Rejecting Candidates based on IP Address
Posted By: Thomas Shaw, 2:48pm Friday 30 October 2009
We now rely on using technology in the recruitment process more than ever. But should we place 100% of our trust in rejecting candidates based solely on their IP address?
While browsing a number of job sites this morning, I spotted an interesting function on an overseas job board. The underlying job board software pre qualifies candidates based on their location (IP address).
An extract of the product sheet reveals "Recruiters set a budget for each job ad. Qualified views cost only 49 cents each. When the job is filled, recruiters pay only for the number of qualified views that job ad received. For example, a recruiter will not pay for an India-based view of a job posted in New York"
Okay... Well that might make sense for those job boards selling a "pay for performance" model. But isn't the main reason we use job boards is to help us distribute our ads to an audience we can't reach?
I used to work in IT Recruitment and I would estimate that around 80% of the candidates that applied to my job ads had immigrated within the past 5 years.
We want the best candidate, and some of the best candidates do come from overseas!
How many of us travel overseas for work or on holidays? Take this example. John, a highly respected and well sought after candidate was in Australia on holidays. He saw this job he wanted to apply for but… Sorry. This employer requests that only candidates in Canada apply to this job. You appear to be located in Australia, not Canada, so you will not be able to apply for this job.
I will save the technology flaws for another blog post.
Has our reliance on technology gone too far or has it done its job?