What is it With Employers Who Want to Hire People?

Now I understand why there is a Great Resignation.

As a job hopper, I have never experienced what I am about to tell you. But first, two months ago, I got my first job interview in two years. Although I didn’t get it and it didn’t bother me. I know why I didn’t get the job. I was nervous on the phone. But fortunately, they did not do what the next two companies did to me. What I am about to say here is the biggest issue with looking for a job during a pandemic.

I applied for two jobs three weeks ago. I won’t say who they are. As I have not heard back, I sent both of them a reminder email a week later. I just wanted to know if they had already filled both positions.

The first one just promised me an interview after he returned from a week-long vacation. He didn’t specify a date. I just put in a reminder on my calendar.

I scheduled the second one for the following week. This one happened. During this interview, the employer informed me that the position may be filled and he just wanted to get to know me so that he can offer me another job in the future.

What this employer should have done.

Now that I think about it, here’s a better idea. Maybe instead of putting the position on the public job boards, they should have notified their staff via email or something like that. If someone from within gets it, you don’t need to post it on the job boards. YOU SHOULD NEVER MENTION THAT THE POSITION MAY BE FILLED BY SOMEONE ELSE DURING A JOB INTERVIEW. THAT WOULD BE‌ RUDE AND A WASTE OF THE OTHER PERSON’S TIME.

The Other One.

The other one, I emailed him three times to schedule a job interview. I got the same promise without giving me a time and day to meet. Since then, he has not contacted me for an interview. I believe he ghosted me.

What this employer should have done.

Instead of promising me an interview for later, he could either a) not reply to my email in the first place, or b) respond to it and schedule one right away. It’s impolite to keep offering someone a job interview without actually scheduling one. Don’t you think so?

To the Employers, here’s an FYI

If you want the perfect candidate to fill all the job requirements, NEWS FLASH: THERE IS NO SUCH THING. No one will fit what you want into a perfect employee. They will only fit a few of the requirements that you need.

And…

Someone once told me that employers ask female candidates to multitask because they believe all women can do so. I have ADHD, but I don’t have any kids. To me, this kind of thinking is sexist. Either way, A MAN OR WOMAN (even if they claim ‌they can) CANNOT MULTITASK. It’s impossible to do all five things perfectly and correctly at the same time. Women will also make mistakes.

As I mentioned, I have ADHD. Multitasking was required of me at some of my past jobs, but I hated those. Since I have to complete all the tasks correctly and perfectly, I get nervous and my hands shake. My ADHD is more hyper-focused (more inattentive). I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. I can prioritize tasks by their deadlines. This is the kind of work I am looking for.

Another Thing…

Get rid of the word multitasking from your job descriptions. Even if a candidate says he can eat, write a report, speak on the phone, and juggle balls all at the same time, he will mess up one of those things on his to-do list. MULTITASKING IS NOT POSSIBLE, as evidenced by science. If you do not believe me, Google it.

Even better, since you don’t want to do all the work, I found a few of many blogs, YouTube videos, and articles that say this:

• Can People Really Multitask?
• Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work
• Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again
• Can Humans Actually Multitask?
• Can You Really Multitask?
• Why the Human Brain Can’t Multitask
• The Doom of Multitasking: Don’t Force Your Employees into It
• Monotasking Is The New Multitasking

In the absence of multitasking, what happens?

Each person can only do one thing at a time. This is called monotasking. People can prioritize which tasks are essential based on the deadline, for instance. This way, none of your employees will screw up.

However, that will slow down production.

You’re wrong there. Multitasking causes your productivity to suffer. You make more mistakes when you do that. This costs the company time and money. A part of that is fixing what your employee did wrong, because they weren’t paying attention to it. Not to mention the stress it causes your employees.

You’ll save a lot of time and money by monotasking. Employees will be very happy, zoning out while working on one task, and making time fly by.

Because there are so many jobs out there and so many people are unemployed, why aren’t employers hiring the right (not perfect) candidates?

In other words, the current hiring process that has been in place since, I believe, the 1960s or 1970s, is broken, and it needs to be fixed.

It has always been this way since I was young and unable to find work because of my lack of experience at the time.

It was so easy for my father to get a job as soon as he arrived in Canada in 1957 (despite not knowing any English). He only had to know another Hungarian who speaks English and is already working as a laborer. The only thing my dad had to do was to get someone to help him with his application.

However, that was when assembly lines were still popular here in North America. Automation didn’t appear until the 1960s or 1970s.

My research revealed that employers are doing things wrong in the hiring process today. They seem to hire more “passive’’ job seekers than active ones. In the article Your Approach to Hiring is All Wrong by Peter Cappelli, passive job seekers are those who do not actively seek employment.

The type of job seeker that Cappelli describes in his article is someone who sounds like they already have a job and is being approached by other companies that offer a higher salary. I wonder why the unemployment rate in Canada and the United States is so high. Employers should consider those of us looking for work, rather than those who aren’t.

As long as it is not advertised on job boards, I am okay with them looking for their own employees to fill other positions. Another aspect of Cappelli’s article also shocked me.

Employers post what Peter Cappelli calls Phantom Jobs. These are jobs that don’t exist, but employers post them to find future candidates. These positions will remain on all job sites for some time after they are filled. I find this entirely ridiculous. Why don’t employers take down the ad after the job has been filled, rather than fishing for more candidates for future vacancies? Furthermore, the chances are that once those job opportunities arise and these employers reach out to those other candidates, most of those people have already landed other jobs.

Another issue that most of these employers don’t consider, says Cappelli, is that they pay little attention to the turnover of employees. Some jobs experience a high turnover rate. Yet these bosses do not care enough to find out why their employees are quitting. Finding out why they are quitting at your company is important. This is so that your company can improve on employee satisfaction.

There is also the reliance on referrals. Years ago, I heard a career coach mention references are becoming less common. Then they discussed an example of an employee in one company who was stealing and doing other unlawful stuff. He then got fired, but this boss told him ‌he will put in a good reference for him. And this guy got another job doing the same illegal things. All because of a positive referral. There will be some employers that will still require these, though.

It doesn’t surprise me that Cappelli’s article focuses on the employer’s reliance on technology and driving costs down. He mentions in the article that keyword algorithms of ATS software do not predict how well a person would perform in their position after they are hired. The employers of today think ATS will make their lives easier by hiring the right people, but the opposite is true. It’s like any other piece of software. It is not always effective. So don’t totally rely on it.

Wage increases are another problem employers aren’t getting. We have seen the cost-of-living rise because of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and climate change. Wages have not kept up with this demand for 10, 20, or even 30 years.

Many people now have to work three or four minimum wage jobs in order to pay rent, food, clothes, and send their children to school. They cannot recharge and take care of themselves because of these demands. One minimum wage job isn’t enough to cover rent of $1,000 to, I think, $5,000 per month. Additionally, these workers are forced to choose between paying rent, bills, and food. They won’t be able to pay for all these necessities. The money they have will only cover one.

I think we need to fix this problem because it’s a huge one. It used to be that higher living costs also resulted in higher wages increasing. This was true until the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Back in the 90s, a lot of companies in the US and Canada outsourced jobs that should have been done by Americans and Canadians, because labor is cheaper in South America, Africa, and Asia. Not to mention that these companies do not know that workers there are extremely stressed, underpaid (by working a dollar a day), and working in poor conditions. Eventually, those workers will revolt and demand better wages and working conditions. What will these businesses do when that happens? I bet you that these companies will move to an even poorer country and repeat the process.

After taking some entrepreneurial courses, I know wages are the highest expense for any business. There should be a better way to rethink this concept. Rather than small and medium-size businesses, I think that the rich entrepreneurs should start paying taxes and cut their own salary in half in order to save the company money. They can even save more cash by reducing executives’ salaries by half, or by firing them first. Would you like that idea?

That seems better to me than laying off lots of low-paid employees to save money while executives and CEOs go on vacations and buy more mansions.

Anyway, I digress from the real issue here, which is hiring the correct (not perfect) employee. Moreover, manufacturing jobs need to be brought back to their original locations. And I don’t just mean North America.

So What Can Employers do to make the hiring process easy?

Get rid of age bias first. There are plenty of people over 40, 50, 60, or even 70 years old who have mastered the use of computers and are up to date with the latest technology. They also know the pay rate of the positions they are applying for and are not asking to be paid more because they have 20 or more years of experience. Furthermore, many of us in this age group do not want to retire anytime soon. This is because a meager pension cannot cover our bills and our enormous medical expenses. A bottle of cancer pills costs over $100. I once had to pay $160 for a bottle of Vyvanse (for my ADHD) that was not covered by Blue Cross (thankfully, I had to switch to another pill that worked better and is covered). The price of medication in Canada is likely to be much cheaper after 2023. Plus, no one, including myself, wants to work as a Walmart Greeter while receiving a pension.

On the other end of the age bias spectrum, are those new workers 16 (or 14) to 25 years old (which I also experienced). When I was their age, I had a similar problem looking for work. Gen Z’s are most likely to be unemployed and unable to pay for rent, food, utilities, or shelter. Part of the issue is that the majority of the employment that was accessible to me when I was their age have now all become mechanized. Look at your local grocery store: there are still cashiers, but more people (excluding myself, because scanning and bagging more than five things takes longer) are using self-checkouts. You can now order food at MacDonald’s from your phone and in person without a cashier.

It’s no wonder they’re called Generation Jobless. Yet, they are being discriminated against in the job search process because they do not have the required years of experience. This results in recent college graduates having difficulty finding a job in the area that they graduated from (and I have also experienced this) because of this. In any event, having a college degree these days is pointless and a waste of money. Additionally, this generation was born in a time of the internet. It is no surprise that they can surf it. Smartphones are second nature to them. And they do not have experience? Are you kidding me? Gen Z’s are experienced enough to work. You should have a peek at how many organizations they volunteered for. These are the only professions they will be able to obtain, and sadly, volunteering does not pay them any money.

Not only should you get rid of age biases, but all the other biases as well. What I mean by this is racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination against people with disabilities. They also have the right to work just as any straight, white, and able-bodied man would.

Yet, the majority of the people who were laid off because of the pandemic were women and BIPOC. Yet, they are the ones who are having problems finding work at the moment. Otherwise, your attitude towards not hiring people based on these biases should change now.

I mean, why don’t you want to hire women who have kids? Believe me, there are employers out there who don’t want to hire mothers. Yet, these moms (Many of them are single) are the ones that need to put food on the table and a roof over their children’s heads. I don’t have any kids myself, but this is pure discrimination.

There are companies that don’t want to hire women because they are too b****y. Yet, a man who acts the same way gets hired. This is what is known as a double standard.

The author of a medium article a few months ago (sorry, I can’t remember their name) complained about why people in a study don’t like women as leaders. Yet, a male boss who acts the same way is acceptable.

I have a female friend who has trouble working with women in leadership positions. In her case, it has more to do with a clash of personalities than with which gender is the better manager.

As for my opinion of male and female bosses, I had no problems with either. In some of my past jobs, I got along with both gendered leaders. I didn’t like some bosses of either gender and wondered how they became supervisors in the first place. In any case, I accept women as bosses without any problems.

I would also recommend changing some things that you put in your company’s ATS software. I have heard that software companies are going back to the drawing board to make these applications spit out more resumes and not weed out 90% of more qualified job applicants. Unfortunately, the ATS is here to stay, but it needs to do a better job than it does right now.

I have noticed another thing about the ATS systems. It’s more to do with how we will fill out online job applications on these company websites. I love those companies that simply ask for a resume, cover letter, and samples of our work (Depending on the position). I also love those that only have five questions for me to fill out.

Some job applications, on the other hand, can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to complete with many questions. When filling out an online application, job seekers don’t have the patience or time to go through all of them. Companies who do this should rethink and eliminate some of these questions from their web forms.

In my experience looking for writing jobs, some of these questions show my skills. In this example, instead of putting those questions online, have us do it on our own time, but with a deadline, so we can email our results to you. It’s easier for us, the applicant.

The Human Resources Department should also do more.

In every major organization, Human Resources should also step up and not spit out the same job description as five or ten years ago. Many of these postings need to be updated.

Getting rid of the resume is another thing to do. It only shows the candidates’ work history and not their skills. You should use LinkedIn instead, or at least accept applicants who send in their YouTube or TikTok videos to prove how they can work for you. You need to find a way to get the candidate to mention and show their skills. Resumes don’t do that.

You should also get rid of the job interview. It’s all talk, no action, and a waste of both of our times. It’s impossible to tell if the candidate is a good match just by chatting with them. People do lie. Candidates should show their competence by doing their job. Job interviews are only useful for those looking for sales positions. Few job seekers are great salespeople, and most of us don’t want to be one. In addition, introverts would greatly benefit from removing this.

What other way can I determine if the candidate is the right fit for the position?

Is there a way to replace a job interview? Have you heard of a job audition? It’s like auditioning for an acting role, but it’s oriented towards the position you’re hiring for. Looking for an Office All-Rounder or Administrator? Schedule an hour or two, so the candidate can show you how they deal with day-to-day operations in that position.

Furthermore…

There is no one size fits all approach to finding a job. That’s why the hiring process that we have now is a failure. It may have worked in the past. But now all jobs are being automated. That’s why the way we hire for jobs doesn’t work anymore.

Moreover, our governments should now discuss universal basic income. Most people do not know how to be engineers, and all the other jobs that we have now will disappear in five years. Today’s work world is a reality thanks to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

References

Cappelli, P. (n.d.). Your Approach to Hiring Is All Wrong. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://hbr.org/2019/05/your-approach-to-hiring-is-all-wrong

Fowler, K. (2021, August 25). Why Its So Hard To Find The Right Candidates In Today’s Economy. forbes.com. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2021/08/25/why-its-so-hard-to-find-the-right-candidates-in-todays-economy/?sh=241868ab5912

Kelly, J. (2021, July 12). The Great Jobs Mismatch: Why Companies Aren’t Hiring And Candidates Can’t Find Jobs. Forbes.com. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/07/12/the-great-jobs-mismatch-why-companies-arent-hiring-and-candidates-cant-find-jobs/?sh=170813d4276c