Industry Research Summary: The Future of Recruitment Technologies 2021-22

Successfully recruit talent in a time of high turnover

The on-again, off-again "war for talent" is back on in various nations, especially the United States. 

In the U.S., a record-high 4.4 million people, or 3% of workers, quit their job in September 2021, as part of a trend that some are calling the "great resignation."
 

As a result of these and other developments, talent acquisition professionals are under intense pressure to hire quality employees who can be retained over time. To accomplish this, many are leaning more heavily on talent acquisition technologies to help them quickly and efficiently fill vacancies with qualified candidates. 

HR.com HR Research Institute Conducted a survey, called “The Future of Recruitment Technologies,” in the fourth quarter of 2021. To study how efficient are HR departments in availing the features talent acquisition (TA) technologies offer, how organizations that use TA technologies more effectively differ from those that are less effective users, how TA technologies are most likely to be used in the near-term future, etc.

Highlights from the survey:

Finding #1: Most companies use few of the talent-acquisition-related technologies that are now available 

Although virtually all respondents (97%) say their organizations use some type of TA technology, only three talent-acquisition-related technologies are currently used by more than half of the respondents:

1. applicant tracking systems (68%)
2. background checking (61%)
3. video conferencing (60%)

Just under half (45%) use an employee referral system and 38% social media tools. Finding #2: Most organizations struggle with TA, especially with the time it takes to fill a position

Only about half of organizations report that the quality of their hires is above average or excellent. The news is even grimmer in other areas. Only a third say their ability to control cost of hires is above average or excellent, and a mere 26% give their organizations high marks in the area of time to fill a position.

#Finding 3: The proportion of regrettable hires is alarmingly high in some organizations

While no hiring process will get it right 100% of the time, it would be fair to expect 80% or more of the new hires to be good choices. However, only half of organizations have that level of success. Just over one-fifth (22%) say 60% to 79% of new employees are worthy of being rehired (in other words, 21% to 40% of new hires were regrettable hires). Worryingly, 24% say they would rehire fewer than 60% of the employees hired in the past year.

Finding 4: Fewer than half rate the overall quality of their organization’s talent acquisition-related technologies positively

Given the amount of attention talent acquisition technologies have received in the past decade, one might hope that by now most companies would feel positively about their systems. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Only 42% of respondents describe their talent acquisition technologies as good or excellent.

There are three main factors that might be causing firms to have a disappointing experience with talent acquisition technologies. First, as we've reported, talent acquisition itself remains a challenging process in an era when TA is a high priority.

Second, talent acquisition processes are complex and best practices will vary from firm to firm. Third, HR might not have the budget to regularly upgrade its technology. 

To learn much more about the survey on Future of Recruitment Technologies 2021 and to get key insights and 9 strategic takeaways, we invite you to read the complete report here:
   

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