The Paradox: using tech to increase the human connection

‘Most people are wired to be resistant to change’, according to Indeed and the ‘forces against career change are incredibly strong.’ Many are commonly sceptical of recruiters, too. Candidates weigh up failure as much as success, overestimating the risks associated with a career move. A great recruiter/trusted advisor sees the entire person and knows their drivers, so is able to emphasise the benefits or spell out the risks if a job isn’t right, therefore, it’s extremely important that they have the time to do so.

We’ve talked about the value of human connection a lot. You’re probably thinking: ‘That’s great, but in reality, it’s impossible!’ We understand that. Traditional recruitment techniques don’t align with the concept of a trusted advisor. Finding quality candidates, high volumes of irrelevant applications, poor recruitment marketing – all challenges that were cited in our research. These shouldn’t be problems that trusted advisors have to think about, as they’re challenges which can be minimised through the use of recruitment technology, of which there is a wide and exciting range available.

It may sound absurd to suggest that introducing more tech – the self-same tech that is meant to eat up our jobs – will in fact enable greater humanisation of the industry, but a great many businesses are already reaping the benefits.

Tech for improving the candidate experience

Many people who look for jobs aren’t serious about it, and drop out of the process early on, having been dissuaded by some long, convoluted application form or a time-consuming task. So finding an efficient way to keep applicants in the process – such as applying via user-friendly landing pages – is crucial. It sounds stupidly obvious, but it’s something often overlooked by employers: make it easy for people to apply for your jobs!

In our The Changing Face of Recruitment whitepaper, we discovered that regular communication from the consultant throughout the recruitment process was considered very important by the majority of candidates. It appears that regular updates – whether good or bad – is the one thing that candidates believe can most improve their experience. The ability to respond to candidates promptly and as though they are your only candidate, shows that you have their best interests at heart.

It’s not always possible to respond personally to everyone, especially when there are high volumes of applicants, but many businesses now use systems which feature auto-responses: an immediate acknowledgment of the application, rejections, interview arrangements, etc. Plus these emails can be scheduled to go out at times when your audience is most.

Rec tech can help you set candidates’ expectations, too. For instance, you can add information about the recruitment process on the landing pages – as it’s bound to differ per job and per client. This also helps to build trust and credibility in the candidate’s eyes.

Data for human insight

Using data can help humanise your recruitment practices even further, providing insight into your target market, allowing you to see how effective job adverts are or determining how many of the right people read your blog – essentially measuring the success of your human connections, and highlighting when you need to make changes.

Your CRM should be able to give you the information to develop talent pools, it should forecast demands and confirm whether your marketing spend is going to the right sources. It can inform machines to do the drudgery and provide intelligence to recruiters. It can help you improve your offers and can tell you what candidates want. In short, utilising data effectively allows for more informed decisions, meaning you can use inbound tools first and encourage talent to come to you.

We know the concept of data can appear scary. Lots of people don’t know where to start, which is why it’s great that there are platforms out there that give immediate stats at the touch of a button, such as: how many applications you’ve received, what’s the best source, who’s the best recruiter, information on candidate flow, and the effectiveness of the pages. All of this insight is designed to help improve your interaction with candidates, but is presented in a clear and easy-to-understand way.

Conclusion

A great recruiter never underestimates or forgets the emotion and stress that is associated with job hunting – and will do their utmost to help make that journey as smooth and positive as possible, but, they can only work with the tools they’ve got.

However, while machines can possess intelligence, they don’t possess the understanding, judgement and empathy that people do. Why do you think so many companies rave on about the fact that they’re people and not robots? We want to deal with people.

We believe that while the tech will progress and continue to present recruiters with intelligence and insight, the real added value is the process’s humanisation. And rec tech is allowing recruiters to focus on inbound techniques, on improving their EVP, and grabbing the attention of candidates at the earliest possible stage – to ultimately connect with candidates as humans.

Ever-changing hiring trends, candidate demands and intelligent tech is pushing talent attraction in directions never before experienced. We think it’s exciting and definitely not anything to be fearful of. But simply put, to stay in the game and attract the talent you need, you’ve got to have all of your bases covered. Can you say yours are?

idibu provides intelligent candidate acquisition to hundreds of recruitment businesses of all sizes as well as analysis of activity and hiring funnels to greatly improve ROI and performance. Click here to arrange a FREE demo or get in touch now on 0800 311 2750.