The recruitment and selection process is an important aspect of any organization's overall Human Resources (HR) and for that matter, even org wide policies.
Indeed, considering the fact that recruitment and selection often determines whether the right person for the right job has been selected, there cannot be any slipups in selecting candidates from the applicant pool.
This is the reason why leading organizations take the recruitment and selection process very seriously. Coming to the ways in which organizations and HR managers recruit candidates and what they look out for, the very basic requirement is that the candidates must be what they claim to be or in other words, their academic, work experience, and technical capabilities that they report on their CVs (Curriculum Vitae) and Resumes must be real and accurate.
Indeed, surveys indicate that many HR manages are simply exasperated by the sheer number of resumes that portray inaccurate or downright false and misleading information as far as these three aspects are concerned.
This is the reason why many organizations in the United States and other developed countries often rely on extensive background checks as a means of verifying the "truthiness" of the applicants. In recent years, many corporates in the developing world are also relying on these checks since the problem of fake resumes have acquired problematic dimensions.
Having said that, it is not like Hiring Managers have to rely on background checks alone to determine whether a candidate is lying.
Instead, many organizations now have a Tiered or Phased Recruitment and Selection Process that consists of several rounds of written tests, aptitude tests, personality tests, and face to face interviews with multiple managers, in addition to case study format interviews and presentations that sometimes last an entire day.
The objective of these tiered processes is to ensure that candidates have the necessary academic heft, work experience that is relevant to the organization, and more importantly, posses the needed technical capabilities that the role demands.
Apart from this, Hiring Managers also look out for communication skills that are needed by many organizations, especially in Client Facing roles that demand a high degree of intercultural as well as interpersonal communication abilities.
Moreover, Hiring Managers also look for candidates who are certified in specific and niche technical and managerial skills.
For instance, there are many certifications that are provided by industry training and accreditation firms in core software, computing, and other technical skills.
As for managerial skills, the world leading PMI or Project Management Institute provides the PMP or the Project Management Program certification for those who have passed the necessary rounds that are mandatory for this certification.
Returning to the problem of fake and misleading resumes, even without background checks, experienced Hiring Managers know for sure when a particular candidate is lying since they would have come across many such candidates during the course of their careers.
Indeed, in our experience, it doesn't take long for an experienced Middle Management professional to discern whether a candidate is what he or she claims is.
In addition, Hiring Managers place a lot of emphasis on the Body Language and the Posture of the interviewees especially during the HR rounds and the final lap of the selection process. This is more to ascertain the nonverbal cues that the candidate is displaying which provides hints into the overall personality of the candidates.
Thus, feeling nervous and on the other hand, being too aggressive is a sure fire way of being rejected.
Moreover, the sitting posture and the body movements and most importantly, whether the candidate is making eye contact are other cues that the Hiring Managers look out for. Indeed, among all the personal attributes that Hiring Managers look out for, making and sustaining Eye Contact rank among the topmost priorities or the aspects that make or mar the chances of an applicant.
Having said that, experienced Hiring Managers also know that some candidates are what are known as Good Interview Candidates who have mastered the Art of Acing interviews by dint of their pleasing and outgoing personalities.
Indeed, the more senior the Hiring Manager is, the greater are the chances that he or she can spot who is a good interview candidate alone and who is the right fit for the role. However, in recent years, the recruitment and the selection process in many organizations and especially at senior and middle levels has become more demanding and tough mainly due to the stakes involved in hiring for those levels.
In other words, organizations are realizing that slipups in hiring middle and senior managers can be very costly for them and this is the reason that leading organizations often do not advertize for those positions and instead, hire specialized recruitment agencies.
This extends to the Executive hiring as well wherein leading organizations such as Infosys have hired Executive Search firms that are global leaders in their niche when they were scouting around for a new CEO or Chief Executive Officer.
Indeed, dedicated hiring at these levels is an industry niche by itself since this is a once in a while hiring event for the corporates.
To conclude, as mentioned earlier, recruitment and hiring has become very important for all stakeholders and in our experience, acing the process needs a holistic approach from the candidates and similarly, the hiring firms too need to have an integrated approach.