Sometimes, businesses fall prey to market myths that aren’t quite true, causing more damage than good. One of those myths is that there is a large gap between the skills employers need and the skills job candidates have: The Skills-Gap Myth. Before you turn away an entry level job candidate, make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.
Is Your Hiring Process Too Stringent?
Consider a fresh graduate job candidate who has all of the skills listed in your job advertisement, but is required to have the exact job title of a previous position for the Applicant Tracking System to spit out their name as an interview candidate. If the difference in titles is purely semantic, why make this a requirement to get an interview?
Consider the Costs of Believing in the Skills Shortage
In a company’s overzealous hunt for the perfect candidate, they may be throwing out multiple viable candidates on technicalities alone. This can cost your business by:
Lengthening the Hiring Process - Companies can be so adamant about getting just the right candidate, that they take years to fill a position. They also never monitor why the job hunt took so long because they believe their systems are working well.
Forcing You to Spend More Per Hire - The length of the search ends up costing companies tremendously on their bottom line. Hiring is costly and ties up the time of managers, human resources, and many other specialists in the company.
Reducing Your Productivity - If it takes a year or more to hire someone, the people relying on a role in your business will have to pull double-duty to cover for the missing person. This, and the fact that you are short-handed, will cause your productivity to fall over time.
Instead of assuming there is no one out there with the skills you need, why not ramp up your hiring by fielding more candidates?
Question: What aspects make a great hiring process?
This article originally appeared on FirstJob.com and has been republished with permission. Get pricing today to join FirstJob.com to figure out how to match your fresh grad jobs postings with multiple star candidates successfully.
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