What’s the Next Big Idea in Recruitment?
The recruitment industry is moving fast. Goodbye fax machines, hello machine learning. And agencies that want to succeed need to leverage all the tools available to deliver the best candidate and client experience possible. But which technological innovations are passing fads? And where should you invest your resources to make changes that can actually better your business?
To find out, we asked over 1400 recruitment professionals to name the next big technological innovation in the industry. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most common replies.
What technology or tool has the highest potential to improve and innovate the recruitment industry? Why?
Automation
Most recruitment professionals agree that automation presents an exciting opportunity, but agencies have a long way to go before automation is fully ingrained in their operations.
More than a third (35 percent) of agencies don’t automate during the prospecting, client engagement, or account management stages. And about 40 percent don’t automate candidate selection, screening, or nurturing at all.
What’s the biggest value from automation? Respondents are split between its ability to increase engagement and improved efficiencies that come with automation.
AI
Recruiters are excited about AI, but there’s little consensus on how to best harness its power. While agencies are still trying to figure out the best way to leverage AI to improve candidate and client satisfaction and bolster productivity, they can agree that it will have an impact: respondents chose AI more than any other technology.
Chatbots
Chatbots, an offshoot of AI, still sees a relatively low adoption rate by recruitment agencies. But judging by this year’s respondents, its place in the conversation has advanced considerably. It’s likely that this is connected to an ever-increasing focus on the candidate experience. Chatbots can enable recruitment agencies to respond to candidate concerns immediately and free up recruiter time in the process.
Texting
While AI adoption may be a goal of the future, texting is having its moment now. It’s the fastest growing recruiting communication channel: 69 percent expect their usage to increase in 2018. Respondents also cited it as the top method for communicating with Millennial and Gen Z candidates.
Video
More than a third of recruitment agencies plan to increase their use of video interviewing in 2018, but that doesn’t mean its become standard operating procedure just yet. A full 29 percent of agencies don’t use video at all.
Want more insight on the trends, priorities, and challenges recruitment pros say they’re facing in the year ahead? Read the full report and learn more about the opportunity that lies ahead for your firm in 2018.
