Is recruiting now longer your typical 9-5 job?
It’s no longer a 9-5
To say that technology has changed the traditional 9-to-5 is overly simplistic. Each new invention or improvement on existing internet technologies brings a new wave of innovation across all industries, and recruitment is no different.
Business is already undergoing rapid change, and is no longer relegated to the Monday to Friday “grind.” Case in point: a recent Gallup survey found that 35% of current employees would quit their job for the chance to move into a role that offered full-time remote or flexible work.
As these younger generations – known as Millennials and Generation Z – begin to enter the workforce, non-traditional working cultures are already starting to become the new normal.
Digital natives who don’t remember a time before smart devices and the internet have grown up in a fast-paced world of constant online connection. Recruiters will need to adapt to their expectations in order to attract the top talent.
With the shortest attention spans, and instant messaging at their fingertips, Millenials and Gen Z expect things to move faster than generations before them as technology has shaped their expectations.
In a candidate-driven labor market, recruitment will become a fast-paced, 24-hour service. This is a good thing; allowing technology to take over more mundane tasks will support already time-poor hiring managers and will give them more time to dedicate to the more human aspects of the job.
Here are the four trends shaping this movement:
1. Targeted job ads will mean recruitment is always ‘on’
Targeting advertisement to a very specific demographic benefits recruiters in two ways: it means a higher likelihood of engagement with a very relevant pool of candidates and it means less time recruiters need to spend on hunting down the talent themselves.
Consider Facebook’s advertising options. It allows ads to target people based on location, industry, job title and even interests. If the number of applicants with the perfect mix of skills, experience, and suitability is already quite low, targeting job ads means attracting the talent that counts.
Generation Z check in with social media multiple times a day. Targeted advertising works when recruiters are not; and it is often more effective than other, more traditional forms of job advertising. This allows for easy engagement with potential new hires.
2. Chatbots will have the conversations you can’t
This engagement is another important aspect of the hiring process younger applicants will expect. With social media transforming recruitment into a two-way conversation, employers who go one step further to interact with applicants using non-traditional methods have the early adopter advantage, really standing out in a candidate-driven labor market.
The benefit of a chatbot is that they’re available at the convenience of the targeted user. On-demand, they’re able to handle several time-consuming tasks: setting appointments, simple screening questions, and even answer frequently asked questions.
3. Artificial intelligence will help keep up the frenetic pace
Chatbots aren’t the only artificial intelligence products available to streamline the hiring process. Manual CV screening has already begun to be taken over by specialized software trained to analyze language, keywords, and even job fit. When 52% of talent acquisition leaders say the hardest part of recruitment is narrowing down a large pool of applications, it is easy to see the advantage to instant screening software – particularly when deep machine learning can learn to spot things humans can’t.
Other artificial intelligence programs are designed to help write powerful job postings, find passive job seekers, build predictive models analyzing the potential longevity of new hires, and even generate tests assessing candidates on tasks they’ll need to perform on the job.
The fast-paced nature of the internet, and the job seekers within it, will expect the momentum to continue. Artificial intelligence will not take over the role of the recruiter, but it will work alongside them, supporting recruiters and talent acquisition professionals as they work to find, engage, and nurture new hires and talent through the hiring funnel.
4. Recruitment through internet technologies will mean candidates are already waiting for you
From end to end, these trends are all helping bring the best talent to the top. Social media recruitment helps widen the net, chatbots can begin to engage candidates, and AI grades applications with amazing precision.
These trends are sweeping high-volume hiring, but what about the companies who do not have a surplus of qualified applicants?
In that case, online databases, such as Robert Half’s Candidate Browser tool, have pre-vetted candidates, saving time on pre-screens. Candidates can be filtered based on the ideal candidate and with profiles automatically anonymized, it’s a useful tool to avoid recruitment bias.
With new technologies evolving and developing rapidly, we can expect recruitment to become much more streamlined and efficient. As newer innovations enter the marketplace, we will see hiring decisions supported by tech, resulting in faster decisions and overall happier, long-term employees.
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Director – QLD, NSW & NZ
During Andrew Morris’ time with Robert Half, he has held a number of high level positions in both Australia and Hong Kong. He uses his knowledge, expertise and experience of the Australian and Asian recruitment markets to offer clients, candidates and the media a regional perspective on recruitment trends.