WSJ Shares Hiring Trends to Help Ease the Burden of Resume Oversaturation

Rarely in the nation’s history have so many people been looking for work. One effect of this heightened job interest is an “embarrassment of riches” for hiring managers who finding they have too little time to review every resume that reaches them. Aiding this upward trend in resume submissions are online job boards that make applying for positions simple, even if an applicant is not qualified. The result is a heightened strain on recruitment teams who find their time-budget to be ever shrinking in the face of the glut of incoming applications.

The Wall Street Journal has recently examined two hiring trends that seem to help companies facing resume overload. The first of these tactics is simple to bypass the applications entirely. Some companies have chosen to take a more activist approach to the screening process and have developed innovative selection processes that ignore the traditional method. For example, one company designed a survey that functioned as an applicant filter by asking questions regarding job fitness such as, “What is your dream job?” and “What is the best job you’ve ever had?”

Another example company began accepting short application videos from interested candidates that explain their interest in a particular position and requesting links representative of their online presence. The success of such ventures have made it apparent that one approach to eliminating a resume requirement is to develop new hiring methods which may better identify candidates with appropriate skill sets. A less radical method for lessening the resume burden is to install applicant-tracking software which automatically scans resumes for specified key words and qualifications. While this approach does not eliminate resumes from the hiring process, it does substantially ease the workload of HR personnel. However, the convenience offered by these programs comes at a cost – prices range from about $5,000 up into the millions.