A few weeks ago, Steve Levitt, the co-author of Freakonomics, blogged about a recent study published by our company, JobApp Network, on how web-only applicant tracking, talent acquisition and hiring management systems may be unwittingly hampering diversity at hourly employers, particularly in retail and restaurants.
Rarely have I seen such a torrent of controversy unleashed by what was originally intended to be just another quarterly white paper. Academics were asking questions and bloggers revived a largely dormant “Digital Divide” discussion. I think the last time that the “Digital Divide” generated any real political or economic debate was somewhere around the time that I watched Detroit Rock City in the theater (voted the worst movie of 1999 by the other 6 people who actually watched it).
For those that have not read the study authored by Edgar Johns, a psychometrician here at JobApp Network, the research examined how web-based talent acquisition solutions may impact minority applicants at hourly employers. Johns did this by showing who was and was NOT applying for hourly jobs by web.
All of the 25,000 or so hourly job applicants in the study had the option of applying for a desired hourly position by web OR through an automated phone system. Upon examining those applicants who applied by web and those who applied by phone over the same period for the same jobs, Johns observed an interesting relationship: over 40% of minority job seekers applied by phone while only 20 percent of non-minority job seekers applied by phone. The conclusion was clear: minorities were significantly more likely than non-minorities to apply for hourly jobs by phone.
Readers can debate the causes and conclusions until the cows come home, and they have. Among the more unusual reader comments we received included a hypothesis that minorities obviously just enjoy speaking on the phone more than non-minorities and an amusing accusation that our research was funded by the same hedge fund that was short selling Taleo and Kenexa stock.
Despite all the noise and irrespective of the politics, the fundamental takeaway remains irrefutable: if your company is looking to automate high-volume or hourly hiring, particularly in restaurants, retail, manufacturing or healthcare, you need to ensure that you effectively address the significant percentage of your talent pool, which does not have convenient internet access.
Believe it or not, there are more such applicants than most would imagine. In fact, according to the July 2008 Pew Internet & American Life report, 45% of adult Americans do not have internet connections at home.
Even more disturbing, low-income broadband access in America actually declined by 3 percent from July 2007 to July 2008. While libraries and schools do plug some of this gap, it is hard to argue with the data: today, of all the employers using JobApp’s combined web and IVR-platform, over 30 percent of all hourly applicants apply for jobs using the phone and, depending on the employer, this figure is as high as 65 percent.
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