According to a recently published survey - consisting of more than 1,000 company decision makers - employers are mainly relying on their gut instinct when hiring staff.
The survey, by Indeed UK, found that 28 per cent of respondents cite gut feelings as their reason for offering work to an applicant, as opposed to considering their experience, interview performance or qualifications. Only 23 per cent of those questioned gave relevant experience, or the fact that the interviewee acquitted themselves well, as the chief reason for employing an applicant. A good qualification was the reason given by only 8 per cent.
Bill Richards - Managing Director of Indeed UK – said:
“While it is obviously important to get your CV looking good; do your homework and perform well at interview, the fact that most hiring managers ultimately go with their gut shows how a lot of our nervous energy about the application process may be misplaced.”
He also commented that these results demonstrated that applicants could be centring their efforts to obtain work on the wrong areas.
The research from Indeed also showed the main reasons that a job applicant was not hired. The chief reason - given by 21 per cent of respondents - was lack of experience, followed by 19 per cent stating unsuitability for the work being offered and again, 19 per cent for grammar and spelling errors.
Other research by TotalJobs - who are part of the Totaljobs Group Ltd, the UK's largest online recruitment company - found that 74 per cent of employers used social media to research an applicant before interview, which developed their gut instinct in advance.
In addition, the research showed that only 36 per cent of applicants knew that employers undertook this research of social media, causing Steve Warnham,Jjobs Expert at TotalJobs, to remark:
“This lack of awareness could catch candidates out, leaving them with an uphill battle to prove themselves.”
Lee Biggins, Founding Manager and Director of CV-Library, voiced concerns at the findings and stated that although gut feeling played a vital role it could lead to bias amongst employers. He stated:
“Unconscious bias can cause problems when recruiting, which could cost business potentially great employees.”
He then suggested that employers should give careful thought to all issues concerning the employing of new staff, to include but not only, their gut feeling.
