In recent years, the use of digital recruitment strategies has grown exponentially. This is perhaps unsurprising given the widespread buzz surrounding artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality-empowered technologies—with the global AI market valued at $95.9 billion at the close of 2022.
It’s clear that these emerging trends and strategies are here to stay, but how can businesses take advantage of them to ensure that they’re connecting with the right candidates, plugging their skills gaps, and reducing the time and cost per hire?
Innovative Recruitment Technology: Cutting Time and Cost Per Hire
Digital recruitment tools are helping to save businesses money by streamlining the hiring process—reducing the time it takes to source candidates and the average cost per hire. Research conducted by Forrester on behalf of Phenom highlighted a 449% ROI over three years for organisations utilising an automated recruiting platform, whilst studies have shown that using an ATS can reduce the time recruiters spend on the hiring process by 20%. But what are some of these tools and emerging technologies, how do they work, and who are they ideal for?
Assessment Automation Tools
The Overview
Assessing candidates’ skills can be a time-consuming process. You need to gather expert opinions on crucial competencies to test for, soft skills to measure, and reach a consensus on qualities which illustrate candidates’ cultural fit—and this is before you’ve begun testing potential hires and analysing the data which is returned to form a holistic picture of the talent pool.
Tools such as Pymetrics, however, aim to speed up this process. They offer business leaders and hiring managers the ability to make data-driven insights and create tailored AI algorithms to identify candidates with the right skills. Whether it’s numerical or logical reasoning, communication ability, or even teamwork and collaboration, assessment automation technologies make it easier for companies to shortlist candidates and match them with the right talent.
Perfect For
Assessment automation technologies are ideal for businesses that need to be certain that the candidates they’re connecting with have the competencies listed on their CVs. From tech to sales, and the life sciences to accounting, tools such as Pymetrics help hiring managers ensure that the candidates they place can hit the ground running.
Conversational AI Chatbots
The Overview
As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced and the data sets that these technologies are trained on continue to grow, AI chatbots are increasingly handling candidate enquiries, responding to frequently asked questions, and providing details on vacancies.
Paradox, the developer of a mobile-first ATS and AI-empowered chatbot named Olivia, shows the potential of conversational AI to create dynamic and engaging candidate experiences.
Their chatbot can converse with job-seekers via text message, answering complex queries alongside assessing skills, competencies and professional experience to provide tailored recommendations for roles to apply for. Alongside this, the chatbot can also schedule interviews and screening calls, and securely forward offer and employment documentation to successful candidates.
Perfect For
AI chatbots are excellent for organisations looking to expand into new markets—fielding candidate questions and scheduling interviews when hiring managers may be out of the office. With a mobile-first approach, many chatbots are also helping organisations connect with younger candidates, a crucial consideration given that Gen Z and Millennials represent 38% of the global workforce.
Document Verification Tools
The Overview
Verifying candidates’ identities and qualifications is a crucial aspect of the recruitment process, especially when it comes to reducing your business’s exposure to risk. Ensuring employees have the right skills and competencies is vital for many fields, particularly life sciences and financial services recruitment.
That’s where tools like Dock and Klippa come in. This technology is designed to make documents fraud-proof through the use of the Blockchain, allowing hiring managers to quickly confirm the authenticity of academic and professional certificates, health and safety documentation, and employee credentials. By assigning each document a unique and non-fungible token, Dock, Klippa, and other services like them can help to ensure that candidates are who they say they are.
Perfect For
Document verification tools are rapidly reducing the length of time it takes to verify a candidate’s identity, with many platforms utilising AI to analyse provided images and information for evidence of fraudulent activity. As a result, they’re ideal for organisations in fields where confirming credentials is an important part of governance and compliance—such as in the health and social care sector, engineering, and the financial services industry.
Inclusive Digital Recruitment Technologies
The Overview
Addressing unconscious bias in our language can be an incredibly difficult task. For instance, gender researchers have identified a divide between “agentic” and communal” conversation—with phrases such as “highly competitive” and “winning candidate” much less likely to attract female job-seekers. It can be challenging for hiring managers with masculine or white backgrounds to recognise that their language isn’t as inclusive as it could be, often through no fault of their own.
Technologies such as Textio aim to make this an easier task, helping them to recognise the unconscious biases in their job descriptions, person specifications, and feedback. Depending on the demographic that an employer is aiming to include in the conversation, these tools can help business leaders to target men or women, or older or younger candidates—and using machine learning, it will compare writing to tens of thousands of other examples, ensuring that all text is being received well.
Perfect For
With DEI initiatives often dictating business profitability—to the tune of a 33% increase in pre-tax earnings—and global efforts to encourage change and improve inclusivity, inclusive digital recruitment technologies that are helping to attract more diversity of background and thought to organisations are valuable for employers across all sectors and industries.
Training and E-Learning Technologies
The Overview
Augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) devices have gone from science fiction to being increasingly within reach of the average consumer. As a result, businesses can now access training and e-learning environments that offer candidates engaging and valuable opportunities to develop their skills in building rapport with customers, public speaking, and negotiation.
Technologies such as VirtualSpeech offer companies a way to train their staff in a risk-free environment, reducing the likelihood that they’ll harm their employer’s professional reputation through training with existing clients. VirtualSpeech and other AR/VR training technologies can track the duration of conversations, the average volume of speech, the number of filler words, and eye contact—helping to hone the real-world skills of sales professionals, for instance.
Perfect For
Augmented and virtual reality training and e-learning technologies are ideal for organisations looking to improve their employees' soft skills and assess candidates’ competencies, particularly in the sales process. As a form of “active” learning, employers can be certain that new techniques and best practices are picked up quickly, and candidates receive immediate feedback on their performance.
Specialist Recruitment Skills
Whilst the advances in software and AI will no doubt change the face of recruitment. The more specialist recruiters which require indepth creative experience will be imperative to find candidates with visual skills.
Supporting Your Hiring Needs with Digital Recruitment Expertise
No matter how complex your needs are,or how many roles you need to fill, the consultants at Creative Recruitment l are here to help you attract and retain the sector specialists that will lead your business to greater success. Contact us today to explore your requirements and learn about how we can support your Digital, Marketing and Creative recruitment needs.