The Role Of Technology In Recruitment

The advent of technology and the world wide web in the new millennia has opened up myriad job opportunities. New skills have been added to job descriptions. Today, technology and social media are playing an ever crucial role to facilitate the process. Over time, the role of technology has evolved from supporting backend processes such as data management to front-ending the entire process. Case in point – social media, chatbots, AI, etc.

It was the advent of startups however, that completely turned the hiring game on its head. Recruiters found that it was easier to hire for traditional companies due to their set parameters for hiring, as opposed to startups that have an extremely dynamic and constantly progressing work culture. Suddenly, the same people who would last years in a legacy company, wouldn’t last three months in a startup. The challenge still exists; the recruiters are trying to evolve their strategy to fit the younger demographic. What is required is a complete overhaul in the process to fit the requirements of the startup culture.

The need for a paradigm shift in recruitment

In today’s age when startups are all the rage for candidates, the ever-evolving work culture calls for a paradigm shift in the way recruiters are looking for talents. Greater importance has to be allocated to making sure a candidate is a good culture fit, rather than just looking at his or her credentials. 

The use of technology in recruitment, retention and reskilling can be a huge game-changer to ensure the right kind of candidate is hired. This will help overcome the biggest challenge faced by startups – high attrition, the primary cause for which is a cultural conflict between the employee/candidate and the business.

Catering to changing recruitment models

In its barest, recruitment relies on finding the right candidate for the right role. With technology, the process may involve multiple processes to it, but the essence remains the same.

In terms of finding candidates, recruitment automation has delivered on cost and time savings as well as quick analysis of candidate profiles. From semantic search tools, background assessment technologies to real-time communication, the job of finding talent becomes easy. Yet when it comes to identifying the best culture-fit for the company, nothing beats a good-ol’ face-to-face chat. In this regard, the fundamental approach to recruitment has remained remarkably resilient to change.  

Intelligent as it may be, akin to any technology, AI needs time to be able to detect any untrustworthy candidate for the job. Yet AI cannot have a decisive impact on the broader impact of skills, aligning to company objectives, income wages and the nature of the role itself. A company, for example, cannot rely on bots to select their next CTO. Or AI cannot address the skill gaps internal to the organisation in the form of say, communication, collaboration and punctuality. Human interaction, on the other hand, enables the recruiter to analyse the candidate’s problem-solving skills, his passion and his ambitions. 

The human element: Finding the balance of recruitment & technology

Rapid digital transformation across sectors has created a need for a 360-degree skill development strategy. Aggregation of candidate data across geographies can address skill-mismatches and increase output per worker. Technology’s role here, however, must be limited to support and complement the recruiter. They should be taking the utmost care to build interpersonal relationships, a function in recruitment yet to be solved with technology. 

At the end of the day, recruitment is inherently a ‘people-centric’ industry, and leadership hiring problems cannot be solved just with AI.

[“source=businessworld”]