How is technology transforming the recruitment process

The world is evolving every day, and everything is growing along with it. Our world is becoming digital every day, and it is happening fast. To keep up with the pace, it is only natural to go digital. Mobile devices and the internet’s availability have changed the way we live our lives. Cloud computing, data science, Artificial Intelligence, and the internet are now part of our lives.

Technology has changed the way industries worked, and it will continue to change our methods and processes as we move forward. Adaption is the key. All industries changed over time as technology kept getting better. Technology made our lives and work processes more manageable.

As industries adapt to new technologies and methods, everything gets better, from the recruitment process to customer service. Technology changed everything, be it customer experience or candidate experience. Once upon a time handing your resume in person was normal. Nowadays, platforms such as LinkedIn or Indeed are the new normal. While it saves a lot of time for the candidate, it also allows recruiters to search through a larger pool of talents that are now available at their fingertips. Top Recruitment Process Outsourcing companies utilize technology to optimize and speed up the end-to-end recruiting process, enabling their clients (staffing firms) to scale their service delivery capability efficiently.

The fundamentals of the recruitment process have not changed a lot; However, the process itself has gone through a massive transformation. These technologies have created an innovative new dynamic not only in the recruitment process but also in the job-seeking process as well. In short, technology in the recruitment field has helped both candidates and employers. How? Let us take a deeper look at that.

How New Technology Changed the Recruitment Process

New technology changed the recruitment process a lot. From candidate experience to talent sourcing, everything is more manageable and better now. Here is how that happened!

Technology Makes Talent Sourcing and Screening Better

Talent is everywhere; that is true. However, before technology was involved, recruiters and employers had their hands tied by the limited pool of candidates and geographical limitations. Now with technology being available at their fingertips, recruiters can source talent without moving from their seats. Because of technology, recruiters and top RPO service providers can source and hire top talents worldwide.

Technology has allowed us to search and identify top active and passive candidates. You can engage with candidates, see their projects and other works, and call them up for an interview without even meeting the person; And that is possible because of technology.

If you want to source passive candidates or find candidates who are not active on the job boards, you can easily leverage social media or other social sites related to the role. If you are looking for a developer, Github is a good place for scouting talents. If you want a creative graphic designer, DeviantArt or Pinterest might be your place.

Not just sourcing, technology made screening and sorting easier as well. 494 out of 500 Fortune 500 companies use the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to sort and screen candidates. That saves time, money, and manual labor. ATS allows you to sort through candidates, ranking them, or use filters to sort out candidates with specific skills. It will also allow you to store the resumes and use them for future references. This way, companies can build up their pool of talents that they can utilize later on.

Technology Saves Your Time, Money, and Workforce

From sourcing to interviewing, technology saves time, money, and the workforce everywhere. Not just sourcing and screening, technology made the whole recruitment process faster. An empty role costs a lot, and companies want to fill up the positions more quickly. Because of technology, the cycle now happens faster than before and more efficiently.

Small and medium-sized businesses often cannot maintain a solid in-house recruitment team. In such cases, these companies outsource their recruitment needs to RPO service providers. RPO service providers deploy experts at every phase to source, screen, and hire the best-suited candidate for your company.

Without technology, this process would have taken double the time. RPO service providers provide real-time data as well as all data regarding the recruitment process. Without technology, this was not possible.

Technology Allows Remote Working and Efficient Hiring

Top candidates are often not on active job boards. Some of them are hired by someone, some work as freelancers. Technology allowed recruiters to reach out to candidates beyond the job boards and enabled the freelancers to work remotely. With the current pandemic going on, most companies have given work from home permissions to their employees.

Because this technology exists, we can work remotely, and companies can perform smoothly even during a pandemic. Remote work is saving lives, stopping transmission, and at the same time boosting the productivity of the company.

Contingent laborers are often highly skilled and work more efficiently. Without technology, companies would not be able to do anything remotely. Contingent laborer programs are primarily based on MSP (Managed Services Providers) and VMS. VMS is a technology that made the contingent laborer programs easier. Without technology, all contingent worker programs will be way more challenging to manage.

Technology has Changed the Candidate Experience

Candidate experience did not matter much back in the days; however, now it is one of the essential things in recruiting. Technology changed the candidate experience by making the recruitment process better. It is now easier to find jobs, easier to get details, and easier to apply. Because of the internet, candidates can search for the company and get more information on their own. This is another reason why building a positive brand image is so important these days.

For jobseekers, candidate experience matters a lot. Half of the job seekers will not even apply if a company has a bad reputation. These days employees can rate and review companies and working experience with them. Seeing a bad reputation, most job seekers will avoid the company.

At the same time, if candidates see good reviews about a company, they will be more interested in it. Everyone wants stability in their work-life, and a company that is rated stable and safe by vetted employees will quickly gain the trust of others.

Technology has Made Branding and Promoting Work Culture Easy

Branding and promoting your work culture are essential. Before joining a company, candidates like transparency and honesty. Technology allows you to promote and spread your work culture. Recruiters these days leverage social media to promote their brand and workplace.

If you are transparent at promoting your values and work culture, more passive and active candidates will be interested in your company. That will raise the number of applicants and passive candidates who are interested in your company.

With technology, it is easier to share your views and values with others. It also allows the candidates a sneak peek at your company, and if they like what they see, that might be your next employee.

Technology Encourages Innovation

The recruiting industry was always competitive, but the technology just made it even more competitive. Both recruiters and job seekers use technology to stay ahead of others.

Because of technology, there are scopes for learning new skills, and that is a big help. With the changing times, companies have to change needs and keeping up with the pace, and employees need to learn new skills to stay relevant. It can be a digital marketer learning more about SEO or a developer learning a new language; the process can be sped up using technology.

On the other hand, recruiters deal with job roles with skills that did not exist five years back, but now it does. Without scalable and automated processes, recruiters will be under the water with all the changes happening.

Example? Remote working! According to a report by the Tech Republic, remote working has grown by 159% since 2005. What made that possible? Technological advancement and the influx of communication and collaboration technologies.

Technology Reduces Human Bias and Promotes Diversity

While companies these days promote diversity and objectivity when hiring an employee, sometimes humans can be biased unknowingly based on widespread propaganda or facts and figures. This affects the company in other ways. Because of such biases, the company might not be getting the candidates they want or fail to perform better.

With technologies like the ATS and similar tools, the human factor is completely removed. It ensures a just, well-balanced selection process that helps the company in the long run. Using ATS, recruiters can filter candidates based on qualifications, skills, and much more. Some companies have even integrated AI into their hiring system to eliminate any human bias. While some companies use AI-driven tools to attract candidates, some use AI-driven algorithms to reach the best-suited candidates.

Technology Allows You to Assess the Skills

Back in the day, recruiters had to rely on the data provided by the candidate on a piece of paper. Those days are long gone. While you can see their qualifications and other information on the resume, you still cannot see their skills. You cannot assess someone’s skills unless you see them in action.

Assessment platforms such as Kandio help recruiters screen candidates faster with test content made by experts. This test can be integrated into the company ATS, allowing recruiters to streamline recruiting.

Conclusion

With the points mentioned earlier in mind, it is safe to say that technology has changed the recruitment process a lot and most of it has happened for good. Companies now get access to a larger, diversified, and highly skilled talent pool that they can use to reach their goals. At the same time, job seekers are learning new skills more accessible and finding jobs faster.

Technology has changed the recruitment process and will continue to do so. However, the human aspect of the recruitment process will always be needed. With the perfect balance of technological support and critical thinking, the recruitment process will get more advanced over time.

QX Recruitment Services, part of QX Global Group, offers recruitment process outsourcing services to the staffing firms in the US, Canada, UK and several EU geographies, leveraging latest technology to help their partner recruiting agencies speed up and optimize their processes, and help them scale their staffing capacity cost effectively. Request a free consultation call with our RPO expert; click the button below drop us a message.

Originally published Jun 07, 2021 06:06:58, updated Feb 05 2024

Topics: Process optimisation, Recruitment, Recruitment Technology