HIRING IN 2021 – THIS IS WHAT A LINKEDIN POLL REVEALED

LinkedIn recently conducted a poll on what recruiters and candidates expect from the job market. Take a look at some of the responses.

We’ve talked about what the job market will look like in the post pandemic era. LinkedIn recently conducted a poll on what recruiters and candidates expect from the job market. We collated the best responses for you with our own tuppenny worth, and looked at the flip side. Before we jump in we’d like to apologize in advance if we’ve crossed any lines. Here goes –

Want to read our take before you probe further?

Self-Owned Job Portal

Don’t’ Hire Under-Qualified People.

Soft Skills.

Don’t Judge the Gaps.

Equal Terms.

Change the Criteria.

Age.

Humanize.

Respect

The CTC

Get a Grip on Admin.

Simplify the Process.

Self-Owned Job Portal

This brilliant idea was suggested by Pooja P. She says why not each company have their own job portal where they post vacancies and candidates can apply directly after taking a test for the required skill set. Brilliant Pooja – this puts paid to all intermediaries. But have you thought it through? Thousands – if not lakhs – of candidates apply for a single post. Think about the volume of data that the HR of the company would have to wade through. That’s what drove them to outsource the process in the first place didn’t it?

Don’t’ Hire Under-Qualified People

Quite a few opined that companies should not hire engineers for fixing broken machines or doctors to sell medicine. Absolutely! We agree. But then, look at the rate of unemployment in India. Here’s a snapshot from Statistia.com

You’ll see that graduates comprise the highest percentage of unemployed (16.3%) followed closely by post graduates (14.2%). What will all these guys and gals do? After all everyone needs a job.

Soft Skills

Raghu Alluri – an interviewer himself – says soft skills are extremely important. According to him a person with good soft skills like communication, time management, and confidence will work well in any team. He also hopes that employers of the future will give feedback to candidates – even when they reject them – and he wants this to be mandatory so that both the employer and the candidate can learn through the process. Well said Raghu! We already talked about Transferrable Skills on our blog.

Read more about Transferrable Skills

In the same vein, another responder wants recruiters and hiring managers to hire people who may not have the skills but are willing to acquire them. Well we think soft-skills can be learnt in training sessions but domain skills are something else.

Don’t Judge the Gaps

Quite a few people are talking about career gaps that reflect badly on your CV. Most people agree that candidates should not be judged by career gaps because there are millions of reasons for those. As long as he or she has bounced back and updated you should consider their candidature. Of course if you find that they do not possess the skill you need you can reject them – but do so respectfully please don’t use the gap as an excuse.

Equal Terms

Some responders spoke about the fact that employers demanded experienced candidates which left freshers out of the loop. Fair enough – somebody needs to hire the freshers so that they can gain the experience. Another point related to this is that when experienced candidates apply, the recruiters expect them to work at less than what they were earning earlier. Hey recruiter! Why the hell would I quit a higher paying job for a lower paying one? Unless I hate my boss enough to do so that is – which is rare.

Change the Criteria

“Better to give assignment to test the person’s capabilities rather than discussing an abstract topic.” This was part of one of the comments in the poll and it’s fair enough. Traditionally, hiring managers have been stating the minimum qualifications for any job. This goes like … candidate should be a commerce graduate with distinction and should be a certified MBA. Is it not possible though that a 12th pass but experienced person may handle a team better than a qualified post-graduate? After all there’s an ocean wide gap between theory and practice – remember?

Is your degree your only ticket to success?

Age

Talking of criteria, age is often cited as one and younger candidates are unequivocally preferred. Dear recruiters, how do you expect a youngster to have the experience and maturity that some jobs demand? Well, ok you feel that the older ones will burn out sooner – but if they have a clean bill of health and you allow a little flexibility, they can do a good job – perhaps better. Working well beyond retirement is fairly prevalent in some countries, people work even until they are 90 and over – in fact as long as they are able. Why not give it a shot?

Humanize

Looking at the surge in technology such as AI and ML in which bots play a significant role, some responders expressed concern about de-humanizing the process. They alluded to the possibility that candidates too can copy-paste and modify their resume using the job profile to make it more visible to bots. Besides, who likes to talk to a machine? Yes, by all means use the machines for screening; but it is important to humanize the process during the later stages to weed out the scams – remember Mr. Copy Paste? He’ll show up when he interacts with humans.

Respect

Many responders felt that recruiters do not respect the candidate or his time. Employers inviting candidates to the office for interview expect them to wait around without so much as a sip of water and often foregoing lunch while they await their turn. Things may not be as bad today because the pandemic drove everyone including recruiters online. But then there’s this responder who says the interview should be a two-way process with the candidate having equal right to ask about the company. Great thought right? On the flip side, if you as a hiring manager or potential employer really want to know what the candidate can do for you and your organization ask him outright; then sit back and listen to his ideas and visions.

The CTC

Why do recruiters ask about the candidate’s current CTC? That’s what one responder wanted to know. After all, what does the current or past salary have to do with the new job? We think that makes sense, don’t you?

Others feel that the CTC (Cost to Company) should be discussed at the start – if this does not work out, there’s no point wasting everyone’s time and effort right? Yet another suggested posting the CTC right in the JD! Great for transparency and weeding out uninterested applicants right at the start isn’t it? And again, while candidates are invited to share their expectations, few recruiters or hiring managers listen with an open mind – or do they?

Get a Grip on Admin

Responders to the LinkedIn poll feel that job openings should be taken down once the vacancy is filled. Hey recruiters – are you that fond of wading through data? But that’s not all. Candidates who responded said that recruiters should be more specific about the requirement – perhaps they need to learn how to write a JD. Be clear about what you want and ask for it.

Simplify the Process

Here’s what one innovative talent scout had to suggest about the recruitment process – which he feels is unnecessarily long drawn. Ask few pointed questions says he and then describe the process to the candidate so that he knows what to expect. Provide feedback at every state – if only a score on a scale of 5 – but for each area of assessment such as domain, skills etc. This versatile thinker also suggests training for interview panel members. Good thought – what about recruiters or talent scouts Pradeep?

We’ve tried to collate the best responses but these are not the only changes in demand. Once again, if we’ve hurt any sentiments our apologies for the same – it was purely unintentional.

We talked about what recruitment would be like in another blog. Care to take a look?

The Recruitment Process Demystified

Meanwhile, if you have your own opinion do share it in the comments. You can also share it in our FB community.

Disclaimer: THE RESPONSES ARE THE OPINION OF THE RESPONDERS. BYN DOES NOT NECESSARILY SUBSCRIBE TO THEM.

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