The implementation and optimization of recruiting technologies is going to be a major trend in 2023, judging by new data in Talent Board’s latest candidate experience benchmark research.
- 40% of North American employers plan to buy new recruiting technologies in the year ahead to help them achieve their talent acquisition priorities.
- Among these companies, their top purchases will be for tech related to video job descriptions (63%), job description optimizations (55%), candidate experience surveys (45%), text-based recruiting (38%), and virtual campus recruiting (event platform) (37%).
- Purchases of AI-based tools and smart technologies will be particularly robust: 79% will be for tech that removes bias from application and screening processes; 72% will be for tech that measures and predicts employee job-changing behavior; and 57% will be for tech that aids job performance predictions through job simulations.
All of these tech investments make tremendous sense in a talent market as challenging as the current one. Recruiting technologies improve virtually every facet of talent acquisition, from attraction and sourcing (which have become exponentially more challenging in the past two years) to screening and interviewing to offers and onboarding.
At the same time, these technologies reduce the burdens on busy TA teams, giving them the time they need to focus on continuously improving their companies’ candidate experiences. Recruiting technologies are especially advantageous when job requisition volume is rising or at a steadily high level, and in 2022 35% of the teams that participated in our research told us they’re now carrying 30 to 100+ requisitions per recruiter.
One of the most appealing features of many recruiting technologies is that, in addition to making recruiters’ work more efficient and less laborious, they also elevate the quality of the candidate experience. It’s no coincidence that most of the companies delivering the highest rated candidate experiences in our 2022 benchmark research have made significant investments in recruiting tech, including AI-based solutions.
The Rules of Attraction: Communication & Engagement
Two of the most important advantages that recruiting tech offers employers are improved candidate communication and engagement. In the current talent market, these advantages are pure gold because communication and engagement are more important than ever. Workers have quit their jobs in droves or are planning to do so and are seeking out work and companies that actually reflect their own interests, goals, and values. They’re looking for jobs that offer greater purpose and meaning.
As a result, employers need tools and technologies that will help them communicate with and engage job seekers earlier in their searches, reach candidates through their preferred channels, showcase what makes their jobs and workplace cultures unique, and allow interested candidates to research and apply to jobs more easily.
There’s simply no way that TA teams can do all of this critical communication and engagement work manually or on their own. Teams that leverage the right tools and tech will have the upper hand in drawing new talent to their door. Once again, Talent Board’s 2022 benchmark research reveals some noteworthy trends in this area, including:
The rise of text-based recruiting systems. Sixty-six percent of the companies delivering North America’s highest rated candidate experiences used a text-based recruiting system this year. This is a higher percentage than all other companies in our research combined, but the overall number of companies using text-based recruiting systems has increased steadily since 2020.
Interestingly, text-based job alerts and text-to-apply notifications increase candidates’ positive sentiment and perceived fairness about their experiences. This is partly due to the consistency of text-based communications, which are more reliable than emails that frequently go left unchecked or get weeded out by spam filters. When candidates launched a job application from a text, there was an 86% increase in their 4-star and 5-star ratings (out of 5) of the employer’s application process.
The highest rated candidate experiences leverage chatbots and AI-based tech. Talent Board has seen a 31% increase in the use of chatbots since 2020 among companies participating in our annual survey, and the companies delivering the highest rated candidate experiences in 2022 are all utilizing more AI-based technologies than all other companies combined. Chatbots are now being used across virtually all phases of the recruiting process, freeing up recruiting teams to focus on engagement and relationship building with the most promising candidates.
There are plenty of other insights into recruiting technology and what differentiates the best candidate experiences from the pack. So be sure to download our 2022 benchmark research report here. You can read our first 2022 CandE research takeaway post here.
I’ll be sharing more of the report’s Top 10 Takeaways in future posts. Until then, be safe and well.