"Looking for a Unicorn"

Staying with the theme of "unicorns", the title of this post is taken from a Wall Street Journal article by David Wessel entitled Software Raises Bar for Hiring. In the article the president of Mindbank Counseling Group, Neal Grunstra, relates the stringent and highly specific requirements that many companies have for job vacancies as akin to "looking for a unicorn". Peter Cappelli, a human resources and management professor at Wharton School, cites an email he received from "a company that drew 25,000 applicants for a standard engineering position only to have the HR department say not one was qualified". 

Okay, so it makes sense that the current plethora of candidates for the dearth of job vacancies means that hiring managers can afford to be picky; after all the current state of the economy is a result of not enough jobs to go around.  Is that what is really happening, though? Or is this issue more about a lack of candidates with the right skills? "For every story about an employer who can't find qualified applicants, there's a counterbalancing tale about an employer with ridiculous hiring requirements", Capelli states. 

What about the issue of selection software? Software used in the process of recruitment and hiring was initially intended as an aid rather than a substitution. Now, many applicants submit their resumes in the hopes that they have included enough key words to get their resume through. Most applicants never get the opportunity to speak to someone.  Does this mean that an applicant who cleverly included a sufficient number of key words in their resume is better qualified for a position? Inherently no. 

This problem has spurred new developments in selection software. In Seeking Software Fix for Job-Search Game, Lauren Webb writes that the ideal software would "read resumes intelligently, flagging a handful of truly promising candidates to recruiters and alerting job seekers to openings that are laser-targeted to their skills and background". So, if companies are really intent on finding that unicorn they need to consider more than whether the candidate is great at manipulating their software selection criteria and focus on widening the scope. "Cultural and behavioral fit is a stronger indicator of success and business performance" states Elaine Orler of Talent Function Group. Capelli puts it this way: "[employers could] back off the strict requirement that applicants need to have previously done precisely the tasks needed for the vacant job" and "see if they could do the same with some training...".