In today’s highly competitive employment environment, many employers are skipping critical steps in order to hire a candidate as quickly as possible. However, a speedy hire does not always translate to the “right” hire, and a single ill-advised hire can have lasting consequences. One way to protect against a bad hire is to use an employment application. Unfortunately, this step often gets eliminated. This article will highlight six key reasons why an application for employment is an important part of the applicant screening and hiring process:
1. BIAS REDUCTION. A requirement that the candidate fully completes an application for employment helps to provide compliance with Equality Employment Opportunity Laws by ensuring that you are seeking the same information from every candidate. No two resumes provide the same data the same way. It is critical that we look at all candidates objectively. Applications for employment foster this process by asking the same questions the same way for all candidates. This allows employers to quickly and fairly screen for minimal qualifications like, experience, certifications, or education.
2. BETTER EMPLOYMENT DATA. The typical resume is written to be a sales pitch. This means that the not so flattering information will never make it to the resume like a discharge or short employment tenure. Whereas an application for employment allows you to collect information that you will typically never see on a resume. For example, reason for leaving, actual dates of employment, eligibility for rehire, names of supervisors, or phone numbers of supervisors.
3. CRITICAL POLICY PRESENTATION. An application for employment allows you to provide critical policies right up front like “at-will”, drug free, Equal Employment Opportunity, Michigan Persons with a Disability, and contractual limitations to name a few.
4. INFORMATION SUBSTANTIATION. A typical application allows you to obtain permission to check the information contained in the application.
5. ATTESTATION OF TRUTHFUL REPORTING. An application also provides certification from the employee that the information contained in the application is a true and complete representation of all information on the application and the consequences should this prove not the be the case.
6. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REFERENCE. The application also allows for an interesting comparison with the resume. Most employees do not reference their resume while completing their application. This allows you to determine just how accurate or inaccurate of a picture the candidate was attempting to represent with the resume.
Now before you dust off your old application of employment and place it into your hiring process, it is critical that you take a minute to ensure that your application is legally sound. There are many rules/laws that have changed over time making an old, off the shelf application obsolete and possibly illegal.
For additional information regarding the benefits of completing an application during your hiring process or other HR related questions, contact Sage Solutions Group.