Talent industry innovators from leading organizations gathered at a recent recruiting conference to define the “future of great” in talent acquisition and discuss the latest in recruitment marketing, talent attraction, employer branding, recruiting, and HR tech.
Among the attendees was event panelist and Cielo recruiter Allie Obanion, who shared the below best practices and findings from the conference to help TA professionals recruit more effectively:
Using data to inform hiring managers
A key issue was the importance of having a solid understanding of the current labor market and talent shortage using data. For recruiters, being able to access and interpret labor market data allows them to serve as trusted talent advisors to their organization. Presenting this data to hiring managers in a compelling way can help them set realistic expectations during the hiring process. This is critical, as 56% of TA professionals report unrealistic expectations as a roadblock when working with hiring managers, according to a recent survey from Phenom.
Deploying tech to solve sourcing challenges
A record level of job openings and low unemployment have created increased workloads for recruiters, who now must source a greater number of candidates from a smaller pool of talent. As a result, many are using sourcing platforms such as Hiretual and Visage, which use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other tools to help recruiters quickly source passive candidates.
Many of these providers are also upgrading their capabilities to improve sourcing of diverse and underrepresented or historically excluded talent. Through the use of technology-driven solutions, organizations can deliberately target these types of candidates and assure that the hiring process is inclusive of them, filling roles faster while impacting diversity and inclusion goals for the better.
Improving candidate response rates:
Also discussed were tactics for improving candidate response rates. At the high level, presenters stressed that in today’s candidate-driven market, communications must focus on what their organization can provide to a prospective hire, not what they can provide to the organization.
Other communications tips included:
- Be clear, concise, and include a call-to-action
- Create, compose, and lead – do not leave it open-ended
- Consider using candidates’ names or employer names in subject lines
Here, sourcing technology can also help by allowing recruiters to set up daily and weekly cadences for outreach emails to candidates.
Automation’s role in candidate experience
Although organizations have invested in technology to improve recruiter efficiency, some are slow to embrace automation. Leaders noted that this reluctance may stem from a desire to keep the talent acquisition process human-centered for candidates. However, implementing the right solutions, such as conversational AI, can actually improve candidate engagement by providing them with on-demand, consumer-grade communications. For example, Paradox found that candidates actually showed a higher willingness to respond to a conversational AI assistant with questions, concerns or feedback than to human representatives both in the pre-hire and post-hire stages.
Taking steps to deploy technology effectively, provide a positive candidate experience, and form advisory relationships with hiring managers can go a long way to improve talent acquisition outcomes.
Allie Obanion is a recruiter at Cielo. Connect with them on LinkedIn.
