By Steve Higginbotham (Steve Higgy)
TALENT ACQUISITION & OPTIMIZATION: WHAT WE GET WRONG AND HOW TO MAKE IT BETTER
I started in this industry back when we had the Yellow Pages and carried a beeper. I felt like things got revolutionized when I got my first cell phone and when I stopped receiving faxed resumes. Monster came up and I had free resumes at my fingertips. That was just the beginning of it. You look now and there’s LinkedIn and AI software that can parse through resumes and navigate those choppy waters. And now, we’re on smartphones and can apply to jobs on our phone versus a computer. In the 27 years, I’ve seen a few major shifts and changes. Same thing with the way in which we recruit.
Nowadays, I feel like it’s not as humanized as it could be. People hire people that they trust, like, and respect. They don’t hire resumes. It’s great to automate, but there’s still a person at the other side of that resume. So, it has to have a humanized approach. And I feel that’s where people and companies get it wrong. They are moving so fast, they forget about the human touch.
When I look at the recruitment industry, there’s some things that are done really well, and other things that are done really poorly. Having a good talent acquisition team can make a difference. And it’s not just going through quick resumes or having the interview, but it’s everything — making sure that interviewers and candidates are truly engaged. Candidate engagement refers to the ongoing process of building meaningful communication with job seekers throughout the recruitment journey. It’s not just about sending resumes or updates — it’s about creating a connection that keeps candidates interested, informed, and aligned with your company’s values and culture. And that’s the difference between candidates and applicants. The human connection. And now, that’s also moved into the candidate experience, not just once they get hired, but how they move through their journey within a company. That’s how I look at my role and what I’ve done over the years.
First and foremost, job descriptions that a lot of companies write are either archaic or not specific enough. They’re a little too generic and too open. I’ll give you one example, and part of this is based on compliance. People know that they might want someone with five years of experience, so they’ll put three plus years of experience. So, it opens up the candidate pool a little too wide. You’ll get people with two or three years, and then you’ll get people with 20 years. And it doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t hire someone with 20 years of experience, but let’s narrow down a little bit. No longer are the days where they put five to seven years. And again, they shouldn’t because someone with eight years might be very well qualified for that job. You don’t know until you interview them. The second thing they do is they give tasks to the wrong person, meaning that they have a coordinator who is overworked, probably underpaid, and doesn’t have the time to sift through the quality resumes. And again, how can you tell a person from their resume? Some resumes are one page, some are two.
The hard thing is when people look at resumes, they tend to look for what candidates don’t have. What are they missing? This is standard human bias. AI and assessments could help companies predict better qualified candidates if they could focus more on the hiring practice versus their time to fill metrics. We don’t have time to screen 20 candidates. We only want to shortlist the top five or seven. And then we give that to our managers and they narrow down even further.
So, that’s where AI comes in now — can it help sift through the rubbish and get the better qualified candidates? Well, if we don’t have the best job description and we don’t know what that means, how do we know where we’re going? I think the greater part of it is when a recruiter and a hiring manager do not have that connection. I’ll give you an example. Some companies hire the same person month after month. Maybe it’s a maintenance mechanic or manufacturing technician. There’s heavy turnover, there’s high volume, and we think we have the perfect job description. We’re going to send it out, and we just get the same people, and we’re praying a little bit.
Basically, it’s a posting and coasting method that we’re using to get a candidate. But we really don’t know. Every time we put someone in that group, the culture shifts just a little bit, good or bad. And we’re not necessarily in tune or engaged with that because we’re worried about the production and keeping the line moving. If we can get that intake call a little bit tighter and more narrowed down when we’re screening and interviewing candidates, we can choose someone that may be more retainable.
Steve Higginbotham — known as Steve Higgy — is a Talent Acquisition strategist, speaker, and mentor focused on helping leaders and professionals move with clarity and confidence.
He brings deep expertise in talent strategy, career progression, and execution discipline — guiding individuals and organizations through complex challenges, as a Hands-on Project Manager, with practical structure and intentional action.