Human Resources
Thursday Jun 12
job boards are completely useless
We have used online job boards for over a decade – you go to one of them, put a few keywords that you feel describe the position you might want to pursue, or the candidate you are looking for, click search….and….nothing. Well, not exactly nothing – the vast majority of the “matches†that you get are only remotely close to what you might want, and you know that finding that right position or that right candidate is like finding a needle in the haystack.
For the entire article go to topix.net
My wife is one of the partners in Steinbrun Hughes, a retained executive search firm. She has been telling me for years that the job boards are ridiculous. I have had other friends and business associates also tell me the job boards promise way more than they can ever deliver. For employers, they can be a nightmare, since task two, after posting the initial job search, is filtering out the multitudes of unqualified candidates that will respond to just about anything.
At Corra, we have often wondered about the efficacy of the job boards. We have also wondered about the validity of the background searches that are built in to certain job boards. Knowing the background checking business as we do, we wonder if any self-respecting human resource manager would ever accept an external background check at face value. Since most have pre-employment screening programs of their own, it is likely they would prefer having control over the background reports that are ordered.
What is very important, according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you need to keep your background searches uniform in relation to the different levels you are hiring. In other words, you can vary the searches if the position itself is different. But for the same position, compliance issues dictate you should be ordering the same searches on each job candidate.
As for the actual jobs on the job boards, we have heard stories of hopeful employment candidates firing out resumes from the different job sites. The act itself is reminiscent of people playing the slots in Vegas and hoping for the Umpteen Million Dollar jackpot. But in this case, it’s a job, and people need jobs.
Those prospective employees who are paying money to check their background records needn’t bother. As I noted earlier, the HR people will probably not accept it, so you are just wasting your money. And you are spending your money, and you are out of work. Any serious employer conducts these background searches on finalist candidates on their own dime.
And if you are the company that is still not conducting background checks, well you should be.
Check them out before you hire.
