The Future Of Talent Acquisition: What’s Next?

How people, data, AI and automation will impact TA

 

Introduction

In today's rapidly changing job market, human resources management and recruitment are undergoing a profound revolution. With the workforce comprising diverse age groups and generations, HR must adapt to the reality of new working culture and technological advancements.
 

The integration of smarter people management and artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the talent acquisition process, streamlining tasks, and improving the overall candidate experience.

This article has reviewed the latest trends in reports like Korn Ferry’s Talent Acquisition Trends for 2023 as well as other publications from HR leaders such as Patrik Reman. We summarize these trends in this article by looking at the people side and then the data, AI and automation sides.

The People Trends

Korn Ferry identified seven trends on the people side that are impacting talent acquisition and we present the first six, being focused on people and the seventh belonging to the data, AI and automation trends.

1. Internal mobility trend: Professionals are increasingly seeking career growth through lateral moves within their current organizations. Employers will need to focus on developing their current workforce, and offering training programs to upskill or reskill employees for future roles.


2. Continuous employee empowerment: To combat the "Great Resignation," organizations need to prioritize continuous employee empowerment, offering cross-training and opportunities for career development. Investing in internal mobility will help retain top talent and foster diverse pipelines.


3. Collaboration between talent acquisition and talent management: Organizations will strengthen the alliance between talent acquisition and talent management teams, working together to ensure a seamless journey from recruitment to career development and succession planning.


4. Rise of interim workers: The number of professionals opting for short-term gigs and contract work is expected to grow. Companies will need to adapt to hybrid work models, utilizing both full-time employees and interim workers to meet varying workforce needs.


5. Work-life integration: Candidates will seek companies that promote work-life integration, allowing flexible work schedules to accommodate personal responsibilities. Employers will focus on employee well-being, offering inclusive benefits and mental health support.


6. Boomerang employees: The trend of former employees returning to their former companies, or "boomerang employees," is expected to increase. Organizations will focus on maintaining relationships with former workers and leveraging their institutional knowledge.

These are all key people trends that companies can leverage on the people side to make their talent acquisition smarter and deliver a competitive advantage.

Data, AI and Automation in Talent Acquisition

AI-based technology has become a crucial tool in talent acquisition, helping HR teams automate application screening, save time, and improve workload management. AI can analyze big data, identify patterns, and efficiently shortlist candidates based on predetermined criteria. AI also helps remove biases and enhance the quality of hires, ensuring a more inclusive recruitment process.

Recruitment Marketing and Online Recruitment

Recruitment marketing has evolved beyond posting job ads online. With fierce competition for talent, recruiters must use marketing strategies to attract qualified candidates effectively. AI-powered platforms like recruitment agency marketplaces allow easy scaling up and down of agency engagements. Online recruitment has proven effective, especially in targeting the younger demographic, with social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook being significant sources of prospective candidates. While online recruitment offers many advantages, recruiters need to address challenges like cost management and measuring effectiveness to optimize their strategies.

Evidence-based Hiring

Evidence-based recruitment relies on data, science, and evidence-based tools to make informed hiring decisions. General cognitive ability (GCA) has shown to be a robust and versatile screening method for most jobs. Combining GCA with other methods like personality and logical thinking tests enhances predictive validity. Structured interviews, powered by AI, help eliminate biases, ensuring a fair and consistent assessment of candidates. By leveraging evidence-based methods, companies can improve the quality of their hires and reduce turnover.

AI Chatbots

AI-powered chatbots have become valuable tools in talent acquisition, enabling efficient candidate interactions and providing quick responses to common questions. These chatbots can pre-screen candidates, shortlist suitable applicants, and improve the overall candidate experience. Companies must strike a balance between AI automation and maintaining a human connection to ensure a positive candidate journey.

Benefits and Risks of AI and Automation

AI and automation offer numerous benefits for the modern recruiting process. By automating repetitive tasks, recruiters have more time for creative talent acquisition efforts. AI helps reach key performance indicators, such as reducing hiring time and increasing qualified applications. Moreover, AI enables HR teams to identify patterns in recruiters' biases and improve the hiring process continuously.

However, there are risks associated with AI and automation, particularly in candidate experience. Incorrect automated emails or unhelpful chatbots may negatively impact candidates' satisfaction. Companies must be vigilant in ensuring AI algorithms do not introduce biases of their own, and human oversight remains crucial. Organizations should also always control who has access to candidate data and ensure PII is protected.

Via not just AI, automation will continue to shape recruiting, simplifying tasks and improving productivity. Automated candidate nurturing through email campaigns and newsletters allows recruiters to stay in touch with potential candidates efficiently. Companies can save time and money by investing in comprehensive HR and recruitment systems that eliminate the need for external documents and spreadsheets like some of those mentioned above.

Conclusion

The future of talent acquisition is exciting and offers something for all interested professionals. Whether your passion lies with processes and people or AI and automation both are creating a more efficient approach to recruitment. Balancing both people and technology in a balanced humanistic and data-driven approach will enable companies to adapt to the evolving job market, attract top talent, and remain competitive in the future.

Author Bio

Dr. Evan Shellshear is the Managing Director and Group CEO of Ubidy, and an expert in artificial intelligence with a Ph.D. in Game Theory from the Nobel Prize-winning University of Bielefeld in Germany. He has almost two decades of international experience in the development and design of AI tools for a variety of industries having worked with the world's top companies on all aspects of advanced analytical solutions from optimization to machine learning in applications from HR to oil and gas, and robotics to supply chain. He is also the author of the Amazon best-seller, Innovation Tools.