A newly announced hiring taskforce is aiming to overhaul the recruitment process in the UK and develop a national strategy to make hiring faster and simpler.
Speaking last week at the launch event in the House of Commons, the chair of the Better Hiring Institute, Keith Rosser, criticised the outdated recruitment process used by almost all employers.
“The CV was born in the medieval times, references are from the Victorian era and job adverts date back to the industrial revolution,” he told attendees. “And these are still fundamental parts of the recruitment process today.”
The taskforce, composed of experts from the public and private sectors, intends to develop a blueprint that encourages the use of technology in the recruitment process and removes friction for both employers and candidates.
Viscount Camrose, the former shadow minister for AI and chair of the taskforce, says: “Recruiting is not working at the level it could or should be. There’s a huge prize if this problem can be solved.”
He suggests that productivity, employee engagement and economic activity could all be improved by labour-market reforms. “Having an efficient, functioning job market would allow people to find a suitable job within a week,” he adds.
What problems will the taskforce address?
The taskforce will emphasise three areas to revamp the hiring and recruitment process: strategy, technology and policy.
According to Camrose, although tech has the potential to make hiring “vastly better”, digitalisation has thus far created more problems for hiring teams. He laments, for example, candidates’ ability to “automatically apply for hundreds of jobs” using AI and job-application platforms.
“Far too many applications arrive on the doorstep of the hiring organisation, drowning out any possibility of the serious applicant who has carefully thought about what job he or she wants to do,” he says.
What marketplace on earth is more important than the marketplace for employment?
Two-thirds (65%) of jobseekers are using AI tools to assist with their applications, according to Career Group, a recruitment company. Some employers claim that the number of applications they receive for open positions has almost tripled in the space of a year.
“The result”, Camrose explains, “is that neither the hirer nor the candidate is very satisfied with the whole process.”
The taskforce will also explore alternatives to the CV. “The sooner the CV stops existing, the better for humanity, in my humble and understated opinion,” says Camrose.
Some employers have already attempted to limit their reliance on candidate CVs by transitioning to skills-based hiring strategies. And Camrose suggests technologies such as blockchain could be used to bypass the CV process by creating a transferable ledger of an individual’s credentials. “It’s an exciting problem to try and solve,” he says.
Intent to recruit is dropping
However, outdated processes and technical difficulties are not the only challenges facing the British labour market. Economic uncertainty, changes introduced in the employment rights bill and an increase to the cost of employment have also hampered businesses’ recruitment plans.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) latest Labour Market Outlook, shows that the number of UK employers expecting to increase headcount in the next three months is at a record low, excepting the pandemic years.
“Intent to recruit is dropping to levels that we haven’t seen for quite some time,” says Peter Cheese, chair of the CIPD.
Finding the right skills is also proving difficult for many employers. “Almost every organisation says they can’t find the skills they need,” Cheese explains. “But too many are focused on hiring oven-ready employees – and they don’t exist. Our approach to recruiting has to be expanded from the point of view of employers as well.”
Both employers and candidates must change their tactics if the UK hiring market is to be more effective. “There’s going to be a need for perpetual upskilling,” Camrose says. “The world in which you choose your profession and you stay in it for life is probably over.”
Government and industry have plenty of motivation to fix the problems in the labour market, but devising an alternative to a centuries-old recruitment system is a momentous challenge. For Camrose, however, it’s one that must be addressed. “What marketplace on earth is more important than the marketplace for employment?” he asks. “I’d argue none.”
A newly announced hiring taskforce is aiming to overhaul the recruitment process in the UK and develop a national strategy to make hiring faster and simpler.
Speaking last week at the launch event in the House of Commons, the chair of the Better Hiring Institute, Keith Rosser, criticised the outdated recruitment process used by almost all employers.
“The CV was born in the medieval times, references are from the Victorian era and job adverts date back to the industrial revolution,” he told attendees. “And these are still fundamental parts of the recruitment process today.”
