The CV Mentality is Creating Your Recruitment Challenges

Hiring without a CV can solve recruitment challenges. CVs are barriers companies built to stop talent from coming in. It is a tool to find reasons for exclusion and certainly not a tool for efficiency, understanding talent, and inclusion. It may also indicate the lack of resources and willingness to spend money on training and development, otherwise, why would you want people to hit the ground running?

Companies spend thousands of dollars on recruiting one person imagine if they used that money to train people. Doing that would solve stuffing challenges and provide economic opportunities for people often viewed as unemployable and completely excluded from opportunities. Companies have to spend money one way or another, so all it takes is a question; "What do I want to spend my money on?" You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Examples

I watched a video yesterday about a lady, age 54, doing a career pivot to become a British Airways cabin crew. And I thought, finally! Industries are forced to look at recruitment differently, so I started digging overnight to see how companies address their challenges. Well, the same way as British Airways Greystone Bakery and The Body Shop. Well done to you all!

"Since 1982, Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York, which produces millions of pounds of baked goods annually for customers like Ben & Jerry’s and Whole Foods Market, has used this approach while building a successful business with 70 Open Hire employees. New hires are offered a position when their name comes up next on the list of people who have expressed interest in working at the bakery. No resume, job interview, background check, or drug test is required. As a result, the business has virtually no hiring costs. Greyston then invests about $1,900 in hard and soft skills training for new bakers and provides access to extensive wraparound services."

"The Body Shop, the international cosmetics company, which piloted open hiring in one of its distribution centres. The Body Shop typically hires 200 seasonal employees to handle the holiday rush in its Raleigh, North Carolina warehouse. Adopting the open hiring approach in late 2019, recruiters asked people just three questions:

1. Are you legal to work in the U.S.?

2. Can you stand on your feet for eight hours?

3. Can you lift up to 50 pounds?

The results? Executives said they could quickly fill positions with fewer resources during the holiday rush. Turnover among the seasonal workers was down 60% over the previous year, and warehouse productivity increased by 13%. Management reported the best hiring season in the distribution centre in years. Due to this success, The Body Shop is now expanding this new hiring practice to other entry-level positions in their retail stores."

This approach may not be feasible for every position within a company, but it is the easiest and fastest way to fill vacancies if your company struggles with recruiting and retaining dependable entry-level roles. The only requirements are:

• The willingness to work and learn

• The willingness to train and support people

Whilst this article is more about entry-level roles, hiring based on CV also excludes highly skilled talents from senior positions. Titles often don't describe the full scope of what the person does and certainly give a minimal indication of talent.

Recruiters must start looking beyond the CV and find new ways of looking at the talent market because millions of capable and willing people are just waiting for the opportunity to be given to them.