Feature Article: How Scientific Can Recruitment Ever Be?

(Interview with Dr Paul Englert, CEO, RecruitAdvantage)

Transcript from the Online Recruitment Telegraph - Edition 1 - video

[Jafeth] Welcome to our feature article segment. The topic for discussion today is “how scientific can recruitment ever be”? I have with me Dr Paul Englert, CEO of RecruitAdvantage. As a business we have embraced science as one of our foundation pillars. We have seen it as both as a strategic horizon, which helps us to make decisions when developing our products and as a competitive advantage. Now, the bottom line is: how scientific can recruitment ever be? Recruitment has been traditionally seen as an art rather than a science. Hence does it really make sense to have a scientific approach around servicing the recruitment industry?

[Paul] Recruitment has often been considered a highly transaction professional service and not one that is subjected to the rigours of scientific analysis. The software that has been used to drive the recruitment industry, commonly known as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), reinforces this focus on the transactional aspects of recruitment. Most of the focus by ATS providers is on aiding the process of recruitment and little serious attention has been given to enhancing the capacity of recruiters to find and match talent to jobs.

Recruitment is however one of potentially the largest commercial areas to benefit from a scientific approach. Fundamentally the job of recruitment is about making a prediction about human behaviour at the time of assessment about how a person will perform in a job over the long term. Recruiters are therefore faced with one of the most difficult roles of any job, predicting human behaviour. There is a wealth of research indicating just how difficult this is to do (most predictive models only account for, at best 25% of the variance in human behaviour), the cost of getting it wrong (commonly noted as 2* the annual salary), and what can be done to enhance this process (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).

[Jafeth] This is a relief. From what you are saying science has a role to play. From the strategic perspective we have taken one step forward in the name of science: We have engaged a Scientific Advisory Board which I have the pleasure to facilitate. In there we have luminaries such as Dr Paul Barrett, Dr Sarah Burke and Dr Duncan Jackson, providing great advise and strategic direction to the business from the scientific view point. We posted to our Advisory board a similar question about how scientific can recruitment ever be in our first meeting a couple of weeks ago. From the advisory board’s perspective, the views were if I can summarise it in a couple of words: “it depends”. It depends on the ability of the business to embrace science in a practical way to derive value; it also depends on the ability of our clients understanding and valuing a scientific approach to what we do. What are your views in this respect?

[Paul] At RecruitAdvantage we believe that ATS providers must not only provide a practical useable interface to help recruiters but also provide a platform that assist in the science of selection. With this in mind we have the Scientific Advisory Board with some of the world’s leading experts in selection to help us as we further enhance our product (http://www.recruitadvantage.com.au/scientific-board/). Each quarter the advisory Board meets and discusses a particular topic relevant to the science of recruiting better. We are fully committed to delivering value to our clients and I believe the only way to do this is by embracing a disciplined, scientific approach to what we do. This doesn't mean that innovation will be slowed down by rigour, but it means that we will test and validate assumptions. I believe the only possible outcome of this approach is a quality product, and quality processes to support it. This is our approach to business and I would say that our customers already understand this and are the driving force behind our approach.

Reference: Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262-274.

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