The majority of the region’s employers, 78%, believe that references are important for ensuring they recruit the right talent for their company, according to the latest online poll series conducted by Bayt.com with the region’s employers. Of these, 22% said references were extremely important and that they were the sole criteria for choosing an employee, while 56% of employers said that references were quite important and that they take into account a range of other factors like past work experience and education in addition.
Interestingly, another 22% of the employers polled said that references were not important: of these, 11% said they sometimes take references into consideration but look at other criteria, while the other 11% said that a candidate can be a good fit regardless of whether s/he has a strong reference. The ‘References in Middle Eastern Job Applications’ September poll series conducted by Bayt.com sought to understand from employers what importance they attach to the references and statements of potential new recruits, and what other tools employers use to assess a candidate’s suitability for a particular role.
Despite employers believing that references are important, when posting a job vacancy, only 50% of recruiters said that they always ask for a reference, while another 23% said that they don’t really ask. Just under a fifth – 18% of employers, said they often ask for references, while 9% said it depends on the seniority of the position being advertised. Moreover, the poll showed that the region’s recruiters are largely split over whether they go on to check a candidate’s references having asked for them: 39% said they always contact the references mentioned on a job seekers’ application, while 14% said that they sometimes do.
Another 14% of employers said that they never check references, while 14% said they will make the decision to check references according to the importance of the position. What we are seeing from the results of this latest bayt.com poll series is that while employers on the whole hold references to be very important, there is a large split as to whether or not they go on to check them.
This seems to back up the widely held notion in the region that final employment decisions don’t rely on a good reference like in more mature markets, instead, new recruits can often get by without actually needing to have one. Employers were asked to what extent they rely on the statements candidates make on their application, in assessing their suitability for a job. For the most part, employers said they don’t tend to check on an employee’s statements until they are ready to make an employment offer (53%). Interestingly, 27% of employers said that they have to trust what their interviewees say, and therefore rarely go on to check other evidence like their references.
The poll also showed that a relatively small percentage, 13%, will actually go on and check certificates and references in certain cases, while only 7% said that they won’t only rely on an interviewee’s statements, they would rather play it safe and ask for references. Employers are largely divided as to what role the statements made on application forms actually play. That a relatively high proportion say they rarely cross check what a candidate has written shows that many candidates are selected on the strength of their interview, rather than having to go through various layers of recruitment procedure.
On receiving an application for a position, employers were largely split over how much time they actually spend reviewing the application: 48% of employers agreed that they spend ‘some’ time reviewing the application to make sure that the information matches what they are looking for in a candidate, before scheduling an interview.
A significant proportion of recruiters, 33%, said they spend quite a lot of time with the application, taking their time to go through every detail to avoid short listing the wrong candidate. The poll found that another 7.5% of employers admitted that they don’t spend any time at all with an application, and unless they have a specific job vacancy advertised then the application will go in the bin, compared to 4% who said that they will skim through the application and then ask most candidates to come for an interview.
This was not the case for the other 7.5% of employers who said that how much time they spend with an application depends on certain factors, such as how much time they have, or how senior a position the vacancy is. The results of the poll demonstrate how important the original application is: for the most part, employers spend a significant amount of time assessing the details a candidate puts on his/her application, and make their decision based on that.
It sends a clear message to job seekers how important it is to make a strong impression with employers when they apply. The poll asked the region’s employers what other factors they use in the recruitment process: 30% said they conduct ability tests, 20% rely on references and 5% undertake personality tests, while an additional 35% said they conduct all of these. Recruitment can often be a complete mystery to job seekers, and many have a limited understanding of how important things like a good application, or a good reference actually are.
In conducting polls such as these, Bayt.com provides a very interesting insight into how employers think when it comes to selecting their candidates and job seekers could use this data as a general indicator, and then assess how strong different elements like their references, experience and applications are.
This could ultimately help job seekers to stand out from the rest, and find their ideal job more easily. Data for the ‘References in Middle Eastern Job Applications’ employer poll series was collected online between 17 August and 29 September 2009, with a total of 147 employers across the Middle East. This and other Middle East human resources research is available online at www.bayt.com.
