How will recruiters use technology in the future?

Steve Hemsley

Recruiters will never be replaced by machines but agencies that fail to harness technology effectively over the next few years face an uncertain future. Steve Hemsley explains

The last two decades have seen an incredible amount of change with rapid technological advances in how agencies run their businesses. The arrival of job boards followed by social media platforms have given agencies access to larger talent pools and become an integral weapon in every company’s armoury.

So what about the role of technology in the future? Recruiters need to know that any investment they make in the latest gadgets adds value to the services they provide to candidates and clients. It should also make their business more profitable. As the industry becomes increasingly hi-tech, recruiters should become more time and cost efficient.

With the sales of mobile devices outstripping those of PCs, job searches will increasingly be done on mobile and on the move, so any investment in new technology must reflect this.

“Recruiters will always utilise any appropriate technology that helps them to source, develop and select candidates; and communicate, service and provide information to clients,” says APSCo chief executive Ann Swain. “They will also look for new ways to analyse data on their own key performance indicators.”

Swain predicts more investment in utilising analytics to reveal exactly which 20% of a recruiter’s business is delivering the best return. The value added services that recruiters crave can already be offered, she says, with the availability – through technology – of good benchmarking data.

“Boolean logic simply provides lists of data and the job of a recruiter will focus more on the selection part of their role,” she says.  “The further use of online psychometrics, and indeed Gamification tools, will become part of the professional recruiter’s toolbox over the next few years.”

Gamification uses online gaming and smart design to hire employees. It is likely that more clients, as well as recruiters, will increasingly use these tools to boost performance and excitement at work.

The insurance and banking recruitment sector will invest more in recruitment software like Broadbean which automates the distribution of job postings and improves CV searches for recruiters.

Dan Faulkner, director at Arthur Financial Recruitment, says agencies welcome new technology which helps them to introduce candidates to employers quicker.

“Algorithms built into these technologies will increasingly help to match candidates to employers’ vacancies without human interaction in the sub £30,000 bracket where full qualification and bespoke matching is less important,” he says. “This will of course not match cultural fit and career aspirations but it would produce a technical match from candidate to employer.”

Advances in technology could see clients clamouring for agencies to reduce their fees if the hiring process becomes more efficient. There may be pressure on recruiters to look at their rates if, for instance, they have invested in a data management system which tracks and engages with a candidate who has previously applied to an employer.

“Although these technologies will help to match candidates to clients’ vacancies, human interaction to qualify candidates and pitch companies will remain an essential part of the hiring process,” stresses Faulkner.

He adds that the market for recruitment above the £30,000 bracket will continue to rely less on technology to hire over the next few years. “Many candidates at this level are either not actively looking or not marketing themselves within the digital space. They are also understandably reliant on their trusted advisor, the recruiter, to give them best advice.”

Jo Sellick, managing director of financial and legal recruiter Sellick Partnership, says software such as Broadbean is still in its infancy but will evolve over the next few years. What will supersede it, however, is unclear.

“We consider how every business function could benefit from new technology. For instance, we know that more video applications would drive extra traffic to our website,” he says. “We are continuously reviewing our online systems and processes as technology develops and the job seeker’s behaviour changes.”

Like many recruiters he is already responding to the market becoming more mobile-led.

The company launched its mobile website last July and immediately saw a positive impact on its business as candidates chose this route to interact with the agency. The number of unique visitors coming to its website from a mobile or tablet device in 2013 rose by 141% year on year to 23,361.

“New technology must take into account how people will increasingly search for jobs while they are on the move using their mobile device,” says Sellick. “But to achieve a real impact from new technology you will need to ensure that your social media strategy involving Twitter, LinkedIn and new emerging networks are fully aligned. Social media is so fast-moving, no-one knows what will happen in a few years’ time.”

Recruiters will need to be brave and take risks when it comes to deciding which technology to invest in. As in any industry, the early adopters can never be certain if they are backing winners or losers but there are business rewards for being a pioneer.

Think of the first recruiters who began to use the file hosting service Dropbox so candidates could share their details in confidence – and protect the recruiter from spam? Others soon followed and companies are now starting to add Dropbox to their consultants’ mobile devices so CVs can be conveniently sent off to clients.

There is also the social recruiting platform Bullhorn Reach which advertises and markets jobs across a recruiter’s social networks and discovers passive candidates. Analysis of a user’s social media networks can indicate they might be considering a move.

The next generation of technology, in whatever area it emerges, should drive agencies’ profits over the next few years. But it is only worth the money if it helps a recruiter to hire more effectively and enables its own staff to work more efficiently, either in the office or remotely.

The only certainty is that predicting what technology will change the face of recruitment over the next 10 years and what will be a wasted investment is virtually impossible.