FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — The staffing and hiring process is complicated since the start of the pandemic. This has led businesses to go on a hiring spree during the ‘Great Resignation of 2021.’
“It’s an applicants market right now,” Dr. Michael Kirchner, professor of organizational leadership at Purdue University Fort Wayne said. “There’s such a disconnect between the number of jobs available and the available talent pool. For a while, there was the argument that once the government benefits are expired now we are going to see more people come into the workforce. The truth is we have so many more jobs than we have talent.”
The ‘Great Resignation’ is a phenomenon that describes the record numbers of people leaving their jobs right after the COVID-19 pandemic. This has left companies across Fort Wayne and northeast Indiana desperate to hire and yet some workers still can’t seem to find the right job.
WANE 15 spoke with Dr. Michael Kirchner back in October about a ‘filter’ or automation employers use to fill vacancies. There are ways to get through this filter which include using keywords found in the job description and placing them in your resume and cover letter.
However, after passing the ‘filter’ there are other hurdles applicants have to go through before getting a job. Here are some reasons why a person’s applicant might not be selected for a job or interview.
Employer-Controlled Reasons:
- Screening system
- Overqualification
- No immediate openings—planning for the future
- Viable candidate identified prior to being posted
- Difficulty understanding how prior experience relates to position
- Candidates/finalists selected before application submitted (~80-85% of positions filled via network)
- Unanticipated cuts
- Primacy vs recency effect (especially during interviews but can happen in submissions)
- Stereotyping/favoritism/perceptions (about degree from particular school or experience at a particular company)
- Poor/incomplete screening process, i.e. process for evaluating and ranking applicants
Applicant Influenced Reasons
- Incomplete application/application package (cover letter, references, transcripts, etc.) (50%+ have admitted to not finishing a job application because of its length)
- Mistakes on application/incorrect contact information
- Spelling/grammatical errors in application package
- Poorly organized resume
- Inability to translate prior experience
- Don’t meet the minimum education requirement(s)
- Don’t meet the minimum work-experience requirement(s
With the hurdles of applying for the jobs, Kircher says employers are working hard to keep current employees.
“It is a lot less expensive to retain an employee than it is to hire a new employee,” Kirchner said. “That means employees are finding new ways to keep their current employees happy and a lot of that has to deal with the culture of the workplace.”
No matter what industry employees work in, Kirchner says oftentimes they all want the same thing, which includes feeling appreciated for the work they do and being recognized for their hard work. Employees also want to feel that the work they are doing matters and that they have a say in the work they are doing. An example of this is remote working.
Kirchner says the problems surrounding the ‘Great Resignation of 2021’ are not forecasted to end anytime soon. A solution could take years but how long is anyone’s guess.
