Increasing Candidate Engagement: Key to a perfect hire

There are several “blind-spots” which result in inefficient resource utilisation in the current recruitment process followed in most industries. Some of these are:

1. Results depend on the Candidate’s Judgement

Current job portals, which are effectively the new form of recruitment funnel prevalent in the process, rely on the candidate to exercise good judgement while applying for a particular vacancy. This has various consequences for the recruiter, the primary and hence most damaging one being the selection of a candidate that may not be very best fit available for a particular opportunity.

[x_pullquote type=”right”]According to Joel Capparella, Former Vice President of Marketing (Yoh), the online job portal process is “really not as efficient as recruiters imagine.”*[/x_pullquote]

2. Little Guidance Available for Candidates:

There is very little guidance available to these candidates when they are out looking for opportunities. This often results in the candidate not fully understanding a job description or their level of compatibility with its requirements. This leads to the same consequences for the recruiter as discussed in point 1.

Validating this phenomenon, Lauren Jones, Director, Talent Acquisitions and Resource Strategy (Volt), said, “while staffing firms may be great at bringing people in, they’re not necessarily uniformly good at continuing the cycle. Only 10% of the firms have a redeployment strategy in order to get previously placed candidates engaged on the next assignment.”*

3.  Overwhelming number of “Opportunities” Available:

The phenomenon of ill-fitting applicants constantly opting for the wrong opportunities is also a result of the sheer volume of opportunities available on these portals today. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that in order to find the perfect opportunity for oneself; one may have to sift through hundreds of less-than-perfect opportunities first. This is bound to result in bad decisions on the part of hopeful candidates, and thus, in turn harmful for the recruiter.

Capparella’s take on this, is that when it comes to avenues such as online job portals, there is a lot to manage, and stay on top of. “What about your homepage? Your content? Many firms have also become comfortable with sourcing ahead of demand with generic job postings. But that type of strategy serves the recruiter not the candidate”, and as it would seem in the long run, not even serving the recruiter so much.*

The scope of AI and Machine Learning:

This is where the potential of Artificial Intelligence to improve the rate of perfect matches between the available opportunities and candidates is exponential. Machine learning can help scan the market for the best opportunities for a candidate, all the while becoming increasingly efficient in identifying the factors directly responsible for the said ‘Perfect Hire’. 

This in turn would free up recruiters to apply their time and efforts more prudently, in terms of both quality and quantity, and allow for the recruitment process to move a lot quicker and smoother at the same time.

*All quotes taken from the Engage 2015 final “Engage Candidates” Panel Discussion.

Based in the City of London, Recruitment SMART is a HR tech startup on a mission to bring disruptive technology to the recruitment industry. They are developing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning based sourcing solutions. Team includes veterans from both the recruitment and tech industries and has client globally in UK, US and APAC. Feel Free to Write to us at info@recruitmentsmart.com