Do you remember "Po," the famous
character from the movie Kung Fu Panda? As much as you might have enjoyed the
film (I certainly did), did you imagine a lovable, fluffy panda becoming the
Dragon Warrior and bringing peace to the valley? To be honest, nobody did. Even
in the movie, when Master Oogway announced Po as the dragon warrior, nobody,
including Master Shifu (Oogway’ s disciple), believed the prophecy. The
decision felt wrong and impossible. Yet, in time, Master Oogway’ s prophecy was
fulfilled, and Po proved his worth as a brave yet compassionate warrior.
On similar lines, almost nobody will believe me
when I say that traditional recruiting will die. Furthermore, organizations
that rely solely on recruiters will struggle to find and nurture talent in the
future. Yet, this scenario will come to pass. We have seen the indications all
along.
Think about it - organizations have been working on
strengthening the talent acquisition function for years. Yet, they haven't
succeeded despite having big staffing teams, creating separate functions for
talent pooling or diversity and inclusions, and seeking extended support from
boutique staffing vendors. Recruitment remains a $30 billion industry, and the
reason is that everybody needs "good" and "on-time" talent.
Unfortunately, the traditional recruitment model has failed to deliver. The
emerging code of work, fuelled by the pandemic, calls for a cohesive,
transparent, and digital ecosystem to streamline talent acquisition and promote
employee satisfaction.
Here are some hiring trends to reinvent the
recruiting function:
Recruiting AI Chatbot - The New Dragon Warrior
Well, not a panda, but an AI-powered chatbot is the
future of the recruitment industry. The combination of AI and Natural Language
Processing (NLP) can solve the majority of problems faced by Talent Acquisition
Leaders – including the quagmire of finding "good" and
"experienced" talent "on time."
With advanced capabilities to crunch numbers and
information across millions of data points, an AI-enabled recruiting platform
can find suitable profiles within a second of crawling. A chatbot also takes
over communication, providing real-time visibility to both the candidate and
the hiring manager. From resume screening to interviewing and onboarding, the
software can automatically handle all these functions while matching the
suitable candidates to the right post for maximum productivity. Presently,
several organizations are introducing these capabilities in their recruitment
system through PeopleStrong's Alt Recruit and Workday to see incremental
results.
Focus on Recruitment Marketing
Traditionally, organizations have focused on job
boards, job fairs, and other print media for attracting talent. However, local
recruitment ads no longer cut when you have the option of hiring candidates
from across the world. Instead, it's better to focus on creating an
employee-centric online presence by investing in a branding strategy for your
organization. Become active in various social communities where your
"ideal" candidates are likely to hang out to attract individuals that
match your company's vibe. Creating a separate function for recruitment
marketing can help accelerate this process and even prove to be a turning point
for your existing recruitment process.
Recruitment Scientist
Returning to Kung-Fu Panda, I'd like to quote
something here. Master Shifu said, "If you only do what you can do, you
will never be more than who you are right now." I find this statement to
be especially true for the recruiting space.
Take the example of technical recruiters or
recruitment specialists. This is one of the most abused terms in the present
scenario. In fact, the recruitment specialists who ruled the roost in the past
couple of years will either fade away or shift to the role of recruitment
coordinators while AI takes over the core recruitment process.
In the meanwhile, another coveted position would
arise – of recruitment scientists who work closely with business leaders to
create qualified job profiles and possess the capability of having technical
conversations with candidates. This will help reduce the hiring lead time, cost
of hiring, and, most importantly, business leaders will get more productive
hours from members who spend at least 15% of their time interviewing.
Many organizations like us have created such an
ecosystem where recruiters are directly able to manage hiring for entry-level
candidates without the involvement of the business. The recruitment scientist
knows the actual task and evaluates candidates with the business hat instead of
the HR hat.
Location-Based Compensation
The pandemic has created extreme financial pressure
on organizations while also leading to new and remote working models. Several
organizations reduced operations and laid off employees in 2020 to keep the
wheels turning. Additionally, some organizations are now introducing
location-based compensation or a differentiated compensation strategy to reduce
costs.
To make this model work, you first need to fix a
base pay for a particular role or skill to ensure parity. Additionally, there
can be a location-based allowance, which is based on the living costs of the
area where the employee is located.
The model helps in several ways. First, with remote
hiring, it's possible to recruit talent from Tier 2/Tier 3 cities. These
individuals needn't move to the metros and can continue working from their
location - which saves them hassle and cost. From an organizational point of
view, it becomes possible to address the talent crunch. Additionally, remote
employees are likely to stick for a longer duration even at a lesser
compensation, as they needn't incur any additional expenses to move to the
city.
Planned Workforce Management
Organizations have been trying to create a diverse
and inclusive workforce for years. However, they haven't succeeded due to
various reasons. With remote hiring, it becomes possible to focus on these
elements to become an equal opportunity employer. For instance, if an
organization intended to hire specially-abled individuals but couldn't because
of the existing office infrastructure, that hurdle can now be overcome by
giving an equal opportunity to people who can work from the comfort of their
personal settings.
To reduce costs, recruiters will also focus on
hiring fewer individuals. They will prefer employees who are subject-matter
experts or multi-talented to bring more value to the table.
Parting Thoughts
While the trends shared above might look ordinary,
the results can be genuinely transformative depending on the seriousness with
which they are implemented. Eventually, you have to follow the "Common
Sense" approach to build a new and focused recruitment strategy centered
on candidate value proposition, talent pooling, and primary hiring sources
augmented with advanced metrics to improve the overall productivity. I like to
call it the 5W approach: Who, When, What, Why & Where. Eventually,
organizations that follow a proactive and common-sense approach to recruitment,
coupled with intuitive decision making and cultural alignment, will emerge as
the recruiting leaders in their space.
Article Source:
Originally written for PeopleMatters.
