Phase 4: Candidate Profiling

Disraeli once said there are lies, damned lied and statistics. At Lauder Beaumont we have adapted the saying – there are lies, damned lies and CVs. 65% of people lie on their CVs, the key data source that we rely on to source and narrow down applicants contains untrue information more than half the time

(Source: The Risk Advisory Group)

The Challenge

Over reliance on CVs is a major contributor to making hiring mistakes. CVs come in all shapes and sizes and are extremely variable in terms of content. They are often full of ambiguous statements and irrelevant information. Chances are the person you are looking for doesn’t have a CV ready to go, off the shelf anyway. If they are happy in their current role, why would they? Many, many great candidates are passed-over, simply because they don’t have a CV ready to go and don’t have either the time of inclination to produce one.

The Answer

Forget CVs and start producing relevant and consistent candidate profiles in a format that will be useful when evaluating whether the person is a good match for the role and worth interviewing. LBA Candidate Profiles run to a couple of pages at most and focus on the salient points, which make a candidate relevant for the role. Talking directly with the candidate and using skilled questioning techniques produce these profiles. They also enable validation of the information and ensure its clear and concise presentation, without the ‘gloss’ that may be contained in a typical CV.