Technology simplifies things, but we need human touch
Working from home during the Covid-19 lockdowns accelerated the uptake of technology that gave people the ability to access company resources while communicating and collaborating with colleagues, partners, and customers remotely.
Everything changed from faceto-face and became webcam-to-webcam instead and every industry has had to adjust.
The recruitment sector has been particularly affected by the pandemic, but by choosing to embrace technology to streamline business practices it is possible to deliver improved results for the industry and its clients.
However, as we continue to find new ways to use technology to simplify and automate timeconsuming tasks, it’s vital to keep in mind the importance of the human touch and emotional intelligence in finding the right fit for recruitment.
We’re no longer looking just to fill vacancies or hiring skills sets, we’re also assessing company culture compatibility and looking at a range of considerations beyond the current comprehension of an algorithm or a software bot.
Remote interviews are standard practice now, and so recruiters have embraced the technology at their disposal to speed up the processes of screening and shortlisting – making it easier to compile candidate files.
While this has helped recruitment companies become more agile in their hiring processes, making them more responsive to client needs, the reality is that the recruitment industry cannot expect to rely solely on technology to do the work.
Technology can only perform a supporting role in the recruitment function, it cannot replace it entirely. Artificial intelligence might be able to sort through CVs to find a suitable candidate based on skills, but it cannot identify emotional intelligence.
Technology has not been the only change in the last two years. The recruitment industry is changing, the economy is changing and the workforce is changing too. It has become a candidate-driven market and candidates themselves are becoming tougher.
If there’s one lesson that has shone through the dark times of the pandemic, it’s the importance of culture and human connection, both of which have been in short supply working from home under lockdown.
Building culture and establishing meaningful workplace connections is a lot harder to achieve remotely and location must factor into the hiring decision now that there has been a physical return to the workplace across most of the country.
Some of the recruitment processes simply work better off camera and it’s unlikely that this is going to change any time soon.
Nothing beats the in-person interview to get a proper read on the candidate and a feel for their possible fit into the workplace culture through face-to-face interaction. At the same time, the candidate gets an opportunity to view the office and get a feel for the vibe and culture.
In recruitment, balancing the need to achieve efficiency through technology must be countered by the need to retain the human touch in the process of connecting clients with candidates that fit both the job description, and the company culture.