Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

digital divide controversy revived

By Blake Helppie - 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 theater (voted the worst movie of 1999 by the other 6 people who actually watched it).