Technology is well and truly integrated into the executive search, recruitment and Human Resource (HR) industries. Its application can be seen in every step of the recruitment process and throughout how we manage and support our employees. While technology already supports so much of what we can do and achieve, the horizon is full of new trends that will transform how we tackle recruitment and HR in the future.
We’re exploring three technology trends that are making a big impact and are likely to stick around.
1. Voice technology
Voice technology has already started to transform how consumers interact with the world around them. Over the last few years, the growth of in-home voice-device products has increased and as we have all grow accustomed to our Siri, Alexa or Google Home, the use of voice to manage our daily lives has transformed.
Incorporating voice technology in the recruitment and executive search industry could also transform how clients and candidates experience sourcing new talent or finding a new job. We list some benefits and risks to adopting voice technology within your recruitment process.
Benefits of voice technology:
- More time efficient: voice technology can be used to schedule in pre-screening interviews or booking in time for discussions and save time/streamline processes for recruiters.
- Enhances the candidate experience: voice technology can improve the candidate’s experience by providing 24-hour support, tailored interactions, track their application’s status and guide them through the recruitment process.
- Improve the candidate pool: the adoption of voice technology to source candidates through various job portals and internal databases takes a fraction of the time and is more accurate than a person.
Risks of voice technology
- Impersonal: searching for a new role or being a part of a recruitment process is very stressful and can be filled with hope and dread for candidates – voice technology could depersonalise this experience for candidates and leave them feeling isolated or frustrated.
- Privacy: this is a personal experience for candidates and their career history and personal information is part of the process so the involvement of voice technology may make candidates feel their privacy is being breached or at risk.
2. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
VR and AR are already being used in unimaginable ways across many landscapes and industries. These technologies, while different (we’ll explain below) are sparking new and transformative approaches to how people experience the world around them. We’ve listed some great uses for this technology in the recruitment and HR space.
What is VR?
Virtual Reality is interactive software that places you within a 3D environment that isn’t there. A VR headset is usually required for the experience and is responsive to your movements allowing you to see the full environment.
Benefits of VR
- Tour workplaces: imagine being able to showcase your workplace in a 3D environment with the potential candidates being able to immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of your organisation.
- Gamify recruitment process: VR can be applied to the recruitment process through skills assessments. The gamification of this process leads to higher engagement and more interested candidates (who are less likely to opt out of the process) and allows recruiters to identify a candidate’s strengths early in the process ensuring a higher quality candidate pool.
- Conduct training: applying VR to a training program has the potential to transform the experience for employees. Already in use in many industries, like Defence, it creates an immersive experience that simulates a real-life situation for an employee. The application of VR technology ensures higher engagement and a deeper understanding of the training content.
Risks with VR
- Expensive technology: costs around this type of technology could be prohibitive to some organisations or may not be worth the investment.
- Access to technology: to be able to experience VR, you need a headset so this type of experience would be limited to people with the correct equipment.
What is AR?
Augmented Reality can be accessed using a smartphone or smart device and is a mixed reality between a user’s physical environment with digital content overlaid on top of it. It augments a consumer’s reality and creates a unique experience.
Benefits of AR
- Showcasing the employer brand: AR can help communicate the value of the organisation to potential candidates through an engaging and immersive experience. Whether the AR is a walk through an organisation or a day in the life of an employee, it provides a unique experience that a brochure or website cannot.
- Training simulation: similar to VR, AR can create a simulated experience for an employee. For example, using a smart device they could view the room they are in but a digital overlay on top of the reality creates an engaging and real-life training experience.
- Test candidate skills: Like VR, AR can be used in the recruitment process to test and assess a potential candidate’s skillsets to create a higher quality candidate pool early in the process.
Risks with AR
- Affordability: AR is expensive to create and may not have a strong return on investment for the organisation.
- Accessibility: some AR programs/apps are too complex for the average user. Similarly, some people may not have access to a smart device to run the program.
3. Blockchain
Blockchain is significant and groundbreaking technology that has the potential to bring about transformative change because of its radical ability to replace current technologies and render them obsolete. It has been likened to general-purpose technology (GPT); other examples of GPTs include electricity and the internet. Blockchain also has the potential to revolutionise the recruitment industry particularly around how recruiters consider potential candidates.
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network (thanks IBM for that definition). The assets can be tangible (artwork, house, building) and intangible (branding, copyrights, records). Most people associate Blockchains with cryptocurrencies, but the technology is pushing boundaries and could provide transformative change in the recruitment industry.
Blockchain in recruitment
As Blockchain is an unalterable ledger that allows access to records in real-time, it has the potential to improve the recruitment process through verified credentials. A candidate can store their authenticated records on a blockchain and when appropriate provide access to a recruiter in real-time. These records could include, academic history, records of employment, personal information, criminal background checks and professional certifications. Instead of collecting and storing resumes and then spending time verifying information, this could all be done through a blockchain, minimising fake or misleading candidate information and creating a more efficient recruitment process.
