Articles

Even in the Age of Recruiting Automation, Manual Processes Persist

We might be living in the age of automation, but try telling that to today’s busy TA teams. According to their responses to a recent Talent Board/JobSync research survey, significant numbers of them are still conducting manual work and/or manual data entry at practically every stage of the recruiting process:

  • 59% are doing so during the Application stage.
  • 51% are doing so during Offers and Onboarding.
  • 48% during the Interviewing stage.
  • 48% during Screening/Assessment.
  • And 46% during Sourcing.

Manual data entry is cropping up in other areas of recruiting as well: 43% said it’s happening at the Candidate Attraction stage; 40% said it’s occurring during Candidate Communications; and 32% said it’s happening during Candidate Feedback.

No offense to all of those great HR tech developers out there, but something’s really wrong here. That something, as our respondents told us and as I wrote in my previous post, is a lack of sound integration.

Integration Platforms To the Rescue

Conducted in partnership with JobSync, creators of the first-ever Talent Acquisition Automation Platform (TAAP), our latest survey gathered input from nearly 250 recruiters and TA/HR professionals across the world, who told us quite candidly that recruiting technologies are widely in need of better integration if they’re ever going to live up to their full promise and potential.

As we write in our full survey report (available for download here), until recruiting tech companies work more closely with their customers in designing and redesigning their products, TA teams would do well to consider implementing an integration platform that builds connections between all of the tools in their tech stack while also incorporating their customized processes and workflows. Such a platform far surpasses the partial integrations that companies often invest in between only one or two recruiting tools.

To be realistic, many TA teams are likely going to spend some nominal amount of time each month doing a bit of manual work, no matter how sophisticated recruiting tech becomes or how well-integrated these tools are. However, the data points above show that too many teams are way beyond “nominal” when it comes to manual workarounds.

A truly reliable integration platform also helps to solve another issue: the lack of integration options focused on solving front-end recruiting challenges such as talent sourcing and engagement and a smooth application process. Sure, you can find a pretty healthy number of integration services for the back-end of your recruiting and HR processes. And you can get your hands on some partial integrations from ATS vendors and job boards for front-end recruiting challenges. But not nearly as many … and they’re not nearly comprehensive enough. Often, the more you try to close their gaps, the more problems they create.

Recruiting Tech May Be Problematic, But It’s Here To Stay

Concerns over integration problems actually keep roughly 20% of our survey respondents from adopting new recruiting technologies. But that’s not their biggest issue. Nearly 30% said cost and ROI are their main concerns, and 23% cited concerns over ease-of-use and recruiter utilization levels. Concerns over tech reliability are an issue for 19% of respondents.

In addition, when we asked respondents to rate the ease-of-use of the recruiting technologies they use, 42% said it was good but not great. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement.

Obviously, these are troubling statistics and recruiting technology developers need to address them if they really want to secure their future success. However, even in the face of these problems, recruiting tech is undeniably beneficial and increasingly necessary for busy TA teams. They need these technologies to effectively compete for talent and keep pace with speed at which the current talent market is moving and changing. And, when they’re fully integrated and functioning the way they were intended, recruiting technologies make a huge positive contribution to both the recruiter and candidate experiences.

To learn more about how TA teams are feeling about and leveraging recruiting tech, download our new research report, Are Recruiting Technologies Delivering on Their Promise and Potential?

Also, join us for a webinar on October 20th, 2022 at 2 pm EST where I’ll speak with Leah Daniels, Chief Commercial Officer at JobSync about this new research we’ve released.

Be safe and well.

Kevin W. Grossman, Talent Board President

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