“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.”– Lawrence Bossidy, GE
Without a doubt, the most crucial stage that can make or break any organisation is the recruitment of the right talent. According to a recent report, more than 80 per cent of the organisations face difficulty when it comes to finding and hiring the right talent, and it probably won’t get any easier.
Since many of us think that recruitment and talent acquisition are the same thing, these two terms are often used interchangeably. The organisation that understands the difference between them can transform from being a reactive and transactional function to become the strategic, data-driven business it should be.
The first step to boost your organisation would be to completely change your strategy and tactics by adapting your hiring process accordingly and building a coherent and proactive approach. The transition is fuelled by reflective changes in the workplace and by transformative digital technology which brings us back to the point that talent acquisition leaders are faced with an opportunity to offer unique and innovative solutions for fulfilling work requirements. It is pertinent for an organisation to manage its workforce and business performance strategically, and execute their plans accordingly to maintain an edge over their competitors. This approach helps them improve efficiency and promote growth in a market that rewards innovation.
To ensure that your organisation can make the cut, incorporate these into your talent acquisition strategy.
1- Conversational Commerce
A few years ago if you told someone that you will be able to talk to your phone, they would have laughed and said that it was impossible. Fast forward to today, and anyone can easily ask their phone to dial a number from their contact list or set the alarm for 10:30. More than 50 per cent of the consumers are users of voice assistants, and all this has been made possible by the advancements made in technology. Research conducted in the US, the UK, France, and Germany has shown that voice assistants are on the cusp of transforming organisations.
When we talk about a conversational user interface regarding talent acquisition, tasks like taking an online interview to gathering electronic signatures for paperwork has been made easier. It also offers an intelligent virtual assistant that can guide, handle queries and provide support with the additional feature privacy.
2- Recruiting Automation
“When it comes to the changing workforce, there are really three themes that are worth calling out: AI and automation, the skills gap, and the rise of independent work.”- LinkedIn’s CEO, Jeff Weiner, highlighted these three key trends that are transforming the workplace as we know it.
The foundation of a workforce relies on the quality of its employees and as the demand for innovative and talented individuals goes up, the pressure on the recruiting team begins to build. This is why talent acquisition professionals are always trying to come up with more successful ways to identify and hire fresh talent from a substantially large pool of applicants.
Recruiting automation has not been designed to replace HR but mostly to handle the mundane and time-consuming tasks from drafting an effective job description, scheduling interviews to screening applicants and conducting background checks more efficiently. With the help of machine learning tools, hundreds of resumes can be pre-screened by algorithms to sort out the best candidates, and once they are identified, recruiters can create customised messages that are outlined ahead of time. These tools can also analyse recorded telephonic interviews and rank the candidates to match them to the job.
3- Defining Big Data for Recruiters
The concept of converting massive structured and unstructured data sets into actionable intelligence is known as big data. In the present day, a few talent acquisition teams are leveraging big data since most of them are still in the learning phase. Big data sources such as employee assessment and departmental performance coupled with statistical modelling can be used to determine the most suitable candidate for the position. Instead of just spamming their database with every possible opening, recruiters can deliver relevant positions to people if they apply big data analytics to their recruitment strategy.
4- Artificial Intelligence
“Accept the fact that AI will change our work, but look at it as an enabler of your work and the future of talent acquisition.”- PrzemekBerendt, Luxoft’s VP of Global Marketing on how AI will disrupt recruiting and how things will change for the better.
The best way to ensure the success of a business is by bringing the right people on board which gives you the foundation you need. Artificial Intelligence can search for candidates with backgrounds that match the credentials of the previous employee in that particular position by identifying their qualifications, work experience and various other factors.Self-learning AI can drive predictive analytics by informing recruiters where to source quality candidates. It can also improve engagement through better communication between the employers and the candidates.
Another role that AI plays in talent acquisition is onboarding new hires which is pertinent when it comes to providing them with the information they need. Whether they need help with signing up for their insurance or sharing detailed information about their pay scale, all they have to do is turning to the intelligent automated system to get an immediate answer.
5- Cloud-based Technology
Recruiters are also pushing towards implementing cloud-based technologies and social media outlets in their strategy to optimise their efforts. Presently, organisations can no longer afford to have a lack of strategy when it comes to talent acquisition but must invest in a plan that identifies and recruits prospective employees, and also manages to develop a career path for existing employees towards promotion.
Amongst the many advantages of using cloud-based RMS is its ability to integrate seamlessly into the existing recruitment systems and its adaptability to mobile technology. These systems allow recruiters to identify, assess and organise applicants more suitable for the profile. In the future, most of the talent-centric organisations will centre on analysis and workforce management to make decisions based on predictive modelling, big data, and prescriptive analytics.
Transforming Talent Acquisition
In the present day, very few companies have a true talent acquisition in place, and even these are not yet aligned with global best practices. Two major difficulties associated with this are- a lack of understanding of the elements of talent acquisition and the inability to implement it.
As digital advances are transforming the way business operations perform, organisations feel the pressure to hire employees that have the right skills. And these skills are not just limited to the IT sector or technical roles which is why they are in demand across all sectors and within roles; for example, the banking sector that now depends mostly on software or the automobile manufacturing industry that uses AI focus on automation and optimisation. This is why employees who can use digital technology are in demand presently, and it has been predicted to increase in the years to come.
Author- Nipsy Jhamb is an accomplished Global HR professional with over 14 years of experience in the IT and digital sectors. She is having hands on experience in organization design and responsible for implementing human resource transformational strategies that enable the board to hire, train, and retain a high performing and motivated workforce with an eye to perfection. Currently Nipsy is working at edynamic as Vice President Human Resources.
