“There is a lot of money going into all aspects of recruiting and talent acquisition. It’s generating a lot of innovation, but also a lot of noise” says David Mallon, Vice President, and Chief Analyst with Bersin, Deloitte Consulting.
Digitization has taken over various functions in an organization. One of the many functions it has impacted is talent acquisition. While technology is automating the various processes like sourcing, screening, and assessing, it still requires a human touch.
The benefits of recruitment technology
Through technologies like AI, machine learning and blockchain, most of the transactional tasks of recruiters have been taken away. For instance, AI helps professionals with sending out customized emails to candidates, gives regular updates on the status of the application, and prepares reports, for the recruitment team.
Given the current progress in the technical field, it is very much possible that with the help of AI, soon the candidates can get personal feedback from the bots on how to improve their resumes as well. It is possible that the bots might even match the candidate with a role that will be more suitable for them on the basis of their skillset, helping organizations enhance their candidate experience.
In essence, the technology is providing the organization with a dashboard of trends from when a candidate applies to when the company decides about the candidate.
Skills for recruiters: Relevant even in the digital era
Through technology the human error in recruitment processes is minimized and recruiters are able to find quality candidates more easily.
But the technology has to be paired with the human’s ability to analyze and judge. It takes a skilled human to drive technology. Here are some set of skills for recruiters that are still relevant in the age of digital era:
- Domain Knowledge: To assess technical competency in a candidate, it is essential to have a background that makes you capable to assess them. While the screening tools take care of matching the profiles and skills of candidates with the job, the final decision lies with the recruiter. Through conversations they have to judge whether or not the candidate fits the job role. And to be able to ask the right questions, they have to have some domain knowledge as well.
- Understand the business: Recruiters could be hiring for any function or department, but every candidate who comes on board will ultimately work for the vision of the company. TA professionals themselves hence need to have understood the business and the industry they operate in.
- Soft skills: Technology might have replaced the operational tasks, but they are yet to develop behavioural skills. For any recruiter to be successful, it is essential they have primary people skills like listening abilities, building credibility, rapport, relationship, and trust. To be able to provide a great candidate experience, human touch is still required.
- Decision Making: The final decision still lies with the recruiter. They are the ones who would interpret the final data and analyze the reports the bots help prepare. Analytical skills and problem-solving capabilities are hence still relevant.