Robots Aren’t Ready To Replace Talent Acquisition Specialists

By Joe McCormack in hr.com

Thirty years ago a large recruiting firm would have employed specialists with information technology and library science degrees to identify passive candidates for difficult-to-fill positions.

This was true when I worked for Arthur Young Executive Resource Consultants (now Ernst & Young) in New York. Today, the internet enables a typical recruiter to gather the same information with a laptop in a day instead of a week in the library with professional support. Association membership lists, conference attendance rosters and programs, annual reports and gigabytes of additional information are available to make talent acquisition a more efficient process.

Websites like LinkedIn and Indeed, which didn’t exist a generation ago, offer a large and ever-growing resume bank that includes people who aren’t necessarily on the job market. It seems like we are heading toward a scenario where recruitment could be accomplished by a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI). But that Is not the case. At least not yet.

The future of talent acquisition will include these resources and more, including artificial intelligence to comb thousands of online records for pertinent information on qualified candidates. Still in its infancy for recruiting in my experience, I believe AI will become a more effective talent acquisition tool in the future.

Other major factors in the future of talent acquisition include the now common practice of zoom meetings with clients and stakeholders, as well as first and sometimes second round candidate interviews, saving time and the cost of travel for all concerned, not to mention the cost of dry cleaning.

The trend of working from home, required by the pandemic — but now a common practice — enables an employer to seek talent across a much broader geographic range for many positions. It may also eliminate the expense and risk of family relocation, which has derailed many a good search in the eleventh hour because of unforeseen complications.

That said, artificial intelligence and video conference technology are no substitute for human creativity and connectivity. A well-designed AI should be able to easily identify if a candidate has the needed skills for a position, but a recruiter’s intuition and judgment to ensure a good fit would be challenging for a software program to duplicate. Often, an exceptional candidate needs to be courted to look at a new opportunity. Persuasion and persistence are part of the human equation, and something an AI would likely not be able to do.

Maintaining ongoing personal contact with placed candidates and cultivating a reliable network of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color, etc.) sources to meet diversity, equity and inclusion mandates are important. Collaborating with the hiring authority to open doors for conversations with industry or professional sector thought leaders can be effective tools in a recruiter’s portfolio. As technology improves, recruiting becomes ever more efficient, but with all the obstacles in the road and challenges along the way, we aren’t ready for driverless talent acquisition. Yet.