Are you systematically rejecting promising job candidates? Your recruiting practices may be working against you.

Why should you care?

Many companies are struggling to fill open posts, causing reductions in hours, services, and production. The Labor Department reported 10.9 million job vacancies in December. At the same time, some 8.4 million potential workers were looking for jobs. Buried among this mass of applicants are some hidden gems. 

Why are job candidates rejected?

Candidates fall short in subject-matter knowledge and skills requiring education, training, and experience; many are unwilling to work long hours and in stressful environments at tedious work, for low pay, no benefits, or in geographically challenging locales. However, this is only part of the picture. The reality is a significant number of able candidates are never hired simply because potential employers never see them. Traditional hiring practices keep them hidden from recruiters and the employers who use them.

Artificial Intelligence makes things worse

While companies, desperate to find workers, are doubling their recruiting efforts through automation, they are sticking to those ineffective approaches. According to a report from the Harvard Business School, Hidden Workers: Untapped Talent, recruiters use tracking software to screen millions of resumes on keywords and phrases that match job descriptions yet screen out many capable applicants. These approaches overlook potentially qualified candidates with experience in other fields – candidates who may possess the skills necessary to function in their companies.

Millions of hidden job candidates

Harvard’s report ironically stated that “at the same time, an enormous and growing group of people are unemployed or underemployed, eager to get a job or to increase their working hours.” Moreover, employees themselves contribute to this gap by not knowing how to prepare and present themselves for the screening they have to overcome.

This problem, experienced at all skill levels, is more pronounced at lower levels and affects individuals mainly at the fringes of the workforce. According to Harvard, there are 27 million hidden workers, comprising a heterogeneous group of caregivers, veterans, and those with physical disabilities and mental health challenges. In addition, there are the previously incarcerated and less advantaged populations, including immigrants and refugees, with limited language skills or traditional qualifications and no employment record in the US.

Discovering a hidden gem – Case study

Help With The American Dream

One of our colleagues at Prometheus is both a volunteer and a board member of Wellspring, a respected social services organization helping the underprivileged in the Boston north shore. Wellspring offers free classes for adults to improve skills, prepare for the high school equivalency test, meet the requirements for college entry, and navigate the job market. For immigrants, Wellspring offers free English lessons. They also partner with North Shore Medical Center and its affiliates to provide a job training and placement program. To date, they have placed more than 400 students, 85% of whom have secured stable administrative jobs in health care settings. 

But much more remains to be done, as many in the community still need stable, reasonably paid jobs providing security and the hope of a better life for them and their families. Manufacturing is a sector still left to explore.

The Job Candidate

Our volunteer colleague was working with Carlos (not his real name), an immigrant from Central America who arrived in the US with a high school education, an ambition to go to college, and not a word of English. Initially, the focus was on Carlos’ learning enough English skills to get a decent job that allowed him to save for community college. Preparing for college would come later. Carlos was rapidly able to find employment in a pizza parlor making $14 per hour. Soon he needed a second job to support himself and found one in cleaning services. Later, he moved on to seasonal restaurant and landscaping jobs, paying $17 per hour. None of these hourly jobs paid Carlos for health care or sick time (vacation time and social security contributions were out of the question!). But despite his 50 plus-hour weeks, he could barely cover his expenses and send money to his mom at home, leaving him little for savings.

The Company

By now, the relationship grew to where our volunteer colleague had become a mentor/coach to Carlos. In the winter of 2020, a job posting from a global manufacturer with local operations came to their attention. Applied Materials, Inc (AM) is a 17 billion-dollar American corporation that supplies equipment, services, and software to manufacture semiconductor chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and solar products. Their local division, based in Gloucester, MA, manufactures sophisticated computer-chip-making equipment, which they ship globally.

Under pressure to double its production capacity in Gloucester, AM needed to hire over 60 workers locally. Filling these positions was a daunting task. Our volunteer felt that AM might be open to taking chances with candidates that marginally met their requirements.

AM’s job included three local openings for Gloucester. In order of seniority and pay, these were a Materials Handler, an Electromechanical Assembler, and a Testing Specialist. The testing specialist was out of reach for Carlos, as it required a college degree. But our volunteer estimated that Carlos did qualify for the other two (Exhibit A includes a summary of these job descriptions). But would this manufacturer even consider a candidate with experience solely in restaurants, cleaning, and landscaping?

Carlos had prepared a resume for other opportunities he had pursued. But, as written, it was destined for the employer’s trash can (See Exhibit B).

So, our volunteer took a closer look at these jobs.

Flipping The Resume

At Prometheus Endeavors, as we explore the relationship between work, workforce, and automation, we have learned to look at jobs from several perspectives. One way is to consider jobs as a collection of tasks workers perform. Metaphorically, one might say that tasks are the DNA of jobs, and just as all living things share over 50 percent of their DNA with other forms of life, different positions share many of the same tasks with other jobs. Additionally, skills and knowledge are essential ingredients of task performance. High-level jobs (e.g., engineers, biologists, lawyers) have a higher specialized skill/knowledge content and, thus, are highly differentiated from other jobs. However, lower-level jobs (cook, landscaper, assembler) require a lower and more general set of skills/knowledge that are highly transferable to similar-level jobs across industries.

Armed with this insight, our volunteer looked at the company job descriptions and broke them into their composing tasks. He then identified their required skills. He then did the same for the jobs Carlos had held (adding his experience in a bike shop years before in his native country). Not surprisingly, he found that these jobs had essential skills in common with the ones required by AM – ability to follow verbal and written directions, small-motor dexterity, physical strength, stamina, problem-solving, and so on. The volunteer then steered Carlos towards the Electromechanical Assembler position, thinking they might still consider him for the lower-level Materials Handler position if they didn’t offer him the assembler job.

The challenge for Carlos was to convince this employer that the skill dimension of his work experience, rather than his previous employers’ trades and job titles, qualified him for these positions. The solution was to prepare and submit a skills-based resume targeted explicitly for this position.

On The Road To Success

Fortunately, an open-minded recruiter screened the resume and realized that Carlos’ skills, for the most part, met AM’s requirements. So they invited Carlos for an interview on Zoom due to the pandemic.

Carlos visited AM’s website to understand their business and become conversant about their Gloucester operations in preparation for the interview. He also studied the two positions in greater detail. His coach wrote questions the interviewer may ask, and Carlos scripted and rehearsed answers to these questions. They also held mock interviews, which, in the end, turned out to be more challenging than the actual one.

Carlos was offered the Electromechanical Assembler position during his interview. Initially hired as a contractor for AM, at a starting salary of $23.50/ hour plus overtime, vacation, and sick time, this position was far superior to any of his previous jobs. More importantly, after a year and depending on his performance, he would be eligible to become an AM employee with health insurance, a 401k matching plan, and financial assistance to college. He chose the second shift, from 3:30 pm to midnight, so he could continue with his Wellspring lessons to prepare for community college.

During his first week at AM, Carlos had intensive training that provided him with essential skills he lacked for his new job; then placed as an apprentice to other senior assemblers.

In December of 2021, Carlos became a permanent employee with a complete benefits package. Based on his performance and willingness to work odd hours (Friday through Sundays), he was appointed Shift Supervisor with a substantial pay raise. Since Carlos has most of the week free, he will start his higher education at North Shore Community College in the Spring of 2022.

Now, the American Dream is within Carlos’ reach.

Your turn

Imagine the impact a few hidden gems like Carlos could have in your company. In our next post we will provide some practical advice on how to tap into hidden talent.

EXHIBIT A – Job Descriptions as Posted

Materials handler

What You Will Do:

• Receive, store, move and control materials in and out of company facilities.
• Maintains stock balances and coordinates shortages.
• Loading and/or unloading material, equipment or supplies from trucks or other vehicles.
• Process of moving material in/out of loading area and within the warehouse storage facility.
• Dealing with other functional areas in order to provide information on material status, such as stock balances, coordinate shortages, etc.

Top Skills You Should Possess:

• Experience with loading and/or unloading material, equipment or supplies from trucks or other vehicles.
• Fork truck experience a plus
• Utilize small hand tools; operates material handling equipment, including skids, pallet handlers, and hand trucks.
• Provide information on material status, such as stock balances, coordinate shortages, etc. to different departments.

Electromechanical Assembler

What You Will Do:

• Perform a wide variety of routine and non-routine electrical/mechanical assembly operations, including installation of power distribution cables, harnesses.
• Follow work orders, schematics, wiring diagrams, engineering specifications, sketches, and written and / or verbal instructions to build electromechanical and or pneumatic assemblies, sub-assemblies and components.
• Complete rework on assemblies and/or systems as a result of testing.

What You Need to Bring to the Table:

• New graduates are welcome with electrical or engineering degrees
• One to two (1-2) years electromechanical experience. Auto Mechanics is considered electromechanical.
• Basic computer skills are necessary.
• Vacuum experience is a plus
• Semiconductor experience is a plus
• Ability to lift and/or carry up to 50 lbs.
• Ability to work in an environment that is subject to cold, heat, and noise.
• Adherence to safety guidelines and Lean initiatives.
• Ability to work with flexibility in accomplishing tasks and minimal supervision.
• Ability to be a team player with good communication skills.
• Responsibility for maintaining timely, accurate records and logs.

EXHIBIT  B – Carlos’ Original Resume (From Template)

CARLOS GONZALEZ

18 Cleveland St. / Phone: (978) 325-1234 Carlos310976@gmail.com

Objective

Find a workplace where I can learn more and develop my skills. honesty, integrity and responsibility are values that I pursue

Experience

• In Fire Mexican Cuisine (2017 – 2018), Kitchen assistant and Dish washer
• Lobster Pool, Kitchen assistant, ( 2018 -2020)
• F.Murphy & Sons Cleaning Inc., (2017-2020), Cleaners
• WALKER CREEK GARDENS, (2018-2020), Landscaper

Education

• Primary : Escuela San José – Nicaragua
• Secondary: Colegio San José – Nicaragua
• Wellspring of Gloucester : English

Languages

Español             🔳🔳🔳

English              🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳

Portuguese       🔳🔳🔳🔳

Miskito dialect 🔳🔳🔳🔳

 Skill

Presentation & public speaking

Active Listening.                                    ⚫⚫️⚫️

Perseverance                                          ⚫️⚫️⚫️️

Teamwork                                               ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️

Written & oral communication           ⚫️⚫️⚫️

Creativity & problem solving              ⚫️⚫️⚫️

Technical skills

First aid

CCTV

Cell

INTERESTS

SPORTS: Cycling, Football, Martial Arts

EXHIBIT C – Carlos’ Skills-Based Resume (tailored to this employer)

CARLOS GONZALEZ
18 Hill St, Gloucester, MA 01930. / Phone: (978) 325-1234
email carlos310976@gmail.com

OBJECTIVE

Contribute to the success of a high-technology company in a position with my energy and skills. Expand my technical skills and knowledge, with the aim to continue my engineering studies in the future.

Born Nicaragua, US resident (green card) since 2017.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Retail bicycle shop, Nicaragua (2014 – 2015). Responsible for assembling and fitting bicycles to customer requirements.
Skills: Follow verbal and written directions; customer service; interpersonal skills.

Local restaurants, En Fuego and Lobster Pool, Gloucester (2017 – Present). Variety of roles including dish washing, line cooking, and waitering.
Skills: Follow directions and teamwork in a fast-paced environment; small motor dexterity (cutting, slicing, dicing, mixing and cooking).

Atlantic fish, under contract with F. Murphy & Sons Cleaning Inc., Gloucester (2017 – Present). Crew lead responsible for the daily disassembly, cleaning, reassembly, and setup of food processing equipment.
Skills: Follow assembly and safety procedures; work with no supervision; team leadership; dexterity; physical strength; problem-solving.

Walker Creek Gardens, Gloucester (2018 – Present). Landscaper and crew lead
Skills: Handle heavy materials; physical landscaping dexterity; stamina; truck driving; team leadership; problem-solving.

EDUCATION

Colegio San José, Nicaragua: High School Diploma (2014).

Wellspring Foundation, Gloucester, English as a Second Language (2017 – 2019): Basic grammar, writing and conversation.

Technical certificates in Nicaragua: CCTV installation, cellphone repair, first aid.

OTHER

Languages:
Reads, writes and speaks standard working English.
Fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and Miskito (Nicaragua’s native language).

Interests: Cycling, soccer, and martial arts.