Technology Driven VUCA World Hiring Practices

As more companies wake up to the need to make a long-range strategy for technology-driven recruitment, companies need to think a step ahead. In order to create new strategies to drive the organization’s recruitment process, recruiters must stay in sync with the current technology trends.

The estimated demand in 2020 would be 4.4 lakh for new-age tech professionals, while the supply is projected to be 2.4 lakh, according to Team-Lease Services. Tech talent crunch in 2020 likely to go up to 200,000 (Source ET)

This number is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% till 2021. Hence, it is important for recruiters to keep in pace with the advancement of technology and provide a competitive edge to its competitors. There are some of the pivotal HR technologies, which has been transforming the hiring process.

In Order to optimize Recruitment process Efficiency like TAT, COH, CPH etc below technological interventions can be looked at various stages and touch points:

HRM

• Cloud Based Applicant Tracking systems is a great support to the recruiters, hiring managers, candidates and the HR teams to fast track the recruitment process and ensure the TAT. Recruiters can devote less time to administrative and repetitive tasks and focus on quests that yield high values.
• Analytics – Automated dashboard and Reports from the systems helps analyzing the process gaps, cycle time, Interviewing timelines, productivity etc which enables organisations to ensure good Candidate experience and reduce drop offs. Today progressive organisations are looking at predictive demand analysis which helps in effective workforce planning.It will be a good idea to involve the Data Science/Analytics team in the future forecasts for talent needs

Skills

• Automated and AI based skills match- Technology enabled platforms like Skillate, RecruitSmart SpireAI, enable skill match capabilities which reduces the time spent on sourcing and screening activities of the recruiters. The sourcing of candidates are one of major and most time consuming step in the hiring step.
• Automated Screening- Application can be screened by applying automated screening filters in the HRMS system. Automated pre-screen like Callify have brought in considerable reduction in the candidate reach and 1st level recruiter screening.
• Sourcing Platforms

Candidates

• Self-Login and Tracking- AI will aid in creating self-tracking applications, which will give the candidates the ability to log-in and track the status of their profiles, submit documents, apply on relevant jobs based on their profile-to-job match
• App based Application- Today technology has enabled candidates to apply using mobiles or using their social profiles on LinkedIn. This has eased the application process for the candidates and have reduced the waiting time for the recruiters to get resumes.
• Technology has also helped in addressing Fake candidates and blacklisting them in the portal.

Interview

• Virtual Assistants can be tasked with reminding candidates about upcoming interviews and providing real-time status updates. Technology can also help automated scheduling through integrated tools and systems
• Digital Assessments- Technology (Mettl Aspiring Minds, Pymetrics, PI) has enabled large scale testing and assessing candidates thereby considerably reducing the time taken in interviewing and behavioural evaluations. It has brought in consistency and un-bias in the interviewing process.
• Video Interviewing- Technology like Talview, has been helpful, cutting the time taken in interview scheduling and managing evaluations in bulk.
• Hackathon-Hackathons are one of the best places where you find a wide array of talent under one roof. It is an open platform for candidates to be noticed, by putting across their innovations and shaping their ideas. Therefore, several companies are organizing hackathons to evaluate the coding skills and mind-set of the new associates. Moreover, recruiters are connecting with the organizers of hackathons to discover the hidden gem that the organization needs.   

Attraction

• Social Media- Social media is the new recruitment match for candidates and recruiters. Organisations have moved to Digital hiring practices and through this platform, HR recruiters can reach out to a large set of audience. Furthermore, engagement campaigns can be run over timely periods to target a specific pool of applicants/ applications for the required position.
• Video JD – Using audio visual platform has been paving the way right from having different value preposition for candidates and employers.
• Infographic JD- The newer ways to create interest amongst the candidates using digital technology has enable quality candidate responding to your job adverts and thereby reducing time and effort in hiring .
• Hashtag - Keeping tab on hiring hashtags like #hiringnow, #hiringtrends, #hiring on linkedin.
• Referral – Employee Referrals are a major source of candidate hiring and constitutes to 35-40% of hires. Ensuring feedback for referrals and tracking have been a bone of contention for referees at the same time effort intensive for recruiters. Technology has made gamification and larger employee interactions possible at the same brought in considerable reduction in time to fulfill demands, and there by lesser drop outs.Few tools Employee Referral Refari
• Employee Advocacy- A great way to show case push content and attract talent using technology LinkedIn Elevate, Hootsuite Amplify,Oktopost.

Selection

• App Based Feedback- Technology has today enabled feedback to be made available virtually using mobile apps which has considerably reduced operation, manual cost and time taken by recruiters to get feedback and close positions.
• BGV Checks- Today technology platforms like Secur is available for initiating BGV checks and ensuring that the a hassle free process for candidates and employers.

Appointing/On boarding

• Digital Appointment Letters –Digital Signatures (DocuSign) have enabled the use of Digital appointment letters thereby ensuring that the a hassle free process for candidates and employers
•  Gamified On boarding- In order to understand the candidates and identify the best talent, the gamification platform will help the employees understand the organization, office culture, history, achievements, etc. Simultaneously, it will also help understand and know more about the softer aspects of the new joiners. This helps the candidates to be engaged constantly, which results in an increase in the joining ratio turn around.
• AR/VR Technology- Experience is key in today's VUCA world be it customers, employees or candidates. Many organisations have inbuilt technology to bring in effective on boarding/ induction sessions, making people productive faster.
• Bio-metrics- This helps in creating hassle free recording of candidate at the joining and ensures fake is addressed   
• Cloud Storage's- Cloud storage has revolutionized the entire recruitment process. There is an expectancy for more recruitment in the IT industry. Thus, the cloud will help to allocate these databases with the candidates’ information and will be easier to find, manage without worrying about storage. Moreover, cloud storage is cheaper, safer and can run multiple hard drives.

A recruitment process that is technology-driven will be in line with organisation objectives, addressing future business focus and accelerate change. These interventions will help transformation and support candidate experience and efficiency outcomes.

With the fast-paced technology and innovation, the transformation journey of talent acquisition has just begun.. it will create a more homogeneous, less labour intensive, faster, transparent and experience based approach .