In our article on cognitive biases, we mentioned the biases that can occur during job interviews. To overcome this, a practice has emerged in recent years… CV-free recruitment.
But what are the advantages of this recruitment method, and the good practices to adopt in order to implement it? Explanations in this article.
The resume, an essential tool in the recruitment process?
It goes without saying that the resume (or curriculum vitae) has its share of advantages. This essential document allows you to summarize a candidate’s career path in a few lines. Training, professional experience, various skills, and even hobbies… A person’s entire career can be summarized in a resume. More importantly, this document says a lot about a candidate’s ability to highlight his or her suitability for the position, or simply his or her ability to communicate well. For example, a concise resume could highlight a candidate’s ability to synthesize information.
Moreover, with recruitment tools (and in particular ATS like Jobaffinity), it has never been easier to select qualified candidates without wasting time.
The problem? Well, a resume can quickly turn out to be reductive.
The multiple disadvantages of the resume
If this document allows you to highlight the academic background and technical skills of the candidates, it says nothing about their soft skills (except for the soft skills that can be deduced by examining the form or the content of the resume).
We know that an employee’s behavioral skills are as essential as his or her technical skills.
But that’s not all. In essence, the resume is a biased document. The candidate designs it to show off: analyzing it implies believing in its good faith. This document is therefore worth nothing in itself, and is not necessarily representative of a candidate’s true worth. Moreover, a (good) recruiter always takes care to verify the information contained in a CV during the recruitment process.
Finally, the very step of analyzing the resume can be quite dehumanizing, if you think about it. Analyzing and sorting applications amounts to identifying certain skills or training sought after, specific keywords… In other words, the focus is more on “knowing” than on “being.”
But then, what to do with atypical profiles, self-taught people who don’t “fit into the boxes” and yet have a certain outlook, expertise or originality to show?
What are the advantages of a Hiring Process Without Resumes?
Designed to counter the limitations of traditional resume-based recruitment, CV-based recruitment has the merit of putting people back at the center of the hiring process. By putting diplomas and professional experience in the background, this new type of recruitment gives primacy to the candidate’s personality.
Even better: recruiting without a resume reduces discrimination in hiring! Indeed, this approach makes it possible to go beyond certain basic criteria highlighted in a resume, such as a candidate’s origin, gender, age or socio-cultural heritage.
An objective selection process
Let’s not forget, moreover, that the analysis of a resume tends to lack objectivity… And can favor certain recruitment biases. For example, with the halo effect, a recruiter may be tempted to favor a candidate because he/she graduated from “such and such a school”… To the detriment of a more qualified candidate but with a different academic background. Recruiting without a resume limits this cognitive bias, since it gives primacy to the concrete skills of the candidate.
Another advantage of resume-free recruitment? It can be used for any position! Whether you are recruiting a developer, a salesperson or an engineer, resume-free recruitment allows you to assess the candidate’s suitability for the position in a concrete manner. The only requirement? Design a personalized questionnaire to assess the skills required for each position.
A tool for diversifying recruitment
Lastly, recruiting without a resume has the significant advantage of going off the beaten track. It is a way for a company to discover atypical profiles that would have escaped them during a classic recruitment process. This is the case, for example, for non-graduates, or people who are changing careers… Most of these different profiles have a quality that is essential for any recruitment: motivation.
In short, recruitment without a resume values skills and interpersonal skills rather than diplomas. It allows us to discover the candidates through videos (Visiotalent), questionnaires or tests… In other words, we test the candidates in real conditions, in a concrete way.
How to implement a Hiring Process Without Resumes in brief in your company?
resume-free recruitment is currently practiced in two different ways:
- Pôle emploi has set up its simulation-based recruitment method (MRS). This method consists of evaluating the “skills” that are essential for a position and then subjecting the candidates to exercises that will reveal or not these skills.
- Another method proposed by Apec, among others, consists of sending candidates a questionnaire with 25 to 30 items specific to the position to be filled. Like the simulation recruitment method, this questionnaire aims to evaluate the candidates’ skills, but also their personality, motivation…
💡 Other more creative recruitment methods have emerged in recent years, such as video recruitment (Visiotalent). social recruiting, challenges or even recruitment escapes game…
Whatever the method used, recruiting without a resume consists of evaluating the technical AND behavioral skills of candidates in real-life conditions. At the end of the day, it’s about working on merit, and that’s great.
Hiring Process Without Resumes in brief
Still recent in France, resume-free recruitment allows a real diversification of profiles. Even better: it puts skills and people at the center of the hiring process. As an added bonus, this recruitment method saves time in the selection process, as applications are more qualified from the start.
Our recruitment software Jobaffinity gives you access to the most innovative human resources management services, directly from our tool. Evaluate your talents in a concrete way via personality, motivation or cognitive tests with Goshaba, CentralTest or AssessFirst.
