In the last twelve months, it’s become harder to recruit talent professionals than software engineers. It was first something that came out of the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley but today I hear this more and more from talent leaders all around the world. A quick LinkedIn search at the time of writing found more than 490,000 open ‘recruiter’ roles worldwide.
Why is this? Today the value of talent has never been more important to CEOs and industries. The pandemic has brought forward trends we thought would take decades to cement themselves into how talent professionals worked.
The Great Resignation, remote working, borderless hiring, and virtual interviewing all clashed together in 2020/21 to create a perfect storm for change.
How the Great Resignation is driving up the need for recruiters
The Great Resignation is showing no signs of stopping just yet. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says there were more than 10.9 million job openings in December 2021, close to the record high of 11.1 million published in October. Employers are still having a difficult time filling positions, especially in accommodation and food services (+133,000), information (+40,000), nondurable goods manufacturing (+31,000), and state and local government education (+31,000).
It’s a similar story in Australia, with Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing total job vacancies in November 2021 were 74% higher than just before the pandemic started. Open roles vary by industry, but vacancies are highest in accommodation and food services (31%), administrative and support services (31%), public administration and safety (28%), healthcare and social assistance (27%), and manufacturing (25%).
Talent professionals are being asked to do more
Putting HR technology and AI to work for your talent team
Set against this backdrop, HR leaders must provide their talent teams with the right technology tools to augment their skills. They need to make the most of every possible efficiency, freeing up skilled recruiters to spend more time with people and less on managing processes.
Technology platforms within the HR space are now seen as the way forward out of many of these problems. Talent professionals are looking for tools that help them amplify their impact, and it’s this augmentation that leads to higher impact work.
We’re moving from productivity to well-being; from automation to improvement; from process to experience and need intuitive platforms to help organizations and hiring managers achieve this shift while managing a larger workload.
THE IMPACT:
HR tech has traditionally focused on processes — payments, promotions, and managing annual leave. Now, the future HR technology is workforce intelligence — technology that builds visibility and meaning into your hiring and organization.
This is where Reejig comes in. It creates a central nervous system for all talent decisions and helps recruiters to:
1. Find quality, diverse candidates in less time – Use artificial intelligence (AI) to tap into your total talent ecosystem including past applicants, graduates and interns, public profiles, and current employees. Then create candidate shortlists for open roles based on skills, not personal characteristics. Sourcing at global consulting firm KPMG was reduced from 13 hours to 42 seconds using Reejig. Better still, recruitment costs fell by 60%.
2. Create consumer-grade candidate experiences – Deliver personalized nudges at the right moment to let existing employees and external candidates know that you have a suitable role for them. Personalized nudges are proven to increase clickthrough rates by more than 230%.
3. Ensure diverse, equitable hiring practices – Reduce unconscious bias with the world’s first independently audited ethical talent AI. Reejig algorithms are compliant with global regulations on human rights, anti-discrimination, and equal opportunity.
“As MYOB transforms to a business management platform, the Reejig AI is a critical contribution to target our efforts within our Strategic Workforce Plan initiatives. The predictive intelligence, with over 80% accuracy, has identified where key retention risks are, enabling us to focus on the highest priorities to retain and engage our workforce for the future.”Sally Elson, Head of People Advisory & Talent, MYOB
Today, as a talent leader myself, being aware of the HR tech ecosystem is core to doing my job. And actively engaging with users, employees, and leaders to understand their pain points is a good place to start. The tools of the agile practitioner 5 years ago; like Kanban boards and scrums, are today the key tools helping talent leaders source candidates and retain talent even as they face the busiest market to date.
Talent acquisition tech tips to stay efficient in a candidate’s market
- Engage with HR tech industry trends and encourage your team to do the same
- Challenge your own risk perceptions of new technology. Pilots, free trials, and subscription models open avenues to try new tech without undergoing a giant implementation. Being an early adopter isn't as risky as you might think
- Partner with your current tech providers and understand their product roadmap. A true tech partner can help you reframe your perspective but will also encourage you to challenge them on what’s ahead
- Use technology to expand talent pools to include past candidates, current employees, and public profiles in your search and focus hiring on skills and potential
- Enhance your team’s impact on future candidates. Implement technology that proactively nudges talent with a hyper-personalized message when you list a matched role
Invest in your tech stack today to give your talent acquisition team the workforce intelligence technology they need to retain and source the right people for the right roles in your business.
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