The Evolution of Unemployment

In the beginning, there were actual flesh and blood people working in a capacity called “human resources”.  In that capacity, many were tasked with the job of shifting through resumes trying to find the perfect candidate to fill an open position at a company.  As the ability of human resources managers began to fail, business owners started to look for a more precise and less expensive way to handle this issue.  They refused to invest any money into better training for the human resources personnel and thought it best to spend money on a computer software system combined with an outsourced recruiter to accomplish this mission.  The promise was better, more qualified and more able applicants to fill that job.  Their promise would never be delivered upon.

What they ended up with was the very same fiasco that has befallen the credit industry.   They ended up with people called recruiters who have no connections to their company and therefore could not possess the best interest of that company at heart.  They ended up with the results of highly intelligent geeks who formulated a computer program with a slick idea that non-breathing devices were better at choosing the best candidate for the job than a human being.  The algorithms thrown together were promised to deliver but again as with the current failure of the credit score system fails.  The system of certain key words found in a resume or application is called a filter and was designed to filter out those who failed to use these key words or failed to use them a specific amount of times within their resume or application.  Now those, unemployed have a much larger obstacle to overcome.  They are now being judged by a computer system and a group of people not unlike those that occupy the now often-used Temporary Agencies called recruiters.

As Temporary Agencies and recruiters begin to wane, their abilities beginning to produce temporary personnel instead or permanent.  Business has now thrown another wrench into the system.  Many businesses are now including assessment tests as a way to guarantee them the best fit for their companies.  Again this avenue had already been traveled and instead of using those who traffic this road before, they were led to believe that all these combinations of wrong would produce a right.  The military has been using tests all these years, not to mention schools of higher learning, to find out where a person’s mind was and what actions they may or may not take in certain situations.  Checking the history, one would discover that these tests did not prove successful.  In the military, you still find those who passed not able to perform that job which was depicted as them being qualified to practice and in academia, the same can be said for judging someone’s intelligence.  Those very smart people were elevated and escorted into pristine and Ivy League schools only to emerge and fail the ultimate tests of doing the job.

What were lost are those who were experienced in the actual job and would have done a much better job, often with their eyes closed.  What was lost is an employee so grateful at being recognized for their true accomplishments that they became permanent and loyal to the company.  What was lost was the unfiltered interaction between human beings that can never be captured by a computer.  What was lost was business’ ability to rise higher and reach that next level by bringing in or retaining those who was well equipped to take them there.