How Does HR Screen CV?

Often HR is the one that screen CVs and forward potential suitable ones to the hiring manager to narrow down further to short-list candidates for interviews. So how does HR screen CV? I cannot represent all HR but can only use my own experience back then when I was in HR which I relied on certain principles of HRM/Organisational Behaviour to screen. I believe it is likely a common practice. As I mentioned before, a key role of HR is to assist companies to perform through its human resources. 

Performance = ability + motivation + opportunity to perform. You need a person to have the ability for sure but having ability does not mean a person is motivated to perform. A talent can just come to work not being motivated and work very slowly which is not productive. A motivated talent will also need opportunity to perform. If a supervisor always micro-manage, even if a person is talented, his/her ideas will not be put to use as supervisor expect him/her to simply follow instructions. Motivation will not last under such supervisor as well. So generally, HR is likely to rely on these to screen CV to short-list candidates that can perform be it now (people who can perform) or the future (people who has the potential to be developed to perform). But of course it is far more complex than this equation. This equation is mainly on job fit but there are consideration for functional/team fit (e.g. interpersonal skills) and organisational fit (e.g. cultural and values fit). So today I am going to share with you how I screen CVs so that you know how to format your CV to increase your chance of being short-listed for interviews. The principles here also apply generally to all recruitment and selection methods including interviews.

HOW DOES HR CHECK WHETHER A CANDIDATE HAS THE ABILITY AND MOTIVATION?

To check ability, there are a few ways and often the first step is to check your CV. I usually will look at CV and check for education and work experience. Relevance is the key. I will see how closely your CV fits the person specifications as advertised in the job advertisement. This is about your ability. If you have studied something of relevance, that may suggest you have relevant knowledge but whether you know how to apply what you learned is another thing. Knowledge application will probably be predicted by relevant work experience (if not able to apply, probably you will be sacked or stuck without promotion). If one has no work experience, relevant knowledge is still better than nothing (so study what is relevant, not study for mere grades!). I will also look at the achievements you have made during work as they suggest your abilities. 

Another thing to note is that I would not have the time to look at every CVs in great details. What I will do is to screen for keywords with ctrl+f while many big companies have software to help them to do that. So do ensure you follow the job advertisement to have keywords mentioned else risk not being short-listed. Perhaps you may argue this is unfair as there may be good candidates that does not know the rules of CV screening. True, but remember businesses are about profit making. They are not charity. If the screening method is too inefficient even if effective, if getting the best person which takes so much time while a satisfactory person is sufficient, what for spend so much effort right? Will you go to the alps to get the best drinking water or you will simply drink from the tap? Same logic. Have to balance effectiveness and efficiency.

To check your motivation for the job, it will be your employment pattern. If someone says HR is his/her passion, someone with degree in HR and past few employments were all in HR, I will be more convinced of this passion than someone without any background in HR after years of work. Some companies also deliberately have lengthy application form or process to test how motivated are you to get the job as well. I understand that job seekers can get annoyed with spending so much time with the application and may self-select out of the process but those that really want the job will still apply nevertheless. This is a way to reduce the amount of applications and an automatic way of selecting motivated individuals. When it is an employer's market (i.e. high unemployment rate), employers can afford to do that. 

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER

As I mentioned, it is not as simple as just ability and motivation. There are other things to consider such as loyalty, managing psychological contract (i.e. expectation), cultural fit, values fit and personality fit as a few more examples.

1) Loyalty

Loyalty is rather important for knowledge-based jobs. For low skill jobs that does not take long for anyone to pick up the skill to perform and replacements can be easily found, loyalty of staff is not a concern. But it will be a concern if replacement is not easy to find and lots of resources are invested to develop that talent. To check potential loyalty, I will see your past work history of how long in average you stay in a job. Reason for doing so is to predict how long you will stay in the company if we employ you. If every few months you switch employer, tendency of you being loyal to my company will not be long. I will not consider you unless it is a short-term contract. 

2) Psychological Contract

In HR, 'psychological contract' refers to the implicit assumed agreement about obligations an employer has to employee and employee has to employer. Matching expectation is rather important as if unmet, either employee or employer or both will feel this implicit agreement has been broken and can feel unhappy and may decide to leave the employer-employee relationship. So do not lie! To manage the psychological contract, I will look at both your past position and salary. If it is too high of a position and salary as compared to the advertised role, I may not consider you because there may be a lack of budget to pay what you earned previously. The position may also be too low for you that you may feel humiliating. The inability to fulfil expectation is likely to lead to someone's resignation. No point hiring someone that does not stay for long.

The implication of this is that do not assume that the higher you study, the easier you can get a job. While this may be true in some cultures (e.g. UK) or when an employer is not looking for a performer but a potential leader to be developed like in the case of a Management Trainee job, if you get a qualification far higher than the role requires, you can end up 'overqualified' and not be considered. This is because generally, as one gets higher education, he/she may expect higher pay but employer only needs one of certain education as that role does not need such high level education background. In such case, why should employer pay more for someone that he/she does not need? There is therefore a misalignment of expectations and the employer-employee relationship would not last. This is a concern of many employers except for the really powerful MNCs that has the power to attract talents. Because they are the most preferred employers, employees having no better option will stay with them and employers therefore would not be afraid that an overqualified person would resign soon.

Managing psychological contract does not end with CV screening though. In interviews (e.g. asking you where do you see yourself in 5 years time) and even in annual performance review, psychological contract management principles are still being used.

3) Cultural Fit

In very big companies, HR is given the role to manage or assist in the management of corporate culture. So if a person does not fit the corporate culture, he/she will likely not be hired as his/her entry will disrupt the culture and undermine organisational performance. It is also not in the benefit of any candidate who does not fit in culturally to join. Reason is simple. Such a person who does not support the corporate culture will not be well looked upon and unlikely to be promoted. Sure, a person that does not fit may be a good performer but organisational performance depends on the whole company (and not on an individual) and corporate culture has a role to play. A good performer may not be promoted as well as the next level job may require a different skill set. A good teacher may not be a good principal. What for put someone good at teaching to manage a school ending up losing a good teacher and get a bad principal right? While cultural fit is hard to judge from CV, some tools perhaps will be personality test (which I do not quite like it as its validity is low) and interviews.

4) Values Fit

Not this value!!!

If you are a religious person and believe that gambling is bad and I throw you into a gambling business, will you perform? Unlikely. For the same reason, if your values do not fit with the company's, I will not select you unless there are no other better candidates. I am not supportive of gambling though. This is just an example! Some CVs may have a summary section or may attach a cover letter. If a candidate looks at the corporate values and write something that fits it, there may be a higher chance to be short-listed. But like cultural fit, no point in lying as once inside, if you cannot fit, you will not have a good career inside that company anyway. A word of caution though. Not all companies hold the values they put on their walls! Their values shown on the wall may just be a decoration!

5) Personality Fit

Based on research, conscientiousness consistently show good performance in all jobs generally. Extroversion works well for sales and leadership. Openness is important for innovativeness. Agreeableness is important for teamwork. But personally I do not like personality test or rely on it solely because the validity of personality in predicting performance is too low. But many companies rely on them. So just to let you know briefly what predicts what. You can put them as your 'strengths' under summary section of your CV or list them in your cover letter.

That is all for today. I will not be able to write about interviews next as I never conduct interview in my past HR work. Perhaps in future when I gain experience in conducting interview will I post something about interviews. Do note however, that after HR screen your CV, the hiring manager will screen to short-list candidates for interviews. Getting pass HR is just the first step! HR will not be competent enough to screen for skill set as our knowledge in all functions is limited. For the next post, I will probably write about networking as a tool of leadership and performance. I have just finished the book "The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here" by Professor Lynda Gratton from London Business School. It is rather interesting and perhaps useful on the topic of networking. I will share what the book says and what I have learned about networking over the years from others as well as my leadership module in my MSc Management & Human Resources at LSE.