The growth of AI, automation and analytics has been hanging over the recruitment industry for a few years now – and they’ve certainly been integral to changing how we look at sourcing talent and viewing our workforce.

Companies like QJumpers are intent on helping businesses understand how building and maintaining a recruitment strategy is now more of a science than it was in past decades – but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a very human art to ensuring that it is a success.

Absolutely, the data and the algorithms and technological tools we’ve developed to understand and utilise that information have made processes more efficient and provided insights into running a business like never before. But – especially in a world where talent can be hard to come by and, once found, difficult to attract – the human touch is still very much important.

So what are the key elements of both humans and technology required for a successful recruitment strategy?

TECHNOLOGY

• Integration: Making sure that your recruitment software dovetails with all other IT in your business means that you can trust key challenges such as compliancy and have clarity over a whole workforce.
• Analytics: Technology is simply faster, more efficient, and often more accurate at looking through your recruitment data to match talents to needs, and drive business decisions. Reading a resume takes time for recruiters while talent analytics can not only drive through the piles on contrasting information but also use that information to predict how candidates will perform in your workforce.
• Talent pools: Identifying the right type of people for your business and then managing how you use that information is a perfect use of recruitment software and technology.
• Be mobile and adaptable: How you reach potential applicants needs to be on their terms – you need to find the best talent anywhere and at any time and be able to communicate with them fast. From first contact (if you are finding them), to notifying candidates that applications have been received (if they are responding to you), having automated systems is fast and efficient, and cuts down on the amount of time your employees spend dealing with the recruitment process.

HUMANS

• Your business culture: As we’ve mentioned before, effective recruitment is not just about matching up the right candidate to the job – it’s about representing your business well in the process. And creating a good business culture is about building relationships rather than simply relying on algorithms to do the work for you. People coming into the workforce now are used to technology in almost every aspect of their lives – and that means that they hold personal interactions and honest transparency in the highest regard.
• Interpretation of data: The more information we’re surrounded with, the harder it becomes to identify exactly what is important and what is just background noise. How humans use applicant tracking systems and recruitment software such as QJumpers is vital to the technology’s success. We’ve talked recently about the importance of extracting data usefully and using data efficiently and how importantly we take the design of intuitive dashboards that allow key managers to make recruitment decisions.
• Set up a collaborative recruitment system: It is still important to be able to delegate decision-making to the right individuals and have them trained to understand the technology on which they will make those choices. For example sifting through CVs is time-consuming and confusing, whereas short-listing candidates for interview from a collection of applicants already screened by talent analytics may well be best carried out by a manager. Empowering decision-makers also means knowing which elements of your recruitment process you are willing to defer to technology and which require a human touch – and that is a decision still best made by a human.
• Support: When technology breaks down, it is always important to know that there is always a real person who talks your language and can put you back online. At QJumpers we value our relationships with customers and clients and work alongside them to ensure the technology gets the bet results for their businesses.

Technology is already revolutionising what we do in recruitment and HR, but our workforce is currently demanding that companies are more human in how they treat them and more flexible in how they deal to individual employees. The skill in balancing these two challenges is in seeing technology as a tool rather than a replacement for humans – and successful businesses will be the ones who adopt what’s on offer and then adapt to become more efficient and effective. QJumpers is leading the way at finding innovative technological and time-saving ways to improve recruitment. To learn more about how we work and how our software can help your company, contact us on [email protected].