THE CANDIDATE POOL IS BIGGER - THE SHORTLIST ISN’T BETTER
Drive by Friday
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Drive by Friday –
There’s something interesting happening in recruitment right now.
There are plenty of people looking for work. There are plenty of people open to a conversation. And with AI making it easier than ever to write a polished CV, tailor an application and put your best foot forward, candidates have never had more tools at their fingertips.
That’s a good thing.
But it does create a new challenge for employers.
When everyone looks good on paper, how do you work out who is actually good?
A well-written CV tells us someone knows how to present their experience.
It doesn’t necessarily tell us how they think.
How they communicate.
How they handle pressure.
Whether they will take ownership.
Or whether they will actually thrive in the environment they are walking into.
I think this is where recruitment is becoming more interesting.
The old approach of matching a CV against a job description has become less useful on its own.
Instead, we need to look a little deeper.
What has this person achieved?
What problems have they solved?
What have they learnt in previous roles relevant to the role they have applied for?
What sort of environment brings out their best?
And most importantly - what are they like when you talk to them?
More applications don’t necessarily mean more choice.
It can be tempting to see a large number of applications and think, “Great, we've got plenty to choose from.” But volume and quality aren't the same thing.
AI is now being used by both sides of the recruitment process - employers are using it to screen and streamline hiring, while candidates are using it to improve applications and navigate the process. That isn't necessarily something to be worried about. Used well, technology can remove a lot of the repetitive work from recruitment and give us more time to focus on the part that really matters: THE PERSON.
The best hiring decisions aren't made by finding the most impressive CV.
They're made by finding the person who can do the job, add something to the team, and make a difference once they're in it.
And that means the human part of recruitment isn't becoming less important.
It's becoming more important.
So perhaps the question isn't: “How many candidates have we got?”
It's: “How well do we really know the candidates we’re choosing between?”
That’s where the interesting recruitment conversations are happening right now.
And I'm enjoying being right in the middle of them.
Have a great Friday and fabulous weekend. 😊
“Behind every CV is a person worth getting to know.”
Simpli-U – The human part of recruitment.
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Lorraine Singer
Director & Consultant – Simpli-U
Recruitment Solutions for the Novated Leasing, Salary Packaging & Automotive sectors
Australia-wide | Solutions all about ‘U’