Getting Real With Roses

Are You Ready for Hiring in 2018?

A new year offers a new start. For recruiters, the new year is the perfect time for a reset. It’s a moment for reassessment and an opportunity to discard any activities, systems and processes that didn’t perform as well as anticipated. Managers looking to improve job recruitment practices in the New Year will probably consider the use of tech as an additional tool for success. This might include software solutions, CRM tools or experimentation with artificial intelligence (AI) applications. While each holds the promise of more efficient processes and systems, and knowing such technologies will continue to define all industries, how should recruiters prepare for the coming year? With people power, of course.

Tug of War
Leading with the human element may not feel like the first choice considering the availability of so many new technologies, but recruiters should not overlook their most-powerful recruitment tool, assessing people and their skillset. Practice makes perfect and few can compare with those tasked with recruiting. Yet many in the business still feel the desire to look outside for improvement. By choosing to purchase another app for efficiency or placing too much reliance on invisible recruitment through certain job boards or LinkedIn InMail, these recruiters put greater emphasis on systems, than the human element of recruiting.

Embrace the Human Element
Although some days it can feel like tech runs the individual, people still control the recruiting process. The human element assumes the responsibility for executing a system, whether that’s populating the CRM, crunching the numbers or doing data clean up. If technology ever fully displaces the human aspect of recruitment, there is a potential to erect a barrier between the very individuals we wish to influence and connect with.

Additionally, humans also can create and build upon successful systems using effective processes designed to improve the efficiency of the system. By applying the human element to new technologies, systems and processes, recruiters can benefit from people power and increase their ability to protect the pipeline. Tech alone will never replicate the human elements of recruiting like employee, client or talent retention. Instead, staffing agencies need to cultivate good people who are ready to build and maintain relationships. This effective pairing of technology and critical human input improves the process for both recruiters and clients.

Better Services in 2018
As you plan for the New Year, remember liberal application of the human element remains critical for establishing the relationships that will allow us to understand the needs of those we represent, something impossible to replicate using technology alone. For those looking to create better systems for 2018, it’s time to embrace the newest technologies with a thoughtful eye toward the human element. Successful businesses of the human kind become achievable when people and technology pair with better systems and processes.

This article is brought to you by Staffing Kansas City, a full-service Kansas City employment agency that provides contract-to-hire, direct hire and contract employment placement services.