Nothing can replace the human element in Talent Acquisition; technology will enable TA professionals to engage better and make smart hiring decisions. TA space has many manual use cases; if technology can automate at least few of the use cases, it will enable TA professionals to discover, network and engage with top qualified candidates quickly. 

Finding the best-fit talent and providing an excellent candidate experience is at the core of any recruitment process. Smart recruiters strive to efficiently accomplish both. They do it by using their headhunting, selling and relationship-building skills. A typical hiring process involves screening resumes and interacting with candidates before shortlisting a few who are most suitable for an open position. Although the process is exhausting for recruiters, consistent human interaction results in a better experience for candidates. 

However, things have been changing quite fast. Today, technology has brought a total disruption in the entire recruiting landscape. The advancements in technology, especially the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have completely changed the way companies hire talent. In TA space we surely need technology and human connection to provide a “WOW” experience to candidates.

Fast-growing companies can make or break their business plans based on how quickly they can find the right candidates. In the coming days, the only businesses that will survive are those who are innovating, leveraging data and embracing change. TA space surely needs Next Gen platforms which can help recruiters to discover candidates, engage candidates and help to make data backed decisions. 

Mancer started investing in HR Tech companies and recently invested in a company (Param.ai), which is working on innovating “In-bound recruiting” and automating many manual use cases in candidate engagement. Param. ai Technology plugs into the company’s internal talent databases (ATS and CRM), and cleans, updates and standardizes the data. Smart algorithms read the historical and trending hiring patterns of the company against each role and ranks, and then matches them against open job roles and other relevant roles which may not be captured by the Job Description.

Existing solutions are still largely based on Boolean logic and recruiters have to manually input, which adds another manual use case to their Job. Param’s smart algo auto picks the desired skills and starts mining huge data set that would help recruiters to engage with only the top qualified candidates. It not only matches, but the candidate summary feature helps recruiters to “make great hiring decisions”.

According to a research published on HR.com, a majority of candidates think that discussions with recruiters are the best way to know about the company’s culture and if they are the right fit for the organization. However, it is hard to get such insights if technology replaces recruiters. Technology has also altered the way candidates apply and interview for jobs. Many candidates, particularly middle and senior level professionals feel frustrated when they spend a lot of time in applying for a job, just to find out that their candidature has been rejected by a drone-like resume filtering system.  

Technology has also altered the way candidates apply and interview for jobs; it could be hard to get insights through discussions if technology replaces recruiters

Also, professionals who are already employed may not have enough time to input detailed information to "convince" technology to get shortlisted by software applications. It is like one-way investment where candidates need to do almost everything and the employers simply use a few search strings and algorithms to decide the fate of the qualified talent.

Today, the world is facing a severe talent crunch. The demand exceeds the supply when it comes to the number of qualified professionals. This gives leverage to the talented people due to which they may refuse a job offer if the position or the employer is not hard-sold to them. Thus, bad candidates’ experiences may lead to increased number of refusals from the selected candidates. Therefore, under no circumstances, organizations can afford to deteriorate the candidate experience for better recruitment efficiencies. Our Product ManStock is the best suitable product for a better Candidate Experience.

The employers should note that the technology advancements and recruitment efficiencies can’t come at the cost of candidate experience. Thankfully, there are several ways to maintain the delicate balance between the candidate experience and recruitment efficiencies: Applicants can track their application status — Let the candidates check their application status on a real-time basis. It will be favored by most of them as they will know where they stand in the hiring process.  Also, ask some tough questions while implementing a recruitment technology solution — Ask questions which are pertinent to candidates' conveniences. For instance, how much a working professional would like to invest in the application process? Try to address these using the technology itself.

A bad candidates’ experiences may lead to increased number of refusals from the selected candidates; therefore, under no circumstances, the organizations can afford to deteriorate the candidate experiences

It is critical for organizations maintain a balance between making the hiring process most efficient and managing the relationship with prospective employees. It can only be done when technology is utilized to enhance and not to replace the human interaction.