In what may be one of the most bizarre and counter-intuitive findings in the HR world this year, many hiring specialists say that despite the high volume of applicants, the actual percentage of qualified candidates remain conspicuously low.
One would naturally think that in the down economy, more applications would inevitably – due to sheer math alone – and quantifiably yield more qualified and hire-able candidates. But studies show that’s not the case.
There are two obvious reasons for this. One, to a degree, candidates have been unemployed for so long, their skill set has deteriorated. And two, there are likely quality candidates out there, but hiring firms either don’t recognize them as qualified, or they fall through the cracks.
That latter reason is a tough pill to swallow for many hiring specialists, but in private, they’ll likely acknowledge there is truth to it. The fact remains hiring departments are critically under-staffed, being forced to do more with less. Without an end-to-end, consolidated staffing software or a recruiting software platform it is highly probable – in fact, we’d venture to say irrefutable – that a “one in a million” hire vanished into the vortex of thousands of lost resumes.
