Resume searches: Don't forget the human touch

Marysville, WA - December 4, 2002 - Computerization seems to have taken all the thought out of resume tracking. Or has it?

"Looking for qualifications on resumes-especially in biotech, pharmaceuticals or healthcare-- goes beyond allowing a computer to make decisions for you based on canned data" says Michele Groutage, director of marketing and development, MedZilla.com, a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that targets jobseekers and HR professionals in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science. "The human touch is very much needed in the recruiting process, which includes determining which resumes to pursue. When you think about it, finding the right resume is key to the success of the whole process. It should be maximized so that you don't miss out on what might be your most ideal candidates."

According to Groutage, many recruiters today rely too heavily on applicant tracking systems to do everything for them. "Automation can make our jobs easier, but if not used to its potential, it can work against you."

The pharmaceutical division of a leading healthcare staffing and recruiting company, CompHealth, doesn't use an ATS and instead receives applications from candidates and looks through each application individually, according to Carlos Hagler, director of operations CompHealth Pharmacy Staffing.

"In my experience it is not a good idea to rely solely on an applicant tracking system because it removes the human element from finding a great applicant. While an automated system saves time and effort, it is not foolproof. Too many very qualified applicants might slip through the cracks if we completely remove the human element. There is still nothing out there better than human judgment and actually talking to a candidate," says Hagler.

Hagler adds that some of the better candidates might not understand how to format a resume to make it through the first round with an ATS. "Machines are not perfect. They can't recognize qualities people might catch while manually going over a resume," he says.

When reading each application individually is time- and cost-prohibitive, computerization should be used as an integral part of resume searches, Groutage says. "There are better ways to target the right resumes. Most ATSs use keywords as well as canned searches created by the vendor. Keyword searches give people searching the most control over what they want to find. Canned searches are fine if you are looking for generic data, but if the canned search is not based on industry knowledge, the user may become frustrated with the results," she says. "ATS products tend to be very generic, but specialized industries like biotech or healthcare require a more focused approach."

Biogen Inc., a biotechnology company principally engaged in discovering and developing drugs for human healthcare through genetic engineering, has about 2,600 employees worldwide. According to Greg Smith, HR technology consultant, Biogen, Inc., all the company's resumes go into a database and Biogen pulls resumes from the database using key word searchers. Smith says the company has the capability to limit searches by key words, job titles or organizations, making the search as broad or defined as needed. "If we have a new position to fill, we will go into the database and create three to five individual searches based on that one job. It could be variations of skills and key words, job titles and organizations-whatever variations you're looking for," Smith says.

Resumes are then returned according to how many matches were made. The human touch, Smith says, comes in after the computer has done its initial search. The staff then assesses individual resumes to determine whether they should take the next step and contact those candidates.

This type of searching is a feature within the applicant tracking system. The rest of the system tracks the candidate through the whole hiring process.

One time saving tip, according to Smith, is to create overnight searches for positions. Once the search is set up, Smith creates an overnight search so that he doesn't have to go in on a regular basis and recreate the search for a similar position. The overnight search tells the system to search for candidates on an ongoing basis, every night, and delivers the candidates it finds to recruiters.

The future, he says, may be in some of the newer ranking products where recruiters can have candidates answer measurable type questions when they apply for specific positions. Once they answer the questions, the system would look at what the employer defines as top candidates and identify those applicants that are a close match.

"Automation has a place-a growing place in recruiting," Groutage says. "But human thought continues to drive the technology and make up for its inadequacies."

About MedZilla.com
Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the original web site to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare. MedZilla databases contain about 10,000 open positions and 10,000 resumes from candidates actively seeking new positions. These resources have been characterized as the largest, most comprehensive databases of their kind on the web in the industries served.