Is the future of recruitment a mix of
automation and human interaction?

IT and Tech developers, engineers and designers are the rockstars of the 21st century, but in some ways, they’re still treated as commodities or looked at as nuisances. This is especially seen in the way recruiters and hiring manager approach them. IT and tech professionals are not that different from marketing or sales specialists, so why are they treated as goods that can be shipped from one job to another? Can a mix of AI or automation and human interaction improve the methods of approaching talent?

The rules of recruiting IT and Tech candidates have changed

Online recruitment really does take up a lot of space when we are looking for jobs. It’s not just the landscape of the job market that has changed over the past years, but the way people handle the whole process of a job change is different. This is especially noticeable in IT and tech recruitment, where most are passive candidates who aren’t actively looking for a new job. 

Even then, they’re bombarded by recruiters with connection requests on LinkedIn and emails with job offers from all around the globe. Technology has not only made it easier for recruiters to find the talent, but it’s also made it almost too easy to engage with them as well. This means that less time is spent on actively searching for the right people for the job, while more time is spent on colossal nurture campaigns that target extensive target demographics. Sometimes you’ll hear about developers who’ve received job proposals that required experience with software technology they’ve never worked with. The war for IT and Tech talent is well and truly on!

AI in IT recruitment is gaining ground

Development in technology has changed our way of seeing and being in the world. That is why you can find a myriad of companies who offer new ways of working and recruiting by the help of technology. Everyone's focusing on optimising the recruiting process. Some companies are trying to take recruiting to the next level by developing software based on AI. AI sourcing is in its infancy, where search tools only need a specific set of search criteria to find potential candidates. Some even remove all human interaction in the recruitment process, starting from the search and selection phase all the way to the first on-site interview. Everything is done by intelligent systems that process, evaluate and rate the candidates.

Of course, this has a significant implication on the human aspect of recruiting. When you take out the human element of search and selection, the process becomes an automated exercise that is based on keywords, job titles, skills etc. The human eye and human reasoning that can distinguish and filter the information is taken out of the equation. There is no doubt that AI sourcing will become the norm because it helps recruiters focus on human interactions with the candidates while spending less or almost no time on manual candidate sourcing. We believe that the recruitment process needs the human element to be effective because social interactions and discussions are necessary for both client and candidate to deduct if it’s the right job for the right person - or the right company for the candidate.

Recruitment is still a game of cat and mouse

AI in recruitment is not going to take over the act of job searching slowly. As an active candidate, you will still be able to find lots of jobs and employees by using search engines and job boards. Furthermore, we are absolutely convinced that technology can never replace mouth to mouth dialogue between people. Dialogue manifests the perfect match.

Matching an IT and tech candidate with a company is like a romance. It’s all about getting seduced and being courted to, so sweet music can appear. The seduction is a result of continuous communication between manager, company and candidate. Thus, technology will never replace traditional physical recruiting. It will, to some extent, be able to change our ways of identifying and selecting and maybe even interviewing candidates. 

But recruiting is not like buying a product online, where the best job has to match the best candidate. Interactions between a hiring manager, a team manager and a candidate will trump a search and selection process done by a robot or AI when it comes to evaluating a candidate and determining if he or she is the right fit for the job and the company.

In dialogue, whether it be meetings, phone calls, emails or other communication tools, the candidate can ask questions and learn about the essential nuances of the job. Specific jobs and specific candidates are a bit more unpredictable and emotional. They often have questions, thoughts and the need for dialogue. These are aspects of IT recruitment that technology and AI cannot replace. 

AI sourcing will not replace traditional IT recruitment

There is no doubt in our minds that there will be more and more search machines that can pinpoint jobs and candidates. It will be more comfortable and easier to find the general candidate or position, but human hiring managers and recruiters will still be the main engines in the recruiting process. AI and automation do add value to the process, there’s no doubt about that – and it does make a difference in the world of recruiting. Automated search tools are time-effective and allow recruiters and hiring managers to focus on individual candidates and gives ample opportunity to really zoom in on the potential rockstars! 

Recruiting and hiring is all about negotiating, listening, understanding and catching the signals and facets between client and candidate. This is where we see the difference between AI or automation and humans. To be able to identify a job or a candidate is not really that difficult. Matching the perfect job or the ideal candidate is more difficult and complicated to do. It takes years of experience with recruiting and hiring to be able to identify and hire the right candidate for the job. 

This is why we hardly cannot sleep due to pure excitement over all of the romances we have daily. We’re not just trying to pat ourselves on the back and romanticise our own effect on recruiting. Hiring managers are just as instrumental, if not more critical than recruiters when it comes to identifying if the candidate is the right fit for the job.

We want to offer the best from both worlds no matter if we’re recruiting for a client or finding a job for one of our IT candidates. When we start a recruiting process, our goal is to contribute significant value to our clients and the candidates that we are in contact with, because we understand the delicate position they’re in. If they’re passive candidates, they don’t want to be flooded with endless messages, and if they’re actively looking for a new job, we must guide them towards the right position.

Our contribution is in building relationships that are based on knowledge, understanding of cultures and understanding the talent’s motivation and we’re primarily focused on building trust with all the candidates and clients who are in touch with Kold+Partners.