Is there a right way or a wrong way to use recruitment tech?
Most, if not all, recruitment tech platforms are created with a goal in mind, efficiencies to implement or an integration to perfect. Most, if not all, tech platforms understand their platform doesn’t operate in a vacuum: they need to compete against other digital creators and seamlessly fit into workflows and recruiting practices without reducing recruiting impact or ROI.
And of course, within this matrix of technical decision-making and tech creation sits the very human user. A cruel irony that plagues the HR and recruitment tech sector – an irony shared by every other technical sector – is that a digital platform is only as good, effective or efficient as its very human user.
Digital illiteracy can undo years of product perfection. A recruitment team who doesn’t invest in digital L&D can pour 6 figures into the most modern, most well-integrated ATS and receive a grand total of 0 applications to roles because of platform misuse. When melded with tech, traditional hiring techniques can (if not suitably reworked to fit our digital age) actually work against hiring platforms and the efficiencies they produce.
Naturally, this is down to one thing – a critical lack of understanding just and how and why recruitment and HR tech works, and how technical success lies in augmentation, not replacement, of the human-centric elements of hiring.
We like to think of Rectec as straddling two parallel but different worlds – the digital creators and SaaS platform revolutionaries on one side; and the job-seeking, career-focused employees that keep our country moving on the other.
So a word to the wise for our client-handling recruiting contingent reading this – no matter the brilliant ATS vendor you use, or the incredible CRM platform you dive into every day, your actions determine the effectiveness of these platforms.
So here are 4 simple but essential rules to successfully utilise recruitment tech.
Never stop learning.
To say the recruitment tech industry moves fast is a savage understatement. However, most recruitment teams or agencies are not in the habit of changing ATS providers every couple of years – if anything, once a consistent and usable platform is put in place that helps teams effectively recruit it’s wise to keep a steady ship and not rock the technical boat.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep an eye on changes to technical provision in the sector, especially when it comes to candidate attitudes and interactions with recruitment tech.
Consider career pages and employer branding – 5 years ago a simple ATS provider more than likely wouldn’t have prioritised employer branding storytelling. Now, many ATS providers include employer branding, career page and even social media integrations to help better communicate with potential candidates.
Keep it human.
Never, ever expect the technical tools you use day in, day out to source, interview, vet, assess or hire people to replace you.
In simple terms (and we consistently beat this drum for good reason) tech should be used to augment what you already do, rather than replace what you do.
As chatbots and AI find themselves seeping into automotive flows it’s becoming apparent that NLP-built tools are hard to distinguish as a bot. Yes, within reason and at some stages of the hiring funnel chatbots are suitable tools to help connect with and contact candidates.
But at the business end of recruitment, every candidate wants more than efficiency – they want someone in their corner, fighting for their needs and career, leading with emotion and professionalism.
Recruitment Tech doesn’t make you happy.
Happiness indicators and assessments are nothing new.
In the last 20 years, it’s become imperative for employers to market their workplaces as happy places to do work. The cult of the “work wife/husband” has not been bred from nothing – people want to like where they work, they want to find friends and peers where they work, and they want to feel a sense of value and purpose where they work.
Tech cannot do this. Only human interactions, relationship-building and good workplace culture can.
Does recruitment tech make you a better recruiter?
This is a bit of a trick question because, in reality, we’re asking you whether KPIs and data-supported ROI is the primary indicator of recruiting success.
As anyone who’s ever stepped onto a sales floor knows, recruiting can be about short-term gains and interview-to-placement ratios, but good recruitment cultures are built over time, not over placements.
Make sure your tech helps you build a sustainable, attractive, affordable and effective recruitment culture, not simply a machine to throw talent at jobs. Recruitment is so much more than that.
A quick, responsive process is what you need to attract and engage the best talent.
At Rectec we help organisations to find the best Applicant Tracking System or best Recruitment CRM to suit your needs, accompanied by our unique complementary technology marketplace, to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business.