Something strange has happened in the last few years. More and more businesses are missing out on top talent because of all the new operations and hiring processes.

Picture this:

A star employee was just laid off. She was consistent, reliable, and had a great attitude. She provided value every day and didn’t leave the office until she accomplished her goals (and what needed to be done). She is a top notch project manager with technical skills and business savvy. She is great at solving problems and even better managing people. She was a huge value for her team. She was on a specialty project funded by the government but the funding just stopped. SHE IS NOW AVAILABLE!

This amazing woman, let’s call her Jennifer, just walked into your company’s lobby. While she is not the typical person to go door to door, she is ready to work immediately. She is the type of person that needs to add value.

When she walked into your lobby, she was turned away abruptly. “We don’t take resumes. You have to complete an application online.”

Don’t get me wrong, I totally get it. Recruiters and hiring managers are overloaded with business, activities, and events and the thought of adding more to that is too much.

Technology has allowed us streamline this process. We are able to give people access to upload their own application and resume. We use a computer to scan for key words and phrases. We reduce the amount of applications and resumes we have to touch to less than 10% of the total.

But what are we losing in this process?

We are losing great candidates. The people that are being hired are usually the ones that can write the better resume and are better in interviews. But does this really show who the best worker is? I don’t think so.

We are losing the human touch. We are missing out on having that connection with people to determine if their attitude, personality and goals fit with the company culture and mission statement.

We are losing candidates with amazing skills that had the guts to walk into an office even though they knew the answer was probably going to be ‘complete an application online.’

Realize, this is the pot calling the kettle black.

I am writing this article knowing that Adecco has the ‘complete the application online’ mentality. After sitting up front, I started to notice that some of the best people were walking in the door (the day of or the day after they were released) and following up on their online application.

I noticed that WE, as staffing and recruiting professionals with knowledge of our industry, were losing out on these candidates.

So we decided to make some changes.

We put our heads together and said ‘how can we still follow the online process that allows us to screen applicants but at the same time capture the REALLY QUALITY candidates that walk though our doors.’

We created a quick evaluation sheet. And we made it so simple we could have anyone complete it with accuracy. We wanted to create this form so that anyone (with or without HR background and experience) would find it simple and useful. We made a sheet we could get fairly good feedback, minimize the amount of time, and give people that walked in the door a fighting chance. We also made a few more changes to how we communicated our job openings and recent job posts (but that will have to be addressed in a different article ).

This sheet is a quick evaluation sheet of the person’s attire/grooming (especially important in a very professional setting). We mentioned communications, adaptability, personality and overall score. I’m a BIG believer that if someone is dropping off a resume for employment and is rude to the receptionist or security professional, this is probably someone that will give you problems down the road.

This isn’t a full proof system. We have biases that we have to address for the person making the evaluation. But realize the person will still complete the normal application and go through that normal hiring channel. They just get ‘extra points’ for coming into the office, dressed professionally, with an upbeat and pleasant personality inquiring about open positions.

If you want to download our super simple evaluation form, please go tohttp://temporarystaffinginmelbourne.com/yourfuturebestemployee/. The form will be at the bottom of the article.