Before we can begin to
discuss recruiting software auto-matching, I think it best to
define two types of contingency recruitment.
One camp of successful recruiters relies on the
ability to start from ‘ground zero’. This recruiting model
follows the method taught to me by my mentor and the basics of
that model have stayed with me for 25 years. When I think about it, it may be a part of my
foundation stones when I write code for our recruitment
software application.
By the way, my mentor was a very successful
recruiter. He
would say to me at least once a week, “You know when you can
rightfully call yourself a recruiter when you can take a phone
book and roll of dimes, go to a pay phone and find the person
your client has asked you to find”.
I am not sure if that holds in today’s world of
the internet and globalization of the workforce. But I do know that my
mentor could still find people with a phone and phone
book. The only thing that may change would be to substitute
the roll of dimes for a roll of quarters and perhaps give him
a laptop.
The other camp of successful recruiters relies
more on an established network of contacts in a specific field
or profession.
These recruiters spend most of their time taking care
of their ‘flock of candidates’. They are always
adding quality people and dropping off the ones that turn out
to be average or below average. Remember, recruiters are not
paid handsome commissions to produce the ‘average’
professional.
Auto matching is a tool more for the recruiter
who starts from scratch.
As I write this article it comes to me that auto
matching is useful in another recruitment model. Some recruiters
fill professional positions that are a ‘plug-in’ for the
business process.
Don’t get me wrong, these individuals are still highly
skilled professionals.
It is just that their skills are so precisely adapted
to a particular function and they are almost interchangeable.
Nurses, teachers,
airline pilots fit this definition. Most professional nurses,
teachers and pilots will probably retire as a nurse, teacher
or pilot.
When all is said and
done auto matching is a good tool for recruiters in some
situations but best be left unused in others.
Now that we have somewhat defined the area for
the auto matching tool we can describe how it should
work. I think
auto matching first deals with the fundamental principal of
good recruiting, which is to have a good description of the
position you are trying to fill. You must also know the
personality of the client.
If you have a
complete, well written job order and your recruiting software
database contains accurate information on clients and
candidates, good auto matching software should work well when
matching candidates to the position. If
your recruiting software database contains missing or
inaccurate information on clients and applicants then your
auto matching software will not work well no matter how good
it is.
In order that I may
pontificate on auto matching I must make a couple of
assumptions.
- The recruiter relies
on having access to large bodies of applicants and their
resumes.
- The job description
contains a great deal of information and details about the
position and the skills and qualifications of the person
needed to fill it.
Ok, now we are ready to
begin as we sit in front of a computer staring at the source
code.
First and foremost the program must be
flexible. It must
have the ability to be tweaked and tuned by the recruiter for
the particular recruiter, recruiting model and position
sought. In
other words, auto matching must have many options to change
the matching algorithm by changing matching factors and the
weight or importance of each factor.
Here is a list of
matching factors scheduled for use in our recruiting
software.
Matching Factors
- Salary
- Location
- Job title
- Years of experience
- Keywords and phrases
- Education
- Years in one position
and years in one company
- History of companies
worked for
- Age
- Style of company
- Budget responsibility
- Number of people
responsible for
- Certifications
- Publications
- Memberships
- Accomplishments
- Year of last degree
- Rate of promotion and
salary increase
Things you can do with matching
factors
- Establish a rank
factor or eliminate the factor from the algorithm.
- Establish a plus or
minus variance for any or all factors.
- Establish an overall
score and rank accordingly.
- Compute keyword
density.
I am sure anyone reading this article can think
of other factors and weights. The ability of
an auto matching feature to add, change and delete factors and
weights is critical to a good auto matching feature. I would take it one step
further and allow the recruiter some control over how these
factors should be identified.
