Transformations in hiring process

The recruitment process which has undergone significant changes over the years, is continuously evolving with the advent of new job roles and has seen the need for people to up-skill regularly and embrace technological interventions. Earlier an organisation focussed on hiring people to fulfill particular tasks through brute man hours, but today, it is hiring people with strong profiles who could evolve as domain experts capable of getting things done single-handedly or with a lean team.

There is a shift towards spending time on getting more specific candidates to build lean, effective and high performing teams. This will result in better time and resource management, higher efficiency and productivity along with providing employee satisfaction.

As workplaces evolve, the job market is also shaping itself to meet the new requirements. For instance, certain companies are outsourcing industry experts to solve a problem instead of hiring bulky teams. Such crowd-sourcing of talent, sometimes referred to as the ‘uberisation of talent’, is one trend that is adding a different dimension to the workplace. This shift from hiring average talent in volumes to hiring fewer but more skilled talent is changing the hiring process at large.

Role of technology

Technology is another important aspect transforming all aspects of recruitment. Be it reaching out to talent through tech aggregation platforms or organisations offering to manage social media presence or freelance workers in the sourcing space, the innovations are many. Newer ways of applying for jobs and shortlisting candidates have also emerged like video resume and video interview platforms etc.

Interestingly, the change has gone further into giving the candidates a richer experience through platforms that take them through the journey of selection and on-boarding with a focus on experience and multiple analytics offerings. And then, there are service providers who also manage candidate experience and make it a delight.

Organisations are also investing heavily in data assimilation which in today’s day and age, is the king in recruitment. It can help identify ideal pools of talent that have not been tapped into. It is critical to understand the secret behind hiring quality talent with insights on ideal colleges and companies to hire from and most importantly the right behavioural mix. Not just the talent pool, but it can also assist in aligning the best interviewer panel from a quality and experience point of view.

Similarly, with technology one can now help identify the key areas of strength and opportunity in the sourcing and selection process. For instance, indicating immense potential by smartly vetting through heaps of profiles to qualitatively mimic human behaviour in shortlisting, is one such aspect of technology.

Hiring millennials

One apparent reason of this shift is the changing demographics of the applicants. More and more millennials are being hired today and the recruitment process is evolving to fit this target group. Today organisations are using varied approaches to reach out to this age group, and presence on social media has played a key role here.

Companies understand the need for visibility on platforms where the target talent spends its quality time. To reach out to today’s millennials and garner their attention, companies need to exhibit the practical and cultural aspects along with the opportunity and social media is one of the best platforms for it. These aspects have shifted the recruitment process in terms of technology, speed and experience.

The freelance workers have also contributed a fair share in the changing dynamics of recruitment. Organisations fulfill the short-term requirements from freelancers instead of going to the usual third-party contractor way.

To some extent they are an alternative and equally talented pool to hire from for assignment-based opportunities and thus are helping out in the recruitment process overall.

While there is a lot of conversation around technology bringing significant changes to recruitment, it is difficult to estimate the overall capability it brings.

However, it is safe to say that it will surely bring an avalanche of changes in the recruitment industry in the days to come, which will help both companies as well as candidates.

(The writer is Chief People Officer, Tally Solutions)