Monster: 85% of recruiters say candidates exaggerate skills

Excerpted from HR Dive By Valerie Bolden-Barrett

Dive Brief:

• Recruiters generally are confident about finding qualified candidates, according to a new report. In fact, 95% of respondents to Monster’s 2019 State of the Recruiter survey said they feel good about their ability to find qualified candidates, and most think the active candidates they find are qualified, but 85% said candidates exaggerate skills and proficiencies on their resumes. While only one-third of recruiters believe candidates are “very honest” about their proficiencies, millennial recruiters have more trust in candidates, with 41% believing that candidates are very honest. The global online survey polled 1,700 recruiters.
• The survey also found that millennial recruiters were more likely to believe that social media is an effective advertising tool (79%) than Generation X recruiters (66%), and they were more likely to use social media in advertising.
• “Today’s tight labor market is making it increasingly challenging for organizations to find and hire outside talent that has all of the necessary skills and is the right fit,” Scott Gutz, Monster’s CEO, said in a statement. “For recruiters to be effective, the industry must continue to adapt to the needs of both candidates and employers. The reality is that the skills and generational gaps will continue to widen in the years to come. But by focusing on addressing those challenges today, companies will be able to not only identify top talent, but also retain and grow their existing employee base.”

Dive Insight:

Gutz noted in the statement that the recruiting industry must work better for both employers and candidates. It’s a common argument that calls on recruiters to reconcile common points of tension between employers and applicants in the recruiting process.

One area of disagreement is timelines: according to an April Addison Group survey, 40% of job seekers said they’d wait up to one week after an interview before losing interest in a job. But more than half of recruiters in that survey said candidates should expect them to take up to a month to fill jobs. Communicating reasonable time frames for hiring decisions may help to improve the experience for all involved.

In February, Monster’s 2019 State of the Candidate survey showed that video as a recruiting and job hunting tool ranked high among Gen Z, as 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds in the survey said the technology would have a role in their future job search, including video calls during the interview process with prospective employers and recruiters, job descriptions and application submissions.

The skills gap has created a major shift in the recruiting process. Today, rather than rule out the least qualified candidates, some recruiters are “screening in” candidates by eliminating some credentials previously considered must-haves, like degrees. They’re also considering whether candidates’ current skills and knowledge will enable them to do the job without being an exact match to the job requirements. Employers also may consider training new hires or upskilling current employees to develop needed skills.

Among the job seekers who are “screened in,” reference checks could pare down the list, making it easier for recruiters and hiring managers to focus on remaining candidates. In fact, a 2019 Accountemps survey found that reference checks screened out more than one-third of candidates. The senior managers polled in that survey said they wanted references to reveal candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, past duties, past titles, employment dates and insight into their preferred work culture.