Another failure on the hiring front

A recent article on LinkedIn gave some insight as to the fascinating hiring practices in play out there.

From the article:

"During the “first cut”, when paring down a pile of 200 resumes into 30 to 40 resumes to closely examine, hiring managers are in the mode of “things that scare me” rather than “exactly who should I hire”.
Here is a short potential list of “things that scare me”:
• They don’t meet the basic job requirements (e.g. bachelor’s degree, 3-5 years of business-to-business sales experience).
• They live more than 35 miles from our company.
• Their last position wasn’t with a local company.
• They don’t have a 615 (Nashville) area code."

Making a decision out of emotion (fear, in this case) is never a good idea. I can understand that if something stands out, then that candidate should not make the cut. However, actively looking for things that "scare" is a way to be overly sensitive to just that, and see things that might normally be good selling points as potential negatives.

Point by point, I can detail how many hiring managers fail when they see one of these "scary" things and preclude a candidate based on that emotion:

"They don’t meet the basic job requirements"
Often, hiring managers are unsure of the basic job requirements.
Often, hiring managers are incapable of determining if a candidates experience is relevant - when it clearly is.
Often, hiring managers do not read the resume, and still use this excuse.
Often, hiring managers don't see exact experience they want, and use this excuse.

"They live more than 35 miles from our company."
How do you know? Perhaps the address listed is a PO Box, or a permanent address (IE a house belonging to family, etc.) 
What's to say that living over 35 miles is a problem for the candidate.
Why not ask the candidate if that is a problem. If they say no, continue on the interview process.
Why not look at the candidate's credentials, and see if they are qualified for the job first.

"Their last position wasn’t with a local company."
Perhaps they had a remote office?
Perhaps they were home-based?
Perhaps the company had a local office, and the  corporate HQ was out of town.
Perhaps they just moved here.

They don’t have a 615 (Nashville) area code.
Ever stop to think that maybe it's a cell phone - most people use them nowadays!
Maybe they live just outside of the 615 area code.
Perhaps they just moved here?