Making decisions around talent acquisition technology are not as simple as they used to be. Ten years ago, organizations leveraged ATS systems and job boards to support their recruiting needs. Today, the options for investing in talent acquisition solutions seem endless. Companies must decide if they need employer branding solutions, sourcing solutions, recruitment marketing platforms, job distribution solutions, semantic search solutions, social recruitment solutions, online reference checking, CRM solutions, job-matching, background screening, video interviewing or onboarding (and this isn’t even the full list). How can companies determine what solutions they need to find the best talent? Is it necessary to have EVERYTHING or just the basics?
Understanding talent acquisition technology is critical, considering the fact that one-third of enterprise companies are increasing their recruitment technology budget over the next 12 months. The first step for companies looking to navigate through the talent acquisition landscape is to take a look at their current process. Companies need to think about their internal talent challenges and identify their key requirements for investing in technology. For example, if you do not have high-volume recruitment needs, chances are you don’t need a solution focused on high-volume recruitment. While some categories of technology are a “must-have” for some companies, they may only be a “nice-to-have” for others.
When evaluating different technology options, ask yourself the following questions about:
- Improved Efficiencies:
-Is this solution improving efficiencies?
-Does it make life easier for recruiters, hiring managers and candidates?
-Does it help to bridge the gap between recruitment and other areas of the business?
If recruitment technology looks cool but does little to actually improve how you identify and attract talent, it might be worth reconsidering. Companies need solutions that will address their specific challenges in recruitment and align with corporate objectives.
- Candidate Experience:
-Does this solution provide a positive candidate experience?
-Are you able to measure the candidate experience?
Organizations of all sizes are looking for ways to engage with candidates on a daily basis. In fact, nearly 70% of leading companies include the candidate experience in their future-looking talent acquisition planning activities. Technology solutions should provide a simple experience that encourages better communication and engagement between employer and candidate.
- Analytics:
–What information and data do we need to provide to hiring managers, business leaders and key stakeholders?
As companies get smarter about talent analytics and its importance to overall HCM strategies, recruitment analytics must be a priority. Companies should consider solutions that provide easy-to-get information about how, where and why you are hiring talent.
- Mobile:
-What mobile solutions do you need?
-How can candidates apply for a job through their mobile devices?
Mobile is something every company is talking about but few do well. A true mobile solution will provide more than just capabilities for recruiting professionals, it will offer solutions for candidates to apply for jobs and hiring managers to approve jobs and candidates.
We are excited about some of the talent acquisition research that will launch in the next few months. Kyle Lagunas is publishing a very comprehensive talent acquisition vendor landscape report that will help you with some of these decisions and we are launching some business case templates to guide you through these decisions. Let us know if you have any feedback!
–Madeline Laurano, VP of Talent Acquisition and Principal Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@Madtarquin
