AI Recruiter

The Emerging Future of Recruitment

Many recruiters have been inundated with tools purported to be the "next big thing." Yet, none of these tools have truly revolutionized our industry.

The tools we have are practical but not game-changing. For anything to really be game-changing, something fundamental has to change. The tool would need to increase productivity and speed to hire, provide better candidate placements, lower costs, or reduce the need for recruiters. None of this has happened. Our productivity levels have stagnated over the past twenty-five years. Candidate satisfaction has declined. We still struggle to convince the right talent to accept our offers. Recruiting is organized and staffed the same as when I started recruiting decades ago.  

The Tools
The first ATS, back in 1988, and most subsequent tools were innovative adaptations of database and project management tools combined with OCR/fax technologies. They offered ways to move paper resumes into searchable databases. They kept us compliant with legal requirements and provided more accurate reporting. They were functional but did not live up to their promises of speeding up hiring or helping us deal with the increasing volume of resumes. Over the years, vendors added better search algorithms, video interviewing, and skills matching. Today’s suites and specialized tools are powerful and can search the entire Internet for talent. Yet something fundamental must be missing as all the problems we had years ago are still with us – productivity, candidate satisfaction, time to present, and cost.

The Missing Link
Why hasn’t technology solved them? What makes a candidate satisfied? What makes a hiring manager satisfied?  

The root causes of these issues are not technical but psychological and sociological. Current tools have focused primarily on managing volume and enhancing search capabilities but have neglected the deeper psychological dynamics between candidates and hiring managers.

In my experience, intangibles like being candid, listening, reading between the lines, and understanding what motivates make the difference. We can find people and match them exactly to job requisitions but then find them rejected by the hiring manager. This is not a tool problem.

Knowing the psychological barriers to overcome to convince a manager or a candidate is essential to success. Finding appealing candidates is easier when a recruiter understands what a hiring manager needs and wants. Knowing what a candidate is really looking for and what their core capabilities are and then showcasing those when presenting them results in a win. These are not things the tools we now have can do. Nor can most recruiters!