Top 3 Trends in New Age Resumes

The majority of literature concerning change and innovation regarding candidate recruitment tends to highlight what I consider to be obvious approaches that most organizations have already adopted.

For today’s purposes, I want to focus on two ‘techie’ trends most of us are aware of, but ignore based on our fear of change and aversion to technological innovation.

 

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Techie Trend #1 – Video Interviewing

Your mobile platform is not enough… you may need video interviewing capability – Videos (in particular one-way videos) are beginning to dominate many aspects of recruiting. Let’s think about this for a moment… most companies have figured out that individuals should be able to apply for a job directly from their mobile phone (if you haven’t figured this out, stop reading and find your IT guys immediately!). A mobile-enabled platform should be your company’s primary mechanism for communicating with prospective candidates and spreading your employer brand messages (the really tech-savvy companies have even figured out how to integrate candidate offer acceptance directly on their mobile phones through software like ‘Docusign’).

 

We all know employees and candidates alike should be able to view recruiting ads and job descriptions on their smartphones and be able to push relevant content to their applicant communities. However; the cutting-edge companies have now moved to offer live Hangouts/Meetups/Videos etc… for candidate skill assessment and interviews.

 

Videos (rather than static pictures or text) have become widely accepted in recruitment and for many hiring, teams have become an essential tool. We all know that visual content is a rising trend across most industries; not a surprise considering most people respond better to visual communication. The video interview trend isn’t going anywhere for numerous reasons. Videos assist us in saving time, money, and energy. For example, video screening is replacing the outdated phone screen, largely due to the fact that you can watch 10 one-way video interviews in the same time it takes to perform a single phone screen.

 

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Techie Trend #2 – Shifting From Resumes to Online Profiles

Many companies are deemphasizing resumes and now accepting online profiles — resumes have many weaknesses, but the primary reason they need to be made optional is hiring speed. This is because few employed candidates have any interest in, nor do they have the time required, to update their resumes, however; you can rest assured their online profile is live. Companies must learn to eliminate the “resume update” waiting period by instead accepting LinkedIn profiles for referrals or at the very least the initial application for job openings.

 

As more companies begin to switch from the traditional one-page paper resume to an updated online version, it will become essential for your company’s hiring practices to be more flexible and accommodating. Building an online presence or a brand is becoming increasingly important to potential candidates. Online profiles are visible 24/7, meaning potential hiring managers can always see that information versus a resume, whereby a candidate is waiting for an opportunity to ‘send’ it in. In my experience; an online profile, such as LinkedIn and a one-way video interview has provided significantly more information than a one-page resume ever could. Happy Hiring!