The Solution to All Your Recruiting Bottlenecks Starts with Your HR Technology

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Recruiting and hiring remains the number one focus for your CEO and a continued struggle for current recruiting teams. I’m here to tell you the fault isn’t your recruiters. They are smiling and dialing and searching and sourcing the web looking for passive candidates. The failure is in the technology you are using to recruit, distribute and fill your job openings.

Since I first started recruiting in 2001, not much has really changed. Our applicant tracking systems haven’t evolved. They are still for storing electronic resumes and online applications for the purposes of compliance. These HR technologies aren’t innovating the recruiting process. In fact, they are doing the opposite. The technologies designed in the 1990’s are hurting our recruitment efforts and sourcing of the best talent. Outdated technology limited by an antiquated applicant tracking system offers nothing but a roadblock to finding those purple squirrels.

The technology, not your recruiters, is the main reason your team is failing.
A recent Aberdeen report lists the top talent acquisition pressure as shortage of critical skills in hiring and recruiting. Seventy-seven percent of surveyed companies listed a critical shortage as a key driver in their human capital activities. And by critical skills shortage, I don’t mean your recruiters’ but the outdated technology and systems you are using to find talent. It’s like running a 100-meter dash wish a potato sack or tied to a partner like a three-legged race.

Something has to change.
Companies who want competitive advantage must recognize the need for improved technology systems that will acquire the human capital required for success in today’s marketplace.

Recruiters who understand the need for new systems and platforms to properly mine the talent pool are the ones who are searching for solutions. However, often companies reward and celebrate the risk-averse instead of realizing the value and promoting those recruiters, HR and staffing innovators who are taking risks to truly step out of the box and seek new strategies to acquire the hidden gems from the talent pool.

With the plethora of options available, there has never been a better time for companies to invest in recruitment technology with a system that will leverage the opportunity to hire, engage and recruit a savvy and fast moving group of job seekers who are eager to work at your company.

What are the key factors that companies and recruiters are seeking when they look for new solutions in HR technology? The Aberdeen Group report identified four areas of need that organizations are expecting as they consider innovative technology for their recruiting needs (See Figure 2). These are mobile, talent communities, analytics and social integration.

If companies want to maintain their competitive advantage and recruit top tier talent, they must implement new technology that will be mobile-ready, manage the talent communities well, provide customized reporting and tracking and integrate social capabilities. After all, these are the sweet spots for any successful purple squirrel finding recruiter. Take away the capability to properly drive these key areas of need in the recruitment process and you are limiting your HR team to a pool of Fred Flinstone job seekers.

Would you agree that these areas are the top priorities for you as you search for solutions to update your recruitment technology?

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.