Can talent acquisition exist without technology?

Published on Nov 24, 2017

Is it possible, in today’s world, to recruit talent sans technology? It’s a tough choice and probably isn’t easy. The talent market driven by radical developments is rapidly changing and recruitment is running ahead of time by incorporating newer technologies and methodologies in its day-to-day activities.

From newspaper postings to fliers and now social media and mobile apps, the face of recruitment has changed completely. It is no longer an activity which involves candidates and managers but is a mix of internal and external managerial factors. The new age has completely redefined recruitment. Accordingly recruitment has become more complex than simplified. Companies need new-age tools and methods to keep pace with the highly dynamic talent market.

With the coming of new-age technology, recruitment as a managerial function has improved to an extent. Social media and online job portals have become the ultimate source to recognise potential talent. Similarly, HR managers and heads have a strong understanding of these resources and have entered into contracts with such massive online job databases.

However, the reality is far from being different. The online job portals are nothing but an added expense to company costs. They are neither updated nor innovative in their approach to hiring.

Since job portals are a platform to initiate contact between a recruiter and candidate – it serves little or no purpose in active engagement. Most transactions on such portals are passive thereby driving HR managers to recruit the wrong person. Thus, online job portals need to update their features from both perspectives – the candidates and recruiters.

Recruitment agencies also are relying on such job portals and social media to close requirements. Besides using it for recruitment, hiring agents actively use it to track talent. They identify opportunity in the market and ensure their clients are able to exploit it. One of the major activities that hiring agents do through recruitment portals is derive hiring and talent analytics which help them to potentially screen and shortlist relevant applicants. This helps HR mangers to select candidates without going through tardy screening and sourcing processes.

 

Technology is playing a fundamental role in simplifying the nature of recruitment but at the same time making it complex. The advancement of technology in the talent market is sure to introduce major changes in the years to come.