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When was the last time you needed a mailing address to hire? follow this blog post

posted by on Aug. 19, 2009

(From CareerXroads' August Update)

The last bastion of the digital divide has fallen

He has accounts on Facebook, My Space and Twitter.

He runs an Internet Forum on Yahoo and keeps in touch with the rest of his friends via email.

He is 37 and homeless.

He lives under a bridge in NY City.

Mr. Pitts may lack a mailing address according to a Wall Street Journal feature by Phred Dvorak but you can certainly find him virtually.

Roughly half of some 200 shelters in the city run by various non-profits offer online access.  

When was the last time you needed a mailing address to hire someone?  Answer: If they can connect and perform (and you can direct deposit), it isn't relevant so no one should care.

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6 comments

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  • 1 point 3 months ago

    More than a few young retirees have sold the house and travel the country in RVs, taking short term jobs as summer campground hosts, housesitters and the like.

    They communicate via cell phone and email. Keep up with the bills and banking online. And find new gigs on Craigslist, or share them via their Yahoo Groups and, now, Twitter.

    When they need a physical address, to vote, for a driver's license, insurance, etc., they use a friend's address or a child's.

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    Very good point John

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    Another facet to this evolving story is that a significant and increasing minority of candidates don't know their zip codes. For Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers, that's a bizarre thought. For Gen Y'ers who receive all of their mail and pay all of their bills on-line, knowing their own zip code is like knowing a piece of trivia. Maybe it will come up in conversation or be useful occasionally, but it simply isn't relevant to their daily lives.

    Employers who lock themselves into hiring candidates who (a) have a physical street address and (b) know the zip code for that address will over time find themselves missing out on more and more high quality candidates.

    If your background checking or applicant tracking system requires a zip code, tell them to get with it or get another client to replace your business as you're taking yours elsewhere.

    Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com job board

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    Agreed.

    And, they may not know their own zip but they do know their unique blackberry id. 

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    My natural inclination is to embrace any sign of increased virtualization of the job search/hiring process which promotes value, efficiency and effectiveness. There is no worse reason to continue using a particular criteria, method or process than 'that's how we've always done it.' So, the long-term trend could well be the declining importance of a physical residence. Land line telephones certainly aren't important, so how long before the 'land' itself they were tied to becomes irrelevant? You certainly don't have to snail mail forms to someone anymore when they can just use email or an onboarding intranet site.

    However, when trends indicate that "more than 40 percent of employers are running pre-hire credit reports as part of their due diligence process" I have a feeling that physical address will still remain an important part of the 'total candidate profile' when a recruiter is reviewing applicants.

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    I agree that snail mail address is not required in order to operate/work.

    Still -- real physical address is an additional assurance sign about prospective employee (or employer for that matter).