#Nextchat: Too Many Hoops, Not Enough Hires

Recent studies show the time required to fill open jobs is on the rise—from 15 days in 2009 to 23 days today. Some attribute this trend to a widening skills gap, and others say economic uncertainty has instilled a fear of wasting company resources on a bad hire. While those are certainly contributing factors, there are more basic issues.

Last week, someone forwarded to me an article on degree inflation. The article examines a list of occupations that have shown the most “up-credentialing” over the last five years, compiled by the folks at Burning Glass, to determine what’s driving this trend.

Most interesting to me were three sentences my friend had highlighted:

“… it seems as if more employers are using bachelor’s degrees as a signal of drive or talent, regardless of the relevance of the skills actually learned in college.”

“There’s also still an oversupply of workers, so employers know they can afford to be picky.”

“… it’s not clear why a college-level education would suddenly become more important — except maybe as a sorting device for narrowing down the deluge of résumés to the most qualified (or overqualified) applicants.”

Within the blogger bubble, we talk about how important candidate-friendly workflows, easy one-click applies, and mobile access to career portals are for creating a positive candidate experience. But while there are a multitude of factors that drive candidate experience, articles like this one (and the attitudes it purports) tell me we’re missing the mark on some very basic levels.

The notion of an endless supply of talent is feeding a lot of bad behavior in talent acquisition. Don’t get me wrong — there are plenty of people out of work in the U.S. But the gauntlets we’ve devised, the hoops we’re asking candidates to jump through, are getting a little out of hand, and we don’t have much to show for it other than disqualified (and disgruntled) candidates.

Please join @weknownext at 3 p.m. ET on September 18 for #Nextchat with special guest, Kyle Lagunas (@KyleLagunas).  We’ll talk about how the candidate experience, how your organization is handling it and what we can do to make it better for both employers and job seekers.

Q1. What is your average time to hire? How has that changed in the last 5 years?

Q2. Do you require college degrees for entry-level positions? Why or why not?

Q3. What is driving increases in up-credentialing and other qualifiers?

Q4. Do extensive screening and testing processes improve quality of hire? How?

Q5. What are there most effective methods of assessing aptitude and fit?

Q6. Does an extensive assessment & hiring process affect candidate experience? How?

Q7.  How is the notion of the endless supply of talent fueling bad hiring habits?