Online Applications are Ruining Job Development!

I have to quickly rant about how online applications are the worst thing since stale bread. I constantly tell my staff to try to avoid these at all costs. While many employers utilize online apps., there is a way around them.

Online applications are convenient. You can apply to dozens of jobs from your chair by simply clicking a few buttons and typing...and typing...and more typing. While this seems like the best way to get a job, how do you know your application is really being received? Who at the employer is receiving it? How/Why are you comfortable supplying your Social Security number on an application if you're not 100% sure the company you are applying for is legit? 

An online application prevents the applicant to display personable traits that he would be able to show in person. Eye contact, a firm handshake, a "how are you?" sometimes goes a long way in the eyes of the employer, or any person for that matter. An online application, while convenient, does not allow for first impressions. 

If a claimant was a plumber for 20 years and now can't lift 10 lbs, his application for the hotel Front Desk job will be looked at for a mere 5 seconds then thrown in the trash. Why should he be taken seriously when he has no experience? His application for the Dispatcher job will be discredited due to no experience as well. The online application is essentially hurting the plumber's chances at getting the jobs in question because it is not allowing him to give off any physical first impression in front of employers. Of course this changes if the plumber is applying for a job where his skills transfer, but many of the claimants we work with have very few transferable skills, thus making applications look weaker than they really area. 

Admittedly, many companies today use online applications but there are still some that do not. Good job development includes calling the employer, explaining what you are trying to do, and do your best to skip the online application process and ask if the claimant can bring a paper application in person to the employer. This allows employer and claimant to meet, where the claimant has a better chance of impressing the employer than some online application. Granted some employers won't budge on omitting the online application, and that's life, but it's always worth a shot to try.

We constantly preach the only viable way to source suitable jobs for claimants is by contacting employers directly, speak to hiring managers, advocate on behalf of the worker then schedule an interview. If it's done via an online search, not only is that lazy job development, but you are also hurting the defense's position on the claim should the jobs found online turn out to be fraudulent, not suitable or even not open in the first place!

Thanks for reading.