Day: September 12, 2021

The Invisibles
Why do so many people find it hard to get noticed? While employers are using algorithms to hire, people are still writing resumes and preparing for interviews with humans.
Finding a job was hard (for some) even before the pandemic

Most applicants are still writing their resumes for humans. They continue to prepare for interviews with humans. The reality is that from reading the resumes to testing and video interviews, we are dealing with algorithms. Without changing our response to the hiring algorithm, rejoin the pile of people who apply for jobs but are never called. They join the growing pile of resumes that are ‘invisible’.

Not finding a job creates a career break. With each passing day, it become harder to find a role because jobs are becoming hybrid. That also needs a different strategy.

A career-break breaks careers

In a competitive job market, taking a career break can put your resume into the invisible talent pool. The longer the break, the harder it is to get back.
1. Caregivers: The pandemic has forced several people to take a break and look after a loved one. Women take career breaks when they have children. In many cultures, looking after ageing family members becomes the responsibility of the women forcing them out of full time employment. Caregivers form a large chunk of the “invisibles”.
2. Relocating partners: A partner or spouse relocating to a different location can also turn the person’s resume to become invisible. Many countries have stringent visa laws making it illegal for the trailing spouse to continue their professional career. The family circumstances push family members in to the “invisibles” pile.
3. Neuro-diverse talent and PWD: People with disability and neuro-diverse people, no matter how qualified also become invisible in the eyes of the recruiters. The prevailing human biases make it difficult for this talent pool to catch the recruiter’s attention. They take up roles that do not leverage their potential and often make them “invisible”.
And then there is the tsunami of resignations that every employer is grappling with. Employers are signalling their desperation by offering signing bonus to blue collar workers and luxury vehicles to anyone who stays long enough to collect it. <read more>

The effect of becoming “invisible”

Full time work becomes increasingly harder to find. The invisible talent pool moves out of full-time employment. They are forced to stay unemployed and survive by doing odd jobs. They take up part-time employment with the hope that they will get an opportunity to get an offer to work full-time; but that rarely happens.

According to the World Bank, as of 2019, almost 30% of the youth are NEET (not in education, employment or training). In India 15% of the population faces this challenge despite having advanced education. (read more)

Job descriptions are becoming complex

Staying out of full time employment makes getting back to the workforce harder because of the rapid changes to business models, jobs and skills needed. The implications are clear:

1. Rapid obsolescence of skills

The employers keep inflating the requirements and that in turn reduces the candidates pool.
In a world where the skills needed to do a job are changing continuously, being out of a full-time role makes it hard to keep pace. The traditional skill providers lag behind before they turn a niche skill into a marketable skill. One sign of a marketable skill is that it starts to appear in job descriptions. With the half-life of skills shrinking steadily, the rate of obsolescence is rapid.

2. “Hybrid jobs” leave out anyone NOT in full-time employment

Hybrid jobs combine skill sets that never used to be found in the same job eg design and programming. They are almost universally the fastest-growing and highest-paying – and often hardest for the “invisibles” to land. (Read more)

Most hybrid jobs need skills that cut across functions. That is possible to learn only if someone is in full time employment. Graphic designers have to excel not just in design, but also in programming, branding, and CAD/CAM.48

B2B sales positions now require familiarity with tools like Salesforce.com and the ability to use digital devices to enter orders, track inventory, and check order status. Those not in full time employment struggle to know what skills to acquire, how and where to acquire them, and how to overcome their lack of financial resources and time to do so. Read more

Algorithms at every stage

It has become easy for people to apply for jobs. LinkedIn makes it easy for people to apply to a job at the click of a button. Each job gets more applicants than a human can handle. Enter hiring automation software that has changed how hiring happens. 99% of Fortune 500 companies use software to screen applications.

A. Resume screening by algorithms

Pro-Tip: Look for clues in the job ad. Any skill that has “significant,” “strong” or “mastery” mentioned is important to highlight especially in your latest assignment. Always use the most relevant keywords from the job-ad in your most recent job listed. Quantifying results also helps recruiting software to choose your resume. <Resume writing tips>

Pro-Tip: Removing dates and presenting previous employment in terms of years of experience increased call-backs by 15%. Formatting your résumé in a way that highlights your years of experience seems to be the way to go. <Read More>

Pro-Tip: Keep your traditional resume for the in-person interview. The resume you send in for screening must be more factual and precise.

Read more: How to write your resume for an algorithm

B. Testing by algorithms

AI based games are used to screen the candidates soft skills like risk taking ability, collaboration etc. Watch: 3 Easy Hacks To Prepare for Hirevue / Spark Hire / VidCruiter

C. Video interviews with algorithms

Video interviews analyse the candidate’s voice, eye-contact, tone, choice of words etc to further narrow the candidate pool. Watch: How to pass video interviews

While employers are using algorithms to hire, people are still writing resumes and preparing for interviews with humans. For example, software systems often eliminate those with a gap in employment if companies believe the currently-employed are more capable of filling a role successfully. The invisible talent pool is at a distinct disadvantage. <watch this>
Expertise and knowledge are becoming less important in predicting success on the job. Decoding the elements of personality like curiosity, learning ability, people skills, ambition, risk taking and motivation to do the job are becoming important for every job.

The way forward

While hiring by algorithms is efficient, but it creates another problem. There is an ever increasing pool of talent that is becoming invisible. Employers are trying to solve the problem by using more and more algorithms.

Solving the talent scarcity problem needs employers to do two things right away:
1. Make the invisible talent pool, part of every candidate pool – not CSR
2. Put disproportionate investment in skill building when hiring for anyone who has had a career break.
Hiring people from the invisible talent pool as part of the CSR process conveys the impression that it is an act of charity. It is not. Hiring from the invisible talent pool is the best way solve the talent crisis.
Additional readings (pl suggest more resources people can use)

Read: How to get your resume noticed

Listen to this podcast about how hiring is changing
September 12, 2021
Can you be in a team and still feel alone
You could be spending the entire day on Zoom with lots of people’s faces stuck in neat squares or rectangles. When you finish the day, you feel alone and lonely. When the Graduate School of Education of Harvard made its report public, the findings were alarming. The pandemic has made loneliness a battle that many of us are grappling with.

Cost of loneliness

Loneliness is linked to early mortality and a wide array of serious physical and emotional problems, including depression, anxiety, heart disease, substance abuse, and domestic abuse.

Why do so many people feel lonely? Most people say that poor listening and lack of empathy is rampant. About 65% of lonely survey respondents reported that they’re better listeners to other people than other people are to them. Late teens is normally an intensely social time, and connections with peers are often very important. The pandemic has taken that away. Young mothers and those in caregiving roles need emotional support from the ecosystem. That is missing.

The reasons that brought us together – places of worship, festivals and communities have all frayed at the edges with the isolation that the pandemic has forced upon us. Even if people want to socialise, they cannot.

Loneliness among team members

Facebook had a slogan – move fast and break things. When a company is successful, we tend to celebrate the financial metrics and growth across the world, but turn a blind eye to the cost of achievement.

Our obsession with productivity means that every minute not pecking away at work is seen as a waste. Headcount reductions have pared the organisations down to the bare bones. There is no time for catching a cup of coffee with a colleague. Wanting to connect with a colleague who is grappling with personal challenges is “a waste of time” and frowned upon. Tracking software will tattle to the boss if you are taking a break that is longer by a few seconds.

The result is loneliness.
What can you do to lower loneliness in your teams
1. Avoid frequent shuffle of team members: It makes the team members look at colleagues the same way that people view a co-passenger on an airplane. We really don’t want to build deep connections (usually), because we realise it is futile. We don’t want to make the emotional investment needed to forge bonds.
2. To build employee engagement, try job sculpting: In industries like call centres etc, the rate of attrition is very high. To keep business continuity, employers standardise jobs and ensure that employees are interchangeable. The skills needed are the same. The result is an insane level of boredom. The jobs look meaningless and people quit. The more they quit, the more the employers create uniformity. Creating a certain degree of autonomy may be incredibly important.
3. Build time for people to socialise: Creating slack in the workplace may seem like a productivity killer. Social isolation has been linked to a 50 percent increased risk of dementia, a 29 percent increased risk of heart disease and a 32 percent increased risk of stroke. The impact of social isolation and loneliness on longevity equals that of smoking 15 cigarettes a day and exceeds the risks associated with obesity, excessive alcohol consumption and lack of exercise. Encourage team members to help someone learn a new hobby. The result can be magical.
We may be getting out of one pandemic and on our way to another.

Read about team loneliness
September 12, 2021