A remnant of postal applications?

Application documents often represent the first contact between applicants and companies. A central component of complete application documents is the letter of motivation. As a result, almost every one of us is familiar with the challenge: Writing a letter of motivation. Because what do you write to stand out from the crowd of other applicants? Google or a career advisor is often used to answer this question. The result: Motivation letters increasingly consist of a series of Phrases on job portals be recommended.

The result: Companies usually do not recognize the actual motivation of the applicants, but primarily their motivation Ability to represent yourself. Of course, the applicants' own contribution is also difficult to recognize due to the large number of templates. It is therefore hardly surprising that no significant connection can be proven in science between the content of the letter of motivation and the suitability of the applicants (Kanning 2013).

More and more companies, such as Deutsche Bahn, are therefore dispensing with the letter of motivation in their application process. This has a number of key benefits.

Relieve HR managers

First, omitting the letter of motivation naturally reduces the time required to review application documents. This is particularly important as HR managers often have hundreds of applications to review. It is therefore hardly surprising that they state that they often do not read the letter or read it only with little concentration (Standard, 2017).

Relieve applicants

Secondly, there is also relief for applicants. Because directing a letter of motivation specifically to a company often takes a lot of time. As a result, particularly in the age of digital and increasingly mobile applications, the letter of motivation represents a non-negligible hurdle for applicants. It is therefore not surprising that the obligation to write a letter of motivation often results in applicants deciding not to apply.

‍
The episode: Companies that require a cover letter even for digital applications risk that actually suitable applicants will decide not to apply.

Letter of motivation with filter function — an advantage of a letter of motivation?

Of course, the effort associated with the letter of motivation can also be seen as an advantage: This is how companies (apparently) ensure that only people who have sufficient motivation to write a cover letter apply. As a result, a cover letter often says more about the applicants' motivation to write one than its content about the intrinsic motivation for the job.

How useful is such misuse of the letter of motivation as part of an increasing Shift towards an employee market is, is left to each company for themselves. Because HR managers should be aware of one thing: It is increasingly applicants who are choosing their jobs, and this applies in particular to highly qualified talents. Companies that are heavily guided by formal criteria with questionable significance will therefore have many highly qualified candidates in their selection process lose.

Our Conclusion

In an age of fast, digital and mobile applications, letters of motivation have lost nothing.

Sources

• Schmidt, F.L., & Hunter, J.E. (1998). The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practice and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings. Psychological
• bulletin, 124, 262—274.
• Schuler, H. (1992). The multimodal recruitment interview. diagnostics, 38, 281—300