How Should Teams Take Back Control of Talent Acquisition in 2021? By Embracing Deep Recruitment Technology

We could use many adjectives to describe 2020 (including some choice words that may not be ideal to print). If we had to pick a descriptor that would be universally understood, it would be “chaotic.” 

Over the past 12 months, company executives and recruitment leaders have endured fluctuations in unemployment, budgets, and workplace practices. With so much out of their control, leaders were forced to adjust business strategies to keep their organizations afloat. We don’t know about you, but we’re tired of not being in control — and that stops in 2021.

For teams to stay informed in a period of such drastic behavioral and logistical changes in the workplace, they first need to deepen their understanding of existing organizational bottlenecks in pandemic and post-pandemic hiring. Leaders and stakeholders need to address some important questions, including: 

1. What are our hiring goals? 
2. Based on our goals, what action items will help us reach the right talent?
3. For each open position, how do we build a targeted approach that will reach our intended audience?
4. Do we need this talent now or for the future? How high a priority are these roles?

Recruitment has never been a one-size-fits-all activity, and now more than ever, targeting and personalization will be the most effective ways for hiring teams to get noticed. The increasing digitalization of our everyday environment will also increase content saturation of jobs data across all platforms. Deep technology like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) will emerge as pivotal support systems to help recruiters build genuine and personalized candidate relationships at scale. 

Paying Attention to the Little Things 

If your team is looking for a software engineer with X amount of experience, Y amount of hiring budget, and a limited time to get the job done, recruiters no longer have to cast a wide net and pray that somebody comes along and checks all the boxes. If your team knows what you’re looking for, AI-powered talent sourcing will help you narrow down a talent pool with the highest probability of success. 

Recruitment technology has evolved beyond simple automation and static talent databases. Sourcing supported by ML and NLP technology gives teams the opportunity to be flexible and adaptable by building searches that are specific to existing trends for open reqs or even targeting competitors or similar companies with your desired talent.

These searches can also be customized to account for talent pool diversity, security clearance, and industry-specific skills with more consistency and efficiency. Most importantly, you can stop depending on manual searches through congested social media platforms and job boards, and instead run self-expanding searches that screen millions of candidate profiles across multiple platforms in a matter of minutes.

Preparing for More Than What You Need 

Every organization has its own distinct way of hiring employees and communicating with potential talent. However, we can all agree that hiring teams in 2021 will find more success preparing for pandemic repercussions and recoils sooner rather than later. That means hiring for high-priority roles that need to be filled right now and building high-priority relationships for in-demand roles that will be needed somewhere down the line. 

If teams identify impending opportunities for new talent, they can do one of two things. They can be reactive and wait to source candidates when they have an opening, or they can be proactive and begin nurturing candidates now. With AI recruitment technology, teams can access larger talent pools across borders and easily narrow down candidate lists for future and up-and-coming needs. Whether you’re adding new engagement stages to your pipeline or creating multiple new projects to compare diverse representation across different geographic locations, positioning your talent acquisition process to capitalize on future opportunities is key. 

Stability Via Consistency 

Although the economy continues to recover and job openings are trending positively, no one knows what 2021 will hold. The best way to battle fluctuations is by striving for consistency with your practices and resources. To stay stable, teams need to be consistently aligned with leaders and stakeholders, and the best way to stay aligned is through data transparency and shareability across teams and leadership. Data is often held up in silos, which can make it inaccessible to members of the hiring time where and when they need it.

As we make our way through the 2020s, recruiters will have to embrace data intelligence for real-time problem-solving, market analysis, and process optimizations. With AI sourcing technology tapping into multiple platforms and millions of candidates, hiring teams will have access to consistent data that is continuously updated and refreshed for immediate action. Whether teams want insights into their talent pipelines, detailed information on competition for specific job titles, or the average market value of a talent pool, recruitment technology can centralize diverse sources of information in one location for leaders and teams.

Capitalizing After Chaos

With the onset of the pandemic, many businesses around the nation had to shift their practices and adjust their resources to survive. These changes included digitalizing their tools, shifting to a remote workforce, and more. While the circumstances that led to making these changes were chaotic, companies can now take advantage of new opportunities that were not available in 2020. Some of these opportunities include tapping into a global and flexible talent pool, using social media and other platforms to source, and investing in tools that optimize and improve current tech stacks. Ultimately, organizations that capitalize on these opportunities now will set themselves up for success in the coming year and beyond.

Back With a Vengeance  

With 2020 in the rearview mirror, we are excited to put ourselves back in the talent acquisition driver’s seat for 2021. To take back control of our talent acquisition processes, organizational leaders and recruiters will need to prepare themselves with the right tools and resources to remain efficient and effective. Fortunately, AI sourcing is ready to help us take back control of the talent acquisition process and stay in control for the long term. 

To learn more about how AI sourcing can help you, visit Hiretual. 

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