Are companies looking for the perfect CV missing out?

Are companies looking for the perfect CV missing out? The perfect CV doesn't always belong to a perfect candidate.

Many organisations still place too much emphasis on CV’s rather than the actual candidate. Many companies only consider interviewing applicants who have perfectly written CVs and as such many potentially great employees are being dismissed too quickly.

Mistakes are part of the learning process, why should a mistake detract from a CV? If it’s true that the person who never made a mistake never made anything, why should a tarnished CV hinder a career? Insisting on perfect doesn't make sense, especially not in a skills shortage.

In the 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers Global CEO survey, nearly 70% of CEO's complained about a talent shortage. Meanwhile 25% of ‘star’ performers hired with often impeccable CVs expect to quit their current role within the next twelve months.

At interview, good people can become disillusioned at relentless questioning over a perceived weak point in their career… perhaps what looks like a poor job choice or a quick job change. These things happen, and while they are often logically explained, many employers get concerned about one small detail and not the bigger picture.

The result is that everyone now chases after the same ‘star’ candidates, making the situation of skills shortage doubly difficult.  If employers were more willing to take a calculated risk and interview other high performing individuals, the war for talent might well be eased. In his excellent book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins states: “Good-to-great companies place more weight on character than on specific skills or experience.” These companies place emphasis on a candidate’s outlook, personal values and approach over their experience or qualifications. 

Correct culture fit combined with behaviour and skills often say more about a candidate’s suitability than an excellent academic record. For these enlightened companies, obvious candidate credentials are only part of the story and they reap the rewards of this more open minded approach to hiring.

In our view, it’s essential for organisations to work harder at pinpointing the values and behaviours that will define success and look at candidates who match these criteria. It’s vital to include sound judgement, team compatibility, resilience to pressure, curiosity, desire to learn, self-motivation and commercial ability.

We work hard to help companies understand there is a lot more talent out there that can be utilised to greater advantage. So it’s not about accepting second best – it’s about delivering a true competency, culture and values based recruitment model to your organisation.