Once upon a time, if you wanted a job you had to scour the newspapers every day and personally hand out printed CVs to prospective employers. Now, of course, things have drastically changed, and if someone from the past were to witness this today, they’d be downright surprised and in awe.
Recruitment in its simplest form dates back to the Romans who employed recruiters to find soldiers for military service. Fast forward to World War II, when there was a sudden urgency to fill vacancies left by those who joined the armed forces. This labour crisis planted the seed of modern recruitment and had agencies sourcing people through notice boards, newspapers, and word of mouth. Even after the war ended, these recruitment agencies continued to find work for the returning soldiers.
The rise of online recruitment
Since then, recruitment has taken a life of its own. From handing out printed CVs to using
artificial intelligence (AI) to shortlist candidates – the rise of the Internet has shaken up traditional recruitment practices.
In 1994, the first public job search engine went live; Monster Job allowed job seekers to browse an extensive jobs database from a web browser. Ease of use and access to a large number of available jobs made these boards an instant success, rendering print ads in newspapers and notice boards almost outdated. Over the years, e-recruitment agencies sprouted everywhere, giving rise to a new requirement for automating the available database. This led to the birth of what we call the ATS or Applicant Tracking System.
Meanwhile, desktop computers, mobile phones and the Internet became immensely popular. This allowed candidates to hunt, interact and communicate with organizations over phone calls and emails alongside the traditional in-person meetings. Now you could just email your CV without having to trudge along physically to the office to drop off your printed one.
The dawn of AI and social media
Online job boards dominated the recruitment industry for close to a decade. With the turn of the millennium, we saw the rise of Web 2.0 and social media; we also saw the emergence of artificial intelligence and the use of programmatic automation in the hiring process.
In 2003, LinkedIn heralded a new way of talent sourcing and hiring. Recruiters and seekers got instant access to an infinite amount of information and resources. However, this also meant having to sift through and process crazy amounts of data. Enter AI.
Today, through technologies like AI and machine learning, most administrative tasks associated with recruitment have been taken care of. For example, AI helps hiring managers generate better job descriptions, screen candidates, send out customized emails to candidates, and even update them with the status of the application.
Covid and virtual recruitment
COVID-19 has impacted industries worldwide, with recruitment being no exception. While there were losses and job cuts, on the other hand, the ongoing pandemic accelerated shifts in the hiring landscape that was already underway. What changes do we see in recruitment because of the pandemic? Virtual hiring has gone mainstream, with the entire recruitment process—from sourcing to interviewing candidates—going online. In this brand-new virtual world, video is a clear winner. According to a Jobvite survey, 67% of recruiters say they use video to interview job candidates, while 40% believe video interviews will be the norm in the future. Additionally, a recent Indeed study reports that remote jobs have grown by 966% between April 2020 and April 2021, and organisations worldwide are starting to embrace this new trend.
Gone are the days of job fairs and walk-ins. Today, recruiters and hiring managers are prowling around social media looking for suitable candidates and finding them with the help of AI. As most hiring processes shift online, businesses globally are scaling up their investment in automation and AI. AI tools and machine learning can augment the hiring process by helping recruiters assess resumes, skills and cultural fit. Among other things, these tools can scan CVs, screen candidates according to their qualifications and skills, and even rank them.
With the job market opening up again, the need for technology has increased many-fold.
The future of hiring
The talent market is competitive today, and technology gives you the edge you need to bring on the right people. From using AI to scrape data for talent sourcing to screening candidates and keeping them engaged – today, technology has the power to enhance your hiring process in multiple ways. This allows recruiters to focus on the human connection, which tech simply cannot replace or replicate.
At Spottabl, we’re combining the best of both worlds with a technology platform that is built on AI and machine learning, as well as human intervention to do what technology will never be able to accomplish. An ideal candidate may not look good on paper but may be fully aligned with the hiring company’s mission and vision. With our multipronged approach, such candidates can’t slip through lines of code.
