One of the most intriguing and mysterious phenomena of the cosmos is the “black hole.” The study of black holes, or what happens when a star dies, has occupied the minds of scientists for centuries. Regardless of the various theories, the definition in a physics dictionary goes something like this: A black hole is a region of space-time that has so much mass concentrated in it that there is no way for any matter or energy to escape its gravitational pull, even light itself (as a physicists daughter, I paraphrased as best I could). Is it any surprise that, since the 1980s, the “black hole” has been used as a popular analogy in recruiting to describe what happens to the average resume submitted to a company… painting a bleak picture of hope for its retrieval? Coincidentally, this term seemed to become popular exactly when automated resume processing and early applicant tracking systems became commercially available. “I sent in my resume and it just went into a black hole!” Black holes can have very damaging effects on both the job seeker and the recruiter functions. The funny thing is, as new generations of recruiters and job seekers come and go, this is not a term one has to learn, like “job agent,” “behavioral interviewing,” or “flipping web sites”. It requires no explanation. The average employee applying to a job, the attendee at a career fair, the recruiter searching for last months’ lead, and the HR manager all use the term without ever conferring. Each one may interpret its meaning a little differently, but still feels the effect of the black hole in the recruiting process. The Bigger, the Better? Black holes can refer to traditional paper-based processes where resumes are literally sitting in file cabinets. But, with the information age, the term is generally associated with electronic resumes. With the advent of resume or applicant tracking systems, black holes became quantifiable, i.e. you could know exactly how big your potential black hole was…100,000, 200,000, or 500,000 resumes strong. In the earlier days of staffing automation, large resume databases were touted as a badge of honor. Quantity was good. The attitude was, “whoever has the largest database wins.” Remember when Monster.com announced it had reached one million resumes? That may have sounded impressive, but this milestone is not just for large public job boards. Today, corporations and agencies are proud owners of similar mega-resume warehouses. I just talked with a company recently that has an applicant tracking system with a limit on the number of resumes permitted in their database (a black-hole meter if you will) set to 250,000. This gentleman shared with me that he is ready to move from that system because they want to be able to store more resumes. Is your organization suffering from “black hole” syndrome? So does having a lot of resumes in your database imply that you have a black hole in your recruiting process? Not necessarily. Let’s look at some symptoms of this syndrome:
Defying Gravity Let’s get metaphysical: what makes a black hole, not a black hole? If you are not suffering from any of the above symptoms, your recruiting organization is probably practicing some of these black-hole prevention techniques:
Ironically, recruiting organizations spend small fortunes on job board database subscriptions when potential treasure troves of applicants are sitting right under their nose. Every company I’ve worked with could use its internal database more effectively to reduce black hole syndrome. So no matter how big or small your database, making it the first and number one stop on the sourcing trail will reap many rewards.