a perfect match in your previous one.
And again, the same thing applies to resume screening. It’s simply impossible to properly assess someone’s fit with your team. Whether someone not only has the skills for the job, but also the personality to add positive dynamics to the team. As a result of these lacking insights, you will unconsciously invite bias into your brain to form a picture of this person on the insights that you do have. And it won’t be a surprise for you that this is in most cases the wrong picture.
What do we do here at Equalture to solve all three problems
It seems quite impossible, right? Buying a house with not even one single missing insight to base this decision on? Just as it’s impossible to have all insights right away that you need to properly evaluate candidates?
Well, actually this is possible. If you’re ready to let go of resumes.
Here we go, the shortest explanation of Equalture I can give you. We are a hiring tool that helps you collect unbiased insights on the skills and behaviours of both your team and candidates to hire the best-fit people. Right at the start of your hiring process, by using a gamified approach.
This is how that works in 3 easy steps:
- We use our neuroscientific games to analyse the skills and personalities in your current teams. This analysis reveals your strengths, weaknesses and cultural traits, which helps you accurately reveal your hiring needs.
- Then, instead of letting them fill in a traditional application form, we let candidates apply through our job application experience. Candidates can start with LinkedIn to build up their profile, and play the same set of games that your team played, right away.
- Finally, after a candidate has completed their application, we create a standardised candidate profile, providing you with all insights you need to assess their fit with your hiring needs. And this profile will be the very first impression you will get from a candidate.
To summarise, here’s how we solve all three problems:
- Inconsistent insights. All candidates applying to a specific job need to complete the exact same job application experience, in which we collect the exact same information for each candidate.
- Misleading insights. For each candidate applying to a job, you will receive a candidate profile that is structured in the exact same way, in which you don’t need to assess things such as structure, creativity and job skills based on layout and job titles. Because here comes the last one.
- Lacking insights. By letting candidates play our games right away, each candidate profile provides you with an overview of the skills and personality traits of this candidate, matched to your hiring needs.
And that eliminates the guesswork in hiring. Ultimately to help you base your hiring decisions on objective insights rather than your biased instinct.
Are you ready to join the revolution of resume-free hiring? Well, you know where to find us.
Cheers, Charlotte
Co-Founder & CEO
