Why Disruption In Recruitment Is Good News For Teachers Changing Career.
Traditional Recruitment
You may well be aware of how recruitment works; it’s built on a paradigm that has been in existence for well over 100 years. Said organisation advertises a job, you apply with a cover letter and CV, get an interview and fingers crossed a few weeks later have a shiny new job.
But the trouble is that this traditional approach is open to significant forms of bias. In fact, according to Applied an ATS that prioritises anonymised hiring there are a number of different biases associated with traditional recruitment funnels.
Bias can help us make decisions but it can also reduce inclusivity and ultimately have an impact on the diversity of a company. Bias is also one of the reasons whilst you might be overlooked by companies when you apply for jobs from a background in teaching.
What Are The Different Types Of Bias?
When it comes to recruitment 4 different types of bias can infiltrate the hiring process.
1 – The first is the so-called “Halo effect”. This occurs when one aspect of your work history outshines everything else, strongly influencing the hirer to think you are the candidate they most like.
2 – The second is “Confirmation bias”. Found through research by Peter Cathcart Wason in the 1960s. This is the tendency for hiring managers to actively seek out and use information that supports and confirms their pre-existing beliefs. As a result, they might ignore any information that contradicts those beliefs.
3 – The third is “Affinity bias” for example, if your experiences or background align with the hiring manager then they might view you more positively than others.
4 – Finally you have “Stereotype bias” which is when we assume or make inferences based on stereotypical notions associated with specific elements of your background or work history. For example, if you’ve studied at Oxbridge people may assume that you must be wealthy or extremely clever.
And the thing is, CVs are designed in such a way as to give centre stage to information that is open to these biases.
LinkedIn & Bias
LinkedIn is undoubtedly a useful job search and recruitment tool. Its popularity has increased rapidly over the last 5 years and we are strong advocates for using the platform in the right way to increase your chances of surfacing on hiring managers’ radars.
However, the entire structure of the platform is built on bias. From the number of followers you might have to the length of time you have been on the platform all of which can lead to companies making the wrong inferences about people.
LinkedIn’s “Easy Apply” feature can sometimes result in a system that favours candidate quantity over candidate quality and this is normally the point at which progressive organisations start to cast their nets over a wider pool of talent by engaging niche job boards that will make them more inclusive and ultimately bring about an uptake in diversity.
What Are The Alternatives?
Diabiasing The Hiring Process & Why This Is Great For Career Changers.
Companies looking to recruit in a more inclusive way may now consider using task-based assessments to rate the ability of a candidate to do a specific role.
They do this by first identifying the really important actions required to do the job. They will then design work-based tasks or questions that assess your attitude and abilities to do the job successfully.
The hiring team must have a rating or ranking criteria in order to do this fairly. By asking you to do particular tasks they are able to get insights into your values, what you prioritise and your innate abilities to do the job successfully.
This is a much better predictor of future success than the fact that you worked at Eton 15 years ago. No disrespect to Eton. Depending on the budget of the company they could employ technology or a new breed of ATS such as Applied to run the process for them or they may develop their own hacks to do this fairly but on a budget. This could involve having someone remove identity data from CVs before they are passed onto the team involved in grading candidates or using a Typeform to answer questions. They might study CVs at a much later stage of the process or if at all.
Why This Plays Into Your Hands
Sometimes it can feel like experience is everything. A job specification might say a minimum 3 years in a project management role. But is this really a useful predeterminer to future success?
For example, candidate A has worked for 5 years in a project management role but perhaps it wasn’t fast-paced and maybe they didn’t have much responsibility or were a bit player in a large team. Then there’s ‘YOU’ candidate B, a teacher who implemented a successful new strategy that involved galvanising outside agencies and parents. You researched, tested, evaluated and presented your findings to SLT in a 6 month period all whilst maintaining your teaching commitments. This experience although limited in duration could well have equipped you with all you need to be a success in a project management role.
“Personally I’ve I have been writing songs for 20 years. If I compared my CV to that of Billie Elish’s maybe you’d assume that Billie Elish should be unemployed and I would be selling out stadiums.”
Why You Shouldn’t Be Put Off When It Comes To Task-Based Applications.
“Easy Apply” does not require effort but getting a new job should require effort!”
Some hiring teams seem entrenched and keep following the traditional forms of hiring but things are changing. Research by HireVue suggests that 63% of recruiters now use some kind of skills assessment. If you’re serious about a new career then don’t be put off by the increased friction that a task-based application inevitably creates.
For one thing, it will likely be attracting a much narrower pool of candidates and you can be confident that your application will be analysed and deliberated over. So apply with gusto this is your chance after all to show that as a teacher you really have the skills to win that job over people who may have more experience than you in a particular sector.
