2020 has been an unprecedented year. Covid-19 has had an astronomic impact on how we see the world and conduct our daily tasks, causing a rapid digital transformation in the workplace.
The staffing and resourcing sector has been particularly impacted this year. Recruitment agencies, HR departments, payroll providers and back office support companies have all faced increased difficulty, with job vacancies rapidly declining while the number of applicants to a single role is higher than ever.
However, technology such as Artificial Intelligence and remote working platforms have risen to the fore and shown us they can help to simplify the complexity and automate some of the more onerous daily tasks like CV-scanning, time-sheeting, background checks, payments processing, job advertising, interviews, and monitoring job boards.
Now that the immediate impact of COVID has had time to settle, this digital-first trend is here to stay.
As a recruitment agency or HR professional, you will need to make sure you’re in step with this change and preparing to make digital a way of life. Here are some of the key areas to consider.
Artificial Intelligence
1) CV Screening
Artificial Intelligence has incredible potential. One great way to use AI to your advantage is setting it to work on screening CVs. In a nutshell, AI can automatically scan a candidate’s CV to identify if they have the right skills required for the job so only the most relevant CVs are put forward for manual review – saving you hours of scanning inappropriate CVs and helping you quickly shortlist the best candidates.
2) Chatbots
Another great way to speed up the information-gathering stage is with chatbots – artificial intelligence software which mimics human speaking. Chatbots can be set up on websites, emails, and social media to collect candidates’ contact information, images, videos, and documents. They’re also great for answering FAQs and scheduling time for the candidate to be interviewed either in person or remotely.
Chatbots can be combined with Sentiment Analysis software to analyse applicant and existing employee sentiment, enabling you to assess everything from the candidate’s enthusiasm to employee flight risk and internal mobility.
3) Programmatic Job Advertising/Job Aggregators
Programmatic job advertising and job aggregators use Artificial Intelligence to crawl career sites, social media, and job boards to purchase, publish, and optimise job ads. The software algorithms analyse the market data and ad tracking on existing sites to uncover the optimal sites and times to post a specific job ad to ensure it reaches the best candidates. Once identified, the programme will automatically schedule and place the ad.
Job aggregators are also great ways to compare your ads with those of your competitors. You can programme the software to compare wages, benefits, and job description content to ensure your listing is competitive and attracting the right people.
4) Talent Rediscovery Software
Whenever you have a new vacancy, talent discovery software can crawl through your resume database to screen candidates who have previously applied for a role. It will compare these candidates to your current listing requirements and automatically contact them if they would make a great fit. This decreases the amount of time and money you need to spend on advertising your role when great candidates are already at your fingertips.
Talent rediscovery software can also be programmed to continually scan social media platforms to search for new employment history for past applicants and update their profiles on your CRM. With this kind of programming, you’ll gain access to increased data on every applicant and the ability to rapidly analyse it all. You can find and store details on everything from how long the candidate was in their previous and current position to whether they were promoted while they were there, allowing you to make more informed decisions before ever contacting an applicant.
HR Software
A priority for anyone who works in the staffing and resourcing sector should be bespoke software which allows you to store all candidate records in one place, with the ability to offer jobs to candidates, track status, and store CVs for talent rediscovery.
Depending on your requirements, the software can be programmed to facilitate the storage, management, and analysis of vacancy records, contracts, offers, employee appraisals, salary reviews, absence management, turnover tracking, training records, diversity reporting, payroll, and so much more.
At RGS, we have significant experience in this area so can help you create your own tailored HR software and applications that can integrate seamlessly into your existing CRM.
Remote Working
COVID has forced many companies to adapt to home/remote-working. For the recruitment and staffing sector, this has meant the increased use of video interviewing and remote working technologies like Zoom, Hinterview, Odro, and Skype.
Although such developments have been necessary this year, we’re sure that remote working technology will continue to thrive in 2021 due to its convenience and efficiency. No matter your location, you can successfully interview a candidate, minimising the delays in the recruitment process. And, if businesses can work remotely full-time, remote technology developments like cloud software and video chats allow employers to access the best talent from across the nation (and even the world)! This kind of tech, accessible from every type of device, holds huge potential – the question is, how might it be integrated with your other systems help you to continue to realise efficiencies in coming months?
Looking to the Future
Remote working and it’s video platforms are here for the long-run, so implementing AI-oriented systems and bespoke HR software to help automate your manual processes will be essential to deal with the new volume of applications as the road to economic recovery begins.
Our expert team have a depth of experience with the HR sector (read our case studies here). Get in touch with us to find out how we can help you transform your tech in 2021.
