Earlier this year, 87% of respondents in a Leapgen survey said, “attracting, acquiring, and onboarding new talent for our workforce” was a high-priority concern. Only 2% said bringing on new talent was a low priority. The labor shortage is real: In the United States, there are 5 million more job openings than there are unemployed workers to fill them. Digital transformation of talent acquisition is needed to address this gap.
Talent is a direct line to profits: businesses cannot operate at full capacity if they aren’t staffed at full capacity. Companies are investing more in recruiting, but are they doing it in ways that actually attract the most skilled talent? Are they building a selection process that surfaces best-fit candidates? Are they building brand equity by providing a great experience for every candidate, not just the ones they hire?
Transforming the way your organization hires is both a human transformation and a digital transformation. The recent webinar, Going Digital in Talent Acquisition: A Reflection on 2022 Digital Experience Delivery, offers valuable guidance on what organizations can do to transform their TA function. Karin Philippczyk, Hiring Success Transformation Consultant at SmartRecruiters, and Jess Von Bank, Head of Brand Strategy and Vendor Solutions at Leapgen offered these tips and strategies.
- Start with a vision of what you want to achieve, then get technology to help. Too often, companies look to technology to solve their problems without understanding how their processes need to change. Yes, technology can bring greater efficiency, but without understanding what problems it needs to solve, new systems won’t be adopted.
- Solve for experiences. The candidate’s experience is directly related to the recruiter’s experience. When you give recruiters tools that are easy to use, they can spend more time making those one-to-one human connections that convince talented candidates to join your organization.
- Automate repetitive data-based tasks. High-tech, high-touch means applying technology in places with bulk tasks that can be easily automated. Screening, scheduling, and chatbot communications are just a few of the areas where automation will free up recruiter time for more strategic tasks and building relationships with candidates.
- Build transparency into the hiring process. Recruiting doesn’t need to be a black box. You can build recruiting workflows that manage candidate expectations in a transparent way. Over time, this builds trust – so even if a candidate isn’t selected the first time they apply, they’ll feel good about your organization by the time they get hired.
- Lead by taking small steps. The SmartRecruiters company value, “CEO of your job,” offers a guidepost for beginning any process transformation. Karin Philippczyk said, “you’re always a mini-CEO of your application process. If you improve a couple of things and show people the results, they will feel more motivated to change and give you more than you ask for because you’re involving them.”
It’s true: a full-scale talent acquisition transformation starts one step at a time. Once you have your vision in place, get in touch with us. We’d love to help you build better experiences, automate repetitive tasks, and provide greater transparency to candidates — and anything else on your list of ways to improve Hiring Success.
