Predict Job Performance | ATS Software for Recruitment

Death of a 500-year
old legacy

Leonardo da Vinci created the first CV in 1482

CVs cannot differentiate between applicants

Companies are now using applicant tracking systems (ATS), which scan the CVs for keywords, and mathematically score them for relevance before selecting only the most qualified ones for the interview stage.

However, today there are innumerable job-search articles, which advise jobseekers on how to stuff keywords into their CVs to get noticed by the ATS keyword scanning software. A simple search in Google on ‘how to stuff keywords into cv’ throws up over 10 million hits. There are also paid services like Jobscan (www.jobscan.co) that automatically tweak the candidates’ CV with keywords mapped to job descriptions.

As a result, most CVs have similar keywords and phrases. When CVs are so much alike, how do you differentiate one candidate from another by scanning for keywords?

CVs are biased towards active jobseekers

Only 15% are active jobseekers. Active jobseekers are either jobless, unhappy with their current jobs, or are habitual job-hoppers. All these characteristics are undesirable.

Talent acquisition leaders therefore proactively look for passive jobseekers who are better. The holy grail today is employer branding and inbound recruitment to target passive jobseekers who are content in their current jobs but may be open to shift if the offer is appealing.

Typically, active job seekers have their CVs updated and optimized with right keywords to get noticed by ATS scanners. On the other hand, since passive jobseekers are not looking for jobs, they often don’t bother to update their CV with their latest information, nor do they stuff their CVs with the right keywords. In the bargain, the passive jobseekers’ CVs tend to get dropped by ATS scanning software as against the active jobseekers.

CVs cannot be trusted

CVs are just statements made by applicants, which may be ambiguous, factually incorrect or absolute fake. Over 70% of the CVs are padded. Indeed, most job consultants routinely advise jobseekers to ‘enhance’ their CVs to get noticed.

Unless validated, CVs can no longer be considered as trustworthy sources of applicant qualifications.

CVs cannot predict performance There is deep-rooted belief that CVs that have been ‘cleared’ by ATS scanning software or by humans are reliable sources of applicant data. The reality is that ATS today is a dumb bot that mechanically compares keywords, and can easily be fooled by keyword stuffing in CVs.

When it comes to humans filtering CVs, typically 6 seconds are devoted to each CV making it impossible to verify its content. By merely reading CVs, the recruiter has no way to estimate how the applicants would perform in the role. The only way to predict job performance is either to verify statements made by applicants in their CVs during an in-depth interview or put the applicants through pre-selection assessments to test their skills.

However, organizations do not routinely conduct pre-selection assessments; and during interviews typically recruiters do not take the time to ask the right questions that can reveal an applicant’s CV fabrication. So, these applicants pass through unhindered.

The deep-rooted trust in CVs can blind sight and even harm recruiters.

Are there alternatives to CVs? EasyTalent’s application forms offers an effective alternative to CVs.