Ask the Expert: Looking into the Future of the Modern Recruiter

Welcome to another instalment of ATCHub’s very own “Ask the Expert,” where experts in recruitment and HR gather to answer your everyday employment/workforce-related queries. Let us know if you have any questions. Leave them in the comments or email them to us, and you might just see it in the next issue of ATCHub “Ask the Expert”!

Every year technology advances and it changes the way we do things, for good or bad. The recruitment industry is not spared and as our world becomes more unpredictable, recruiters face increasing amounts of uncertainty in their daily work.

So we asked our panel of experts to share what are some of the biggest challenges that a modern recruiter face and their take on the technology or innovation that will most likely revolutionise the future of sourcing.

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Name – Shannon Pritchett

Title – Manager, Global Sourcing & Social Media

Company – ManpowerGroup Solutions 

    

I think the biggest challenge that recruiters and sourcers have today is a lack of proper training. There are many firms and corporations that hire junior recruiters that lack the fundamental training recruiters need when they first enter employment in our industry. Additionally, many of these recruiters aren’t held accountable for their actions. Without training and accountability, it isn’t a surprise that many recruiters are doing it wrong. This can fall into several categories, sourcing, cold calling, screening, researching, and engagement.

I have been following AI very closely. I think this will make a huge impact in our industry. There is nothing more powerful than the human touch, but AI allows us to explore more options than we’ve seen before. With AI & Chatbot technology, candidates will soon be better and more properly matched to an organisation. This will not only improve candidate experience and satisfaction, it will also decrease time to hire. AI is also a huge win for sourcing. AI can see things and match patterns that we can’t do with the human eye. I’m very excited to see this technology evolve to make the sourcer more powerful.

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Name – Gerry Crispin

Title – President

Company – CareerXroads

    

Greatest challenge

Walking the talk. Communicating your primary interest is in supporting their engaging the candidate over the long term career goals so that you can have a lifetime of connections all ripening at a different stage…and then walking that talk. #Pipeline

Game changing technology that will revolutionise sourcing & engaging

‘Olivia’ and her brothers and sisters. Cognitive Conversational Software that will respond to recruiter and candidate queries about the people, the job, the hiring manager etc. with the transparency humans fail to provide or are prevented from sharing by risk averse functionaries. #LevelPlayingField.

The rise of closed, online peer communities of interest and competence. They will share openly. They will also likely meet Face-to-face as needed. They will crowdsource each other and challenge one another to stay current, be brutally honest, crowdsource openly and hold high standards. #21^stcenturyprofessionalassociations

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Name – Carmen Hudson

Title – Principle Consultant

Company –  Recruiting Toolbox, Inc.

In technology – for some critical roles – the greatest challenge is getting top candidates to respond and engage. Recruiters and sourcers have to present very specific, relevant opportunities at just the right time, using the right messaging to get these candidates to engage.

I can envision AI doing a better job of qualifying tech candidates than humans, just as I now trust Google Maps to get me to a destination via the fastest, most convenient route.

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Name – Martin Warren

Title – Regional Sourcing Specialist

Company –  Randstad Sourceright

    

The amount of spam candidates get sent by sourcers/recruiters who don’t take the time to personalise, segment and make their message relevant to their targeted audience. Channels like LinkedIn and CRM tools have made it easy for recruiters/sourcers to spam without really caring. All recruiters and sourcers need to raise the standards and call out their colleagues who continue to spam. Join the #FightSpam group on Facebook and play your part.

Personally, I think we get far too caught up in our technology stack or game changing technology that will revolutionise sourcing or engagement without really having a clear plan on how to apply or what we really need. That said, do we need 80 tools on our tool-belt or the five that work in our market and domain? Sourcing needs to be a combination of inbound and outbound which I believe much of this will be automated over time. Key is engagement via compelling content using technology will be critical. At the end of the day, the tools on their own are next to useless, what it come down is execution and having a strategy. The innovative technology or game changers are just an enabler.

Cover image: Shutterstock

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Join us at the Sourcing Social Talent Conference as we reveal how to build a diverse workforce with the ‘secret sauce recipe’.  See the full agenda and register here.