Talent acquisition in the digital era- How technology has reshaped every process

Finding top talent has been a top priority since forever. Companies are using every competitive edge they have to attract the most skilled employees to work for them. 

Yet, a lot has changed in the last decade about how companies actually succeed at the talent acquisition game. Many people thought that technology will spell doom for the recruitment sector when, in fact, it has actually helped it to grow from strength to strength. 

From processes like sourcing candidates and data to attracting and assessing them, testing their skills and tracking candidates and on-boarding, technology brought a change in each of the recruiting processes. Let’s take a deeper look at how technology has reshaped the recruitment industry. 

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Job ads are everywhere 

First things first, attracting top talent starts with the right job post. And it isn’t just the content of the post that matters but where you publish it matters a lot too. 

If many years ago you had to go beyond and above to find top talent, now, displaying your job ad in front of those skilled potential employees is just a few clicks away. You no longer have to ask all your contacts for recommendations, to participate in job fairs at the other end of the world or to waste a lot of time until the right job seeker will see your ad in the local newspaper. 

Over the last decade, social media and the Internet took over and changed the sourcing game forever. Today, you can reach top talent everywhere in the online world, be it through social media networks, your website or job sites. 

Plus, data from Deloitte shows that by 2025, 75% of the global workforce will consist of individuals from the Millennial generation. And, you know that the best way to reach Millennial job seekers who are also tech-savvies is online. In fact, data from Glassdoor confirms this as about 54% of workers and job seekers claim that their preferred source of finding a relevant new job opportunity is an online job platform. 

These days, social media is gaining momentum among recruiters from all companies, be it small or large organizations. Social media networks offer unlimited opportunities to create a winning recruiting strategy from offering access to job seekers all around the world to being cost-effective, and by allowing you to use all types of visuals to make your job post more engaging. For example, data shows that a candidate is 34% more likely to apply to a job post if the job post includes a video.

Social media also allows you to target your audience more fiercely based on criteria such as location, age, gender, interests, and so on. And, based on how you target your audience, you can simply set your job post ad to appear in front of the eyes of those who would make the best employees for the company you represent. 

Hiring gig economy workers 

Today’s evolved technology didn’t just change the sourcing, interviewing, and hiring processes, but also changed the recruiting trends as the labor market itself is now different. To be more specific, recruiting and hiring these days is no longer only about finding top talent that will come and work into your office. 

Today, it can also be about finding independent professionals who work remotely. And, although for companies this comes with great benefits such as reduced costs and the opportunity to work with the best from the bests, for recruiters, gig economy workers pose a new challenge. 

Unlike local job seekers, freelance professionals can only be hired using today’s evolved recruiting technologies including video calling systems, recruitment software special edition, and cloud-based recruitment software to automate related processes. So, in this sector of the recruiting, technology is paramount. 

From face to face interviews to Skype 

Think that the best candidate for your job position is at the other end of the world? How about a skype interview to be sure about that? 

It’s official that face-to-face interviews remain the most effective way to get to know a potential employee and see whether or not they would adapt to your company’s culture. However, in today’s digital age, more and more employers are starting to use Skype interviews to attract top talent from all around the world. 

Although Facetime or Skype is only an initial way to meet the candidates, it provides a great opportunity to source top talent from all around the world without having to limit to your area only. And, this is, obviously, a win-win situation, both to job seekers and recruiters as well. 

While the candidates aren’t forced to spend their money on travel costs for an uncertain job opportunity, recruiters can shortlist long-distance candidates within just a 15-minutes interview through these video calling systems.  

AI is a tough recruiter 

We know that when you hear about artificial intelligence you instantly think about those sci-fi movies with hostile robots taking over the Planet, don’t you? Or about how technology is taking our jobs? However, this couldn’t be any more wrong. 

In the recruitment sector, artificial intelligence is far from taking the job of recruiters but rather makes their job a thousand times easier, allowing them to focus more on human-centered tasks.

AI has found many applications in various industries so far. And, the recruitment industry is no different. In recruiting, artificial intelligence can streamline and automate some parts of the recruiting workflow, especially repetitive and high-volume tasks.  

And, apart from helping recruiters do their job better, AI can also improve candidate experience. For example, in Arizona, an AI development company developed a recruitment tool called Olivia that can help both recruiters and job seekers. 

The AI tool not only sources and screens candidates but also answers the questions of the candidates before or after they apply for a job position. And, this doesn’t only help candidates with all the information they need but also help HR specialists to be able to provide all candidates with great one-to-one candidate experience. 

It’s no secret that the importance of the best human capital is finally taking over the business landscape. It’s actually been more than a decade since employers started to place more importance on who they are hiring. However, what’s different today is the way companies find, attract and hire those candidates. And, today, they all use technology to ensure the smoothest possible hiring process.