Sandeep’s skill set matches your job description to a ’T’. He is well qualified with impressive work experience to match. Everything spells eligible! Yet, as a hiring manager you refuse to touch him with a barge pole.
Well, there are certain taboo categories of job applicants that almost every recruiter shies away from. Even the hint of having been fired, laid-off, job hopping, having gaps in employment history, being out of the job market for a while or some other wrinkle in a job record puts the candidate out of the reckoning.
Whenever such a resume crosses an employer’s desk, it arouses suspicion, is labelled a ‘failure’ and discarded without a second thought.
But, hold that for a minute. With the deepening recession, employee recruitment is actually becoming more difficult than earlier. There may be numerous jobseekers in the market, but the real high-performers that you need and will fit your job opening prefer to be safely ensconced in their existing jobs rather than taking the risk of changing jobs.
Then again, the alleged ‘failed’ candidate may have been a top performer earlier only to suddenly find himself thrown into the job market for no fault of his own.
So, is it not worth taking at least a shot at this pool of mainly ‘failed’ candidates instead of dismissing them blindly? Not only will they form a new and welcome source of eligible candidates, but you may also find your next perfect candidate in this lot itself!
Hard look: It pays to keep an open mind, be proactive and take a long, hard look at the so-called taboo candidates before making a decision either way.
You have to carefully review the candidate resume, whether he will fit your job profile and the possibilities of success, before beginning the screening process.
Then, dig around a bit to determine whether any extenuating circumstances were playing behind the scenes that led to the candidate being tagged as a ‘loser’.
For instance, a job-hopper may actually just be guilty of bad judgment or fact may be that he just took up a series of ‘unfit’ jobs in a desperate bid to earn money and support his family. So, try to decipher whether the candidate truly has trouble holding on to a job.
Then again, an otherwise good employee may have been fired because of a clash with the company culture/manager or may have borne the brunt of a change in top management.
And, we very well know that a rocky job history marred by a gaping hole or two may be due to various reasons like time off for higher studies, personal ill-health, caring for a sick relative or simply needing a change of pace. To interpret such ‘non-working’ gaps as a lack of stability or reliability may not be good judgement.
Coming to the huge market of laid-off candidates, most are obviously corporate victims of cost cuts and downsizing. With employees being laid-off in droves, we cannot really blame them for appearing as ‘failures’.
The trick is to find the true circumstances behind the lay-off – was a high-performing, talented employee let go because of business reasons or was it the case of an average employee facing the axe in the first round of cost cuts.
What’s more, with the changing conditions, many progressive companies are actually turning back to the candidates who had actually failed in their own previous recruitment interviews. As GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd. claims, “We see far more ‘failed candidates’ than successful ones.”
What you have to do is try to understand the circumstances under which such a candidate can be successful and whether you can offer the same. This calls for careful questioning and screening.
Pay-off: Recruiting from taboo categories may appear like a challenge, but it also presents great opportunities!
It is worth taking a chance with a ‘failed’ candidate as it may very well turn out to your absolute advantage.
You will gain the benefit of earnest employees who have reached the end of their rope and with no way out of the family responsibilities, have no choice but to win at the job. This will bring sincerity, determination, dedication, perfection and hard work into your fold.
As a top recruiter observes, “The best thing you can possibly do for a person who has been laid off is give him a job. They’ve been to the bottom and like a super ball they will bounce back.”
Not only are such candidates fast learners who can hit the ground running, but also bring new skills as they may have spent the free time updating their qualifications. And what’s more, they are also willing to settle for lesser pay than earlier!
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