Gerry Crispin portraitPoor Candidate Experience Declared Illegal

By Gerry Crispin

A Presidential Executive Order [C-22] was issued today requiring the end of the Candidate ‘Black Hole’ and demanding full transparency from US corporations about their recruiting process.

President Obama, after 3 years deliberation has ended the so-called ‘black hole’ for candidates with a sweeping executive order that requires:

  • Every approved/opened requisition must be filled in 60 days or less.
  • All questions and feedback posed by applicants (whether qualified & considered or not), be responded to in 48 hours or less.
  • All military personnel transitioning to the private sector be contacted by a company recruiter to discuss their interest within 48 hours of the time and date they submit their application.
  • All job descriptions be written and readable by high-school graduates.
  • All applications must be readable by high-school graduates AND designed to be completed, on average, in 10 minutes or less.
  • Applicant pools for every job must include at least 10 qualified and considered applicants.
  • No fewer than 10 qualified applicants or 50% of the qualified applicant pool must be designated as Finalists.
  •  All Finalists provided detailed feedback about their candidacy.
  • All Applicants (qualified & considered or not) informed when a position is filled or closed.

Millions of celebrating job seekers filled the streets.

Thousands of Corporate spokesmen and women immediately protested that the EO’s requirements were too onerous and costly and would reduce America’s ability to compete globally. Several firms cited abusive behavior regarding candidates in other countries and the US as ‘Customary and Expected” noting Glassdoor and TalentFunction’s Candidate Experience Awards as proof that the US has few firms ready to treat candidates as partners in the process. A new lobby, the Coalition to Protect the Black Hole was formed and demanded at least 10 years- not 6 months to comply with the Executive Order.

Idaho and Texas floated secession petitions.

The NRA issued the following statement:

“We are pleased to note that the executive order does NOT appear to infringe on the right of every job seeker to carry his/her personal weapon-of-choice into an interview but, we will continue to monitor for any attack of the 2nd amendment rights of our citizens.”

April fools! Sort of.

On May 11, 2010 it might be worth noting that Barak Obama did sign an executive order on Hiring Reforms…for the Federal Government. John Zappe wrote about it in an ERE article suggesting this was an effort to end the ‘Black Hole.

In three years, surprisingly, some things have moved forward. Being somewhat cynical about any government program, I’m pleasantly entertained at how much change has taken place (and especially thrilled to see the demise of the ‘essay’).

The website that is attempting to keep the public apprised about the Federal Government’s Hiring Reforms notes openly that not enough competent HR people and resistance from hiring managers are remaining and serious challenges. However some new metrics appear to be in place (even if they are not always ready to be acted upon):

  • “The percent of employees hired within 80 days as described in the Hiring Process Component of the E2E Model (source: Hiring Timeline Data);
  • The percent of applicants who were able to obtain information on the current status of their application (source: New Hire Survey);
  • The percent of new employees reporting regular communications throughout the entire process (re: expectations for the hiring process) (source: New Hire Survey);
  • The percent of managers reporting that they were referred applicants with the talent needed to perform the job (source: CHCO Manager Survey); and
  • The percent of new hires reporting satisfaction with the hiring process (source: New Hire Survey).”

(And No, I couldn’t actually see what those metrics were #missingdata. But it is nice to know the data even exists!)

So, if you are in a firm that isn’t up to ‘government standards’ (or, at least what they aspire to), April fools might just be on you.



 
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