At the HLG winter conference, Heiko Bruhn had the pleasure of leading a roundtable entitled “Digitalisation in HR and the impact on finding talented people”.

With the current shortage of skilled workers, the advance of intuitive recruiting tools and intelligent software for the detection and evaluation of candidates seems unstoppable. This is related more to big companies than to start-ups. They count on their network, but are more and more, faced’ with the shortage of talented’ people on the labour market.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the hottest topics in business right now. AI is not only a future trend; it is already crucial part of procedures in various companies.

But what does it mean?  AI is not uniformly defined as a term. One often speaks about ‘machine learning’. This denotes procedures using computer algorithms that learn from data, recognise patterns or desired ones to show behaviours without making each individual case explicit was programmed.

AI has already started to make its way into organisations as well as in HR. As HR is using a huge amount of data when reviewing candidates and talents, AI can play a new and central role as it processes this mass of data more rapidly, providing standard analysis using algorithm and collating data in a user-friendly manner. The most impacted area of HR is the recruitment process that already uses AI assistance in big companies. Areas you can find in Candidate sourcing; resume screening and in the recruitment process themselves. After having shortlisted candidates, the first interview and assessing is next. AI can perform preliminary questioning and screening interviews.

Regardless of which electronic tools you use to find and select candidates, one thing is certain: To find new talent, you need innovative methods and in-depth knowledge. The reason: Digital Natives (= Generation Y/Millennials) entering the job market. This generation born between 1980 and 2000 is described as living immersed in technology and “surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones,  and  all   the   other   toys   and   tools   of   the   digital   age”. For some, this new generation predicts a fundamental change in the way young people communicate, socialise and create as well as in their behaviour, qualifications and expectations. Meaning that the way people think, and process information is different from previous generations.  With the age of internet, “digital natives” are used to getting information instantly.

Due to the rapid growth of social networks, online communities and the ever-better information services promoting new advertised positions (job alerts or job agents), job seekers need less and less energy of their own to spend on a job search. Instead of looking on your own, new technology and algorithms strengthen the lack of skilled workers, which has been complained about for years, has increased self-confidence of qualified specialists. However, this new type of behaviour – I call it consumer like -recruitment – also requires a rethink when approaching candidates.

GenSearch has developed a new concept of recruitment: “Find and Bind”. If you would like to find out more, please contact us.

CONCLUSION – One thing is certain: in order to find new talents, innovative approaches and in-depth knowledge of the specialist market are required. While recruiting used to work through job advertisements, online job boards and vertical search engines, this classic model of “advertise and apply” – companies advertise jobs and applicants actively apply for them – reaches its limits.

The consensus of the roundtable discussion found that despite AI, the human factor will continue to be vital in the future.  Certainly, small companies continue to recruit through their networks. “Access” to talented candidates is becoming increasingly difficult due to the rising generation of new digital natives.  Specialised consultant boutiques like GenSearch can be supportive in ‘FINDING and BINDING’ your TALENT.