Super Stars need not apply: How HR systems are culling the very people that companies need the most.
Anyone who has looked for a job in the last four years has probably noticed something very odd was going on. With only a few exceptions almost every single company has the same format in order to apply for a job. This same format of course leads to the same flaws emerging and the same people being excluded.
The current format is both tedious and doesn’t generate any new information about a candidate or if they would be a good fit for the company. One of the most egregious examples of this is the most recent wave of off-the-shelf personality testing that is far from its intended use. Not only are these tools poorly created and ill-suited to their task but very few HR departments have anyone on staff that is qualified to do a deep level psychological examinations of the answers.
Much of these systems will eliminate a candidate long before anyone inside the company even has a chance to look at their background. More importantly the computer is making decisions that may not have any relevance to the position that is being applied for. The truly dynamic are not going to fall easily into one clean category with yes/no questions like “Are you addicted to positive thinking?”
You will hear managers at all levels of a company lamenting that they can not find good people anymore. Many will state that this is a function of a changing culture or some quip about what the new generation is or is not. What we can say is that the current HR systems fail to deliver to internal or external customers.
While it is not hard to imagine how these systems came to be in corporate America under the guise of saving time and money they have failed the largest test of bringing in the best people possible. The moment you out-source the hiring process to a computer you have given up on the future of your company.
