Recruitment continues to suffer from what could be described as an ongoing crisis as technology has made it so easy for candidates to apply for roles that they are swamping employers with unmanageable numbers of applications.

One-click routes to applying via online jobs boards has led to a pandemic of incoming applications for retailers and hospitality companies as both sectors are high volume employers. The situation has reached the point where people are blithely applying for all and sundry roles with little thought given to the actual job.

The upshot of this is that volumes are going through the roof while at the same time the suitability of the people applying for each role has invariably gone downhill. This is a real double-whammy and with piles of applications being received on a daily basis it is proving increasingly difficult for companies to process them with anything even approaching in-depth analysis.

In the UK I’m informed that an average of 300 applicants can be expected per role and when you look at the likes of Dubai it can reach an astronomical 2,500. The reality is that two per cent might get through to an interview and recruitment teams can’t physically go through the volumes so many of those applicants at the bottom of the pile will sadly be ignored.

Even for those that are read the average time spent on them is a mere six seconds. When you give them so little attention then the recruitment team will invariably be relying on their subconscious so things like age, schooling and where the applicant comes from are prioritised. There is little objectivity and a focusing on the applicant’s skills etc…

The problem of HR teams being stretched from dealing with out-of-control recruitment requirements is hardly new but the one-click scenario has fuelled the current problems. The convenience for applicants has undoubtedly gone too far. As many as 50% of the applicants can be from different countries and so they will be wholly unsuitable for a regular role in the UK within retail and hospitality. Even with the job boards supposedly filtering such candidates out it is still prevalent.

Despite the stretched nature of the HR teams there is further pressure being applied from within organisations to fill the vacancies ASAP. Whereas some parties in businesses are accepting of the difficult situation there will be many others constantly questioning why the vacancies have not yet been filled.

Recruitment teams and HR departments should be out networking and spreading the appeal of their brands in the wider market and attending careers fairs among other value-added activities. But they are not. They are in the office screening applications. There are invariably insufficient people on the team it could be argued. HR leaders will likely want a team that is three-times larger than its current size.

This means some corners are invariably cut in the recruitment process and certain things are de-prioritised. Dealing with the time-consuming screening of hundreds of candidates before selecting for interview is one of the things that gets dealt with as best it can. Such a process is undoubtedly suited to technology and dare I say it AI.

Powering through piles of applications is an obvious problem that could be solved by the adoption of AI technology. This would not only enable HR teams to free up their resources for other tasks but all candidates would receive a fair hearing and interviews given to those most suited to the role irrespective of how many thousands of people had applied. Surely a win-win.

Glynn Davis, editor, Retail Insider

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