Trying to be human in an artificial world

Talent Acquisition and Technology

When it comes to Talent Acquisition and winning the battle for efficiency we are in danger of losing the war.

LinkedIn, SEEK, individual company Careers Pages and recruitment agencies are struggling to meet job seekers’ expectations in terms of their “recruitment experience”.

Whether the primary aim is to attract potential new employees or to simply screen applicants, the world of algorithms and AI has left a bad taste in the mouth of many job seekers and recruitment has become a “numbers game”, on both sides of the equation. With Google joining in the recruitment game this trend will continue, the question is how to remain human and caring in the world of online applications.

The Numbers Game

Not hearing back from applications and obviously auto generated generic feedback rank as the most common observations when asking job seekers about their application experience. This is consistent across all industries and as applicable for direct applicants as is it to those via agencies. Not knowing why they were not successful or what stage the “recruitment process” is at is frustrating for obvious reasons.

Most importantly, there is an increasing tendency for job adverts to be posted without a contactable person’s details. For candidates, this is a huge problem as very often they have questions they would like to ask before applying which may relate to flexibility and working hours, salary or role scope – details which adverts are so often vague on. This leaves the candidates two choices: apply without knowing if the role is suitable or don’t apply.

The result is that job seekers of all levels have now joined in the “numbers game” approach and are taking a less focused approach to their job search, meaning they are applying to roles with less consideration, as well as for roles their skills match less closely to, simply in hope rather than expectation.

This approach was once the domain of the less experienced and semi-skilled, however from conversations with my network, this is now the reality for highly experienced Executives too, and they don’t like it.

The result of the escalation of the “numbers game?” is that more applications are received by the hiring firm (of increasingly lower relevance) and therefore there are more people to “reject”. Talent Acquisitions teams also remain of a fixed size with fixed capability and therefore look for more efficient ways to “screen candidates”… enter algorithms, keyword search and automatic response, and voila the vicious circle is complete.

We are all guilty to varying extents and should seriously consider the question; how can we remain Human in an increasingly technology and cost driven world?

Lawson Delaney is a leading executive search and professional recruitment firm based in Melbourne. We specialise in recruiting CEOs and leadership teams, and accountants of all seniorities for Accounting firms. Contact us on 03 9946 7300 or support@lawsondelaney.com.au to learn more about how we can assist you with a vacancy or new role today.