The way we find work is evolving.

For some agencies, recruitment technology can sound a lot like an attempt to replace them.

But, technology does not always have to mean an automated platform.

Microsoft’s introduction of a conversational AI to Twitter should have settled concerns that recruiters will go the same way as the Luddites.

Intended to engage with Millennial users by learning from their interactions, the chatbot soon took to praising Hitler, becoming sexually aggressive and condemning the 9/11 cover-up.

It highlighted that the most important elements of recruitment are irreplaceably human. Negotiation, networking, nurturing relationships… and talent.

Technology to remove traditional recruitment tasks

While recruitment will always remain about people and relationships, technology will help bring them together a whole lot faster.

Recruitment technology expert, Bill Boorman, believes that the biggest disruptors to recruitment are those that can remove the necessary but unskilled elements in the industry.

The Ubers of recruitment have already arrived. They’re the businesses that provide agencies with the likes of online timesheets, self-learning software and platforms to automate admin.

AI candidate screening

Take manual CV screening – one of the most time-consuming components of recruitment and yet most susceptible to human error.

With stacks of CVs hitting recruiter’s inboxes it’s no surprise that the time apportioned to each CV has been whittled down to under 8 seconds.

It’s a bottleneck in recruitment and one that allows credible candidates with poorly constructed CVs to slip through the cracks.

By piecing job requirements and previous hiring decisions, self-learning software can then match candidates against a combination of skills, experience, social media and Google footprints.  

AI software like Arya, Mya and Woo.io source are delivering credible candidates to recruiters doors ready to interview.

Removing the back-office of contract recruitment

The biggest inroads are being made in the world of contract recruitment where the high volumes of admin demanded a tech intervention.

Agencies that continue with archaic practices, do so while eating into their core sales time. The use of paper timesheets for example are time consuming, prone to human error and need constant chasing.

Not to mention the risks that can arise from keeping a paper trail of records.

A quick snap from a camera of your candidate’s working hours and online timesheets are uploaded and approved within seconds.

No more headaches chasing and processing timesheets.

Invoicing, payroll, credit control and all the peripheral back-office tasks involved in contract recruitment have been removed by automated platforms.

Technology is enabling recruiters to recruit by removing the painful routines that used to slow them down.

Technology will replace the unskilled aspects of recruitment and encourage recruiters to focus more on the creative and social sides of the role.

Those that refuse to adopt any innovations will soon be left behind by those that do.