Resumes: Use Screening To Cut Through The Clutter Carla Joinson

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Technology has created a problem for recruiters and HR staff: an avalanche of resumes, which must be screened and evaluated. Though no company receives Monster's 25,000 resumes a day, even small businesses may find more on their plate than they'd like to handle.

"Unfortunately, the longer Web sites are out there, the easier it is for applicants to send out resumes without putting a lot of thought into the process," says Pamela Curtis, Recruiter at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company based in Tarrytown, New York. She says that many applicants tend to give any opening a shot, just because it's so easy to forward a resume.

"Even when a position isn't appropriate, many applicants won't bother to go to a company Web site and search for something which might be a better match," says Curtis. "They'd rather throw out resumes and see what sticks."

This volume of resumes is compounded by misrepresentation, a problem highlighted by Automatic Data Processing, Inc.'s (ADP), fifth Hiring Index released in April 2002. The study evaluates hiring trends and issues, and gives some dismal statistics for HR staff trying to wade through an ever-increasing mound of resumes.

Forty-four percent of employment records showed a difference of information between what the applicant provided and the past employer reported, while 41% of education records showed a difference of information between what the applicant provided and the educational institution reported. Other statistics cited in the report indicate that driving and criminal records, and credit reports may yield misrepresented information.¹ ADP, one of the world's largest independent computing service firms, based its calculations on the 2.6 million background verifications it performed in 2001.

Both resume proliferation and misrepresentation appear to be permanent problems, making resume screening more critical than ever. HR can adapt some of the following techniques to help them sort through and assess the value of applicant resumes.

Guide Applicants To Your Web Site

Jennifer Hervy, HR Representative for Millennium Chemicals in Hunt Valley, Maryland, jumped at the chance to give HR's input when the company revamped its Web site in 2000. "I looked at both chemical and non-chemical Web sites and worked with our global HR groups to set up a good structure and content," she says. Ultimately, she helped HR set up a career site "geared for serious candidates."

Though Hervy still partners with Monster, she only lists Millennium's open positions along with a little information about each one. "Applicants have to go to Millennium's own site to apply," says Hervy. "Driving candidates to the site gives us people who are either interested in Millennium or in the chemical industry—otherwise the volume from Monster would be nightmarish."

Arlene Klingaman, Senior Staffing Consultant at Ingenix Pharmaceutical Services in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, also wants applicants to visit the company Web site and spend time finding a good fit for their skills. She even sends a note to job seekers who just send in a resume, asking them "to go to our Web site and fill out a profile, as well," she says.

The Ingenix Web site has a list of all available positions, Klingaman explains. "Our hiring managers create multiple choice questions—which hone in on what the managers require from candidates—for each of these open positions."

Once candidates click to a position, they are given the opportunity to create a profile and answer the hiring managers' questions. "Our system will automatically score these questions," says Klingaman. "We can pull the resumes of candidates who have perfect or near perfect scores from hundreds of others-these will be our most promising candidates."

Many companies have been wary of requiring too much of Web site visitors, but a study by iLogos Research (an independent research and consulting division of Recruitsoft) which analyzes best practices and innovative information technologies, shows that job candidates are not averse to spending time at a site.

The iLogos report "Perception vs. Reality: Jobseeker Behavior Online" says that candidates are ready to complement resume information with additional profile information, and that online candidates welcome questions about their skills. The report also debunks what it calls a myth: that candidates won't spend more than five minutes on online job applications. Instead, researchers have found that candidates will spend the time necessary to apply online to a job of interest to them.

Screen Multiple Times

A good filtering process often uses several steps to keep narrowing the resume pathway. At Pfizer, scientists begin the search for a candidate by meeting with staffing specialists to develop a comprehensive strategy for recruiting a position. One of the steps in this strategy is to develop a skills-based word search to query Pfizer's resume database. "They use keywords that can get very specific for certain skills and experience," says Laura Paight, Senior Advisor and University Relations for Pfizer's Global Research and Development Division's global staffing group in New London, Conn.

Resumes generated by the keywords are screened once more for research experience and other required attributes, and may be followed by phone screens and/or an initial interview. "We look at things like research summaries and abstracts for back-up to resume content," says Paight. "Interview questions also help us pick up on their qualifications."

Because their candidate management database is so important (Pfizer receives approximately 12,000 resumes monthly), Pfizer asks all candidates who submit resumes through its Web site to fill out a text resume, which is in a searchable format. The company also scans unsolicited snail mail resumes into their central database.

Dig Deeper For Information

Curtis believes that a combination of selecting on keywords and actually reading the resume can yield the best decisions on candidates. She and other experienced professionals have found that many academically and technically proficient candidates simply don't know how to write resumes. "Some candidates give a chronological set of information," says Curtis. "They may list academic institutions and give us the name of their thesis advisor-HR can find that hard to evaluate, but senior scientists know what's implied in that information."

Pfizer's staff also read resumes: database administrators for a high level review, staffing specialists for a more refined review, and scientists. "Scientists have the final decision making authority on whether to follow up on candidates," says Paight.

Though few would say that chemists excel at self-promotion, some recruiters are finding a change in resume quality resulting from education efforts by a host of sources like Web sites, outplacement centers and recruiters. For Paight, college undergraduates seem to need the most assistance pulling together a package that will get them hired. "We are helping educate students on resume writing, interviewing, and so on," she says.

Good interviewers can take this probing a step further to screen out resume misinformation as well as check for a candidate's cultural fit. "Read resumes backwards and forwards, and then focus on the points within the resume," advises Hervy. "Can candidates talk about what they've done?"

Hervy relies on hiring managers to go over specific details of a candidate's experience, while she tries to ensure a fit with the organization. "I use a list of questions to do a behavioral interview," she says. "I ask people about what has worked for them in the past, what they're looking for here, and so on, and allow them to ask questions of me."

Experts agree that many resumes fail to tell the candidate's whole story, good or bad. Though applicants may have reasonable explanations for some inconsistencies or omissions, HR should always explore "red flag" territory. Look at job-hopping and gaps in employment, which may also be disguised by job experiences listed as skill sets rather than in chronological order. Vague or general information about job duties often point to resume "enhancements" which the applicant can't substantiate. Even the jackpot—a resume with an exact match for all key words—may sometimes indicate that the candidate understands HR processes better than the requirements of the job.

Ask For More Than The Resume

Most HR practitioners understand that savvy applicants can "game" any system when they know which key words will get them through automated screening. "There's no way to counter this initially," says Paight. "But in addition to resumes, we also ask for very specific research summaries, transcripts in some cases, and letters of references. This is back-up for credentials that they outline on their resumes."

At Millennium, hiring managers look for information on patents that applicants claim to have. Additionally, all PhD applicants must give a half-hour presentation on a technical topic of their choice to a group of interviewers, during the first round interview.

Time Well Spent

Screening resumes is nobody's idea of a dream job, but it's a vital HR function that will become even more critical as applicants get more sophisticated and technically proficient. By spending time up front to thoroughly screen resumes, hiring managers and other staff can spend quality time with their best candidates.

Carla Joinson is a Stafford, Va.-based writer specializing in human resources and management topics.

¹To find out more about the study, contact ADP Employer Services at (800) 225-5237 or visit ADP's Web site.