Clickbait versus reality

We’ve been seeing the same headlines for years now. Every day there seems to be a new scaremongering or sensationalist article boldly proclaiming the end of the recruitment world as we know it. Whether it’s that “LinkedIn is over”, “job boards are no more” or that the future state of recruitment won’t even involve recruiters, it’s hard to ascertain what is truth, and what is just noise….or even “fake news”.

I imagine that I’m not the only one who sees these clickbait articles, typically designed to attract traffic to a website or, in the best case, prompt conversations. But is there any merit in the messaging?

Sitting here in 2017, we are pretty much in the future that people were concerned about back when I started my recruitment career in 2010. Whilst there was less online activity than there is today, people were still heralding the end of recruitment and that by 2020, the industry would be virtually unrecognisable. Well, we’re only three years away from that and I’m not ready to drawdown on my pension just yet.

Fundamentally, there will always be companies looking for support to hire people. Similarly, there will always be candidates looking for roles and I believe there will always be the need for recruiters to bridge the gap. After all, employment agencies can be dated back to the 1800’s and with recruitment, as we currently know it, coming to the forefront during the 1940s, after World War II.

However, within every industry you have to evolve and change in order to remain current, effective and survive. Yesterday’s methods are not guaranteed to work tomorrow. It’s important that we remain agile and evolve – as clickbait articles are warning us: we need to stay ahead or we too could go the way of the dinosaurs!

Cast your mind back 10 years, and things really started to change. August 2007 saw the official start of the credit crunch… yet in the following month we had the launch of the iPhone, the start of the smart phone revolution (which none of us now could live without!) and the fastest selling phone ever. Who knew?

A decade ago, recruitment was all about high street branch networks. As a recruiter, you’d put adverts in your window or in the newspaper, comb through your candidate database (some were still using a Rolodex!) or use one of a few big job boards, and generally you would get some worthwhile applications. “Meaningful management information” was just a pipe dream, LinkedIn was in its infancy and whilst Facebook had over 500 million users, no-one was really considering using it as a recruitment tool.

Today, you see many of those branch agencies are reducing their high street footprint, which also coincides with the globalisation of the workforce, reducing costs and the rise of the connected world. It certainly feels like there are more recruitment agencies now than ever, and we have truly moved away from the monopoly of the main brands and household names with smaller start-ups gaining market share. But why wouldn’t there be, all it takes now to start is some space, a phone and a laptop with an internet connection! It’s a growing sector, gone are the days you need an office in your local town with a sign over the door. I’m not saying high-street recruitment is dead – there is still a need for it in many sectors, but with mobile applications, video interviewing, remote assessment, remote screening all coming to the fore, how much longer will there be need for a wide local presence?  

Is technology the answer?

For me technology is neither the answer nor the problem; it is part of the solution and rather than obliquely believing that there is no longer a need for recruiters, we all need to get on board with the emerging tech ecosystem.

Today the term recruitment technology covers a wide number of areas, from traditional human capital management, to vendor management systems, applicant tracking systems, recruitment management systems, sourcing tools – who is more likely to move, how you should engage with someone etc., all the way through to collective ‘big data’ tracking and analytics.

I think the right combinations of tech systems could help get ahead of problems. However, whilst we like to track our response rate, diversity and inclusion data, time to hire etc., how often do we actually do something with this information? (I can see a future article right there on actionable MI!).

As I said earlier, technology alone won’t solve problems in sourcing candidates, but it may make us reach harder to find candidates, create a better experience for candidates and hiring managers alike, and allow for more fluidity between clients.

Futureproofing and flexibility

The way people work is changing, look at all the research on the rise of contingent labour, the freelancer, the gig economy; there’s no doubt that recruiting in 2017 is massively different to recruiting in 2007, even five years ago the concept of video interviewing was just that a concept – now it’s big business and something most of us agree needs to be added to areas of our process, particularly when considering the needs and preferences of millennials who are entering the workforce.  

I’m not even sure what 2018 will look like, never mind predicting big sweeping changes for 2020 – will all recruiters be replaced by robots? I would think not, but then again if someone in 2007 had said to me that in a decade’s time that I’d be able to use my phone to open my car, for contactless payments, as a sat nav, to order pretty much anything to be delivered the next day… it doesn’t feel that long ago when everyone used to play Snake on their phone and Nokia had saturated the market.

What’s next?

I think the future of recruitment lies with a combination of different and agile recruitment models, underpinned by next-generation technology. This is especially relevant in the world of contingent workforce solutions where you have statement of work, consultants, independent contractors, temporary workers, agency labour and human cloud all contributing to the wider ‘gig economy’.

The days of one first-generation ATS system operating standalone should be drawing to a close. What we need now is disruptive, best-in-class systems that you can plug and play, able to change and evolve not only with a client’s needs but those of a recruiter, be that in sourcing, selection, onboarding, management or off boarding.

It’s about using what’s out there now and looking at something that allows us to do what we do best, helping us stay ahead of the game, creating a technology ecosystem that allows us to pick and choose where candidates go, how they get there, and track them. It’s about having multiple systems that talk to each other and allow flexibility so you can plug and play different providers, always staying ahead of the market, whilst building a wider talent ecosystem that supports the wider recruitment strategy.  

As I said earlier, recruitment technology on its own is not the answer, but I think it will play a big part in the future of what we do. The world is getting smaller, and with globalisation and changing workplace dynamics and attitudes, we need to change the way we engage with people and be prepared to adapt.

So, is the clickbait actually correct? Is the recruitment sector dying? I don’t think so. We just need to make sure we can evolve at the speed we need to in order to stay ahead, and offer innovative and effective solutions. I prefer to think that it isn’t dying, more that it is regenerating.

So, what do you think – what are your predictions for Recruitment 2020? Do you have access to technologies that will revolutionise recruitment as we know it? What’s on the horizon for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this topic. Please leave a comment below or get in touch with me at [email protected]

If you’d like to read more articles by Pete, please see some of the most popular recent articles:

All work and no play / Employee referral schemes / How to hire employees you don’t know exist / Does your EVP have a CVP? / The rise of the contingent workforce / The rise of the Freelancer