Is technology helping or hindering your hiring process?

By: Sean Baker

Talent markets are becoming increasingly more competitive, and the window of opportunity for finding the right candidate continues to get shorter. This medley of challenges has led many organizations to look to technology as the solution to connect job seekers with open positions.

There are many digital tools to help hasten this process, but they’re only part of the solution, if at all. Talent acquisition tools can help the process but are not the whole process. It still requires human interaction and resources to complete.

What are talent acquisition tools?

I did a quick Google search for talent acquisition tools. I found endless pages of results, each promising the “next best thing” or the “100% automated” solutions. They range from web-based screening and assessment tools to robust and complex AI systems that review all the data and promise to find the top candidate.

These sound like a dream for anyone hiring but don’t be fooled. After 11 years in the recruiting world, I’ve learned that there is no magic digital algorithm to find you the perfect candidate. The magic comes when you add the human element of hiring: collaborating with a recruiter.

What digital tools claim

Some solutions claim the ability to return large lists of viable candidates in a short amount of time. I’m a little weary of the ethics and effectiveness of these lists. They are often candidates on their email list or gathered from the internet (i.e., social media). They often put people on these lists who never asked to be there or who never registered with their software or company.

As a hiring manager, I know you’d rather see a list of 5 highly qualified candidates to review than 100 that may meet only some of your criteria.

Digital tools that are actually helpful

New technologies that I find helpful for recruitment are candidate analytics and assessments. I’ve seen digital simulator tools that help test someone’s ability in manufacturing or customer services. Other tools include a video interface platform to confirm a candidate’s ability to do the job. These could replace some reference checks to confirm candidate skills.

Depending on the role you are hiring for, these assessment-style tools could be great to narrow down your search before deciding who to interview.

What about the human element of recruiting?

At the end of the day, remember that these are just tools to help. The human element of hiring is still alive and well. I don’t think technology can ever replace the work that executive recruiters like at MSG do for your company.

Technology has not yet developed the ability to work in different domains, make judgements, and assess a candidate’s potential where no evidence exists. Use recruitment tools to help your search or help narrow your candidates, but don’t rely on them to make your final hiring decision.