Are automated HR systems a net gain?

[Milhouse]

These HR systems allow a huge number of potential new hires to apply via internet. They then save massive amounts of time by performing some kind of automated pre-screening to filter out certain resumes/applications.

But, are they a net gain?

One of my friends just told me about an experience he had trying to hire someone. He was contacted directly by the potential new hire (PNH), and the PNH seemed pretty good. He had lunch with the PNH, talked a lot, a few phone calls, discussions about the work, the city, all that. Everything seemed great. So, the PNH is told to submit a resume and application via the website, and my friend would notify HR to pull that app and go through the formal part of the process.

My friend gets no response from HR.

He finally calls up one of the HR managers, says "where is the resume, I'm hiring this person", and is told "for some reason, the app was flagged as unqualified and the system rejected it. It is against policy to create an exception."

For one of my jobs, there was fear of a similar situation, so the hiring manager didn't post the opening to HR until he had interviewed me and everything. Then he wrote the position opening so it exactly fit my resume so HR couldn't boot my app.

Are these HR systems a net gain, or are they creating more work as people have to find workarounds to do the things that need to be done?

 

[unjung]

That's not a software issue. That's a policy issue. This is another good reason to hate HR people. They're paper pushers who aren't doing their job until they've found a way to prevent someone else from being productive (kinda like lawyers).

The software can be pretty good. The system we use allows me to keep candidates organized and comprehensive notes on our conversations. However, I review resumes manually.

 

[lee_44106]

Originally Posted by Milhouse

He was contacted directly by the potential new hire (PNH), and the PNH seemed pretty good. He had lunch with the PNH, talked a lot, a few phone calls, discussions about the work, the city, all that. Everything seemed great. So, the PNH is told to submit a resume and application via the website, and my friend would notify HR to pull that app and go through the formal part of the process.

My friend gets no response from HR.

and is told "for some reason, the app was flagged as unqualified and the system rejected it. It is against policy to create an exception."

?

So the potential hire SEEMS nice in person, but fails some objective test. Is it possible that the potential hire is a good bullshitter but does not have the goods to back it up?

 

[Milhouse]

Originally Posted by lee_44106

So the potential hire SEEMS nice in person, but fails some objective test. Is it possible that the potential hire is a good bullshitter but does not have the goods to back it up?

Of course it is possible. I won't go into the specifics that my friend said, but it appeared it had to do with the PNH's experience. The job title on the resume wasn't really a "standard" title, and there were some other things that seemed to not fit the filters on the HR software, which all seemed to be a result of coming from a small private company background.

A human can very easily categorize in a dynamic way, as well as ask for more information. For a machine to do so is pretty tricky. The flip side is that a machine is good at very clearly defined objective measurements, whereas humans can introduce biases.