Machines v/s Recruiters. The Game is on!

I am a recruiter. Have been selling, sourcing, coaching & influencing candidates and clients for last 4 years.

When I started in 2012, my Managing Director told me, “Aalok, It’s a tough job.” And before I could understand anything, she said, “Coz you are selling the most complex product (Candidate) to the most confused customer (Hiring Manager) on this planet.”

Well, the remark was scary.  What was I getting into?  A ruthless, transactional human marketplace, competing with Sales Sharks & Gorgeous Rainmakers for whom Recruiting was the way of life.

I embraced the challenge and life got more interesting. Learned the tricks and hacks to source so called ‘Passive’ candidates. Placed a number of good candidates with not so good companies and vice versa.  Not to forget exotic Champagnes & hefty bonuses on quarter closings.

Life was all good till I read this somewhere.

The Bank of England’s Chief Economist suggested that 15 million British workers — about 50 percent of the working population — will be replaced by robots in the “third machine age” (see article).  After Driverless Cars and McDonald’s restaurants that are run entirely by robots – What Mr. Economist suggested wasn’t something fictional. Artificial intelligence is taking over the human work force and the world of work is already on a cusp of inevitable change – probably the biggest one after industrial revolution.

And my very next thought was, should I be worried about my future. A future where Sourcing is done by a Boolean transformer, Resume screening by a data-driven algorithm and Candidate Assessment by an application driven by psychometrics.

The more I researched, I realized that’s Future has already knocked on Present. Much of what we do as Recruiters is getting replaced by technology. Sourcing, Matching, Screening, Assessment & Interviewing is accurate & more convenient with Technology.

I have been thinking on this for last few months. Are we losing it to Technology? Will Human Interface become irrelevant to the industry?

Well not yet. There is still some hope. I believe there are 2 ways of dealing with this.

• Partner with Technology. 

 Making Social Recruiting your habit can help. Learn Boolean (Trust me its more than AND, OR & NOT). Use your Database & ATS more efficiently.  In this quest, partner with Technology and leverage it to become a Super Recruiter. 

• The Art of Selling. 

Let’s not forget. Machines can’t influence. Machines can’t convince. Machines can’t sell. We all know that these skills are underrated.  But soon, these will be the only ammunitions left to combat the infusion of Technology in Recruitment. 

They say, Once a Recruiter, Always a Recruiter. I love what I do and today if you ask me, I don’t feel like doing anything else. At the same time being a Mediocre Recruiter won’t help. So, rather than fearing or denying or fighting against Technology, it’s wiser to embrace the change & hone our sales skills so that we don’t have to switch from Champagnes to anything lesser.  

I still want my Bank Account to smile at me.What do you want?