The talent acquisition and hiring industries are at a historical inflection point. The global pandemic supercharged the pace of digital transformation over the last two years. Then came the Great Resignation. Simultaneously, the deployment of artificial intelligence into the hiring process has become a growing source of anxiety despite the recognition that traditional methodologies simply will not scale to meet demand at enterprise levels, nor do they function well in our new world of a remote, global workforce.
Remote, online hiring and proctoring processes have gone from nice-to-have, to an absolute necessity. Repeated studies have revealed the same challenges for TA & HR leaders across multiple industries.
Hiring professionals repeatedly cite inadequate data points and a lack of candidate insights. Applicant tracking systems document candidate progress, but do not collect and organize data gathered at each step of the process, from resume to interviews and assessments. TA & HR teams are typically using multiple hiring technologies/software systems, but the lack of integration between systems is a significant problem.
Despite low unemployment numbers, the sheer number of applicants to every posting, qualified or not, has become burdensome. Automated features capable of reducing manual, routine tasks have become a priority. A skill-gap in the talent pools of local/regional candidates – a lack of trusted certifications in business and technical skills – is a growing issue. And an urgent need to improve the speed of the hiring process from application to offer continues to plague enterprises in search of new talent. Too many quality candidates are being lost in the process due to excessive waits and poor candidate experience.
This time of transition provides an opportunity to reimagine, humanize, and democratize talent acquisition and management. At Talview, we believe the solution to this new reality lies within a unified Talent Measurement platform. TA and hiring teams are using multiple solutions in a piecemeal approach. The lack of integration between platforms leaves TA and HR professionals without a trusted, consolidated source of candidate data.
People analytics, workforce analytics, HR analytics – regardless of the terminology, the goal remains the same. Discover and implement a set of reliable, secure digital tools that collect and analyze data gathered throughout the talent lifecycle to reduce the time to hire and cost per hire while improving the overall quality of hire and retention of talent.
An HR analytics solution should include operational reporting as well as strategic analysis and ultimately, predictive analytics. This HR analytics platform will use past candidate data, performance reviews, promotions, turnover, and evolving market data to maximize talent acquisition efficiency and model future workforce planning.
A vital starting point for HR analytics is Talent Measurement. A Talent Measurement platform provides a central, integrated hub of data – from resume to interview and skill/behavioral assessments. With a unified source of data, it becomes possible to add an intelligence layer. Artificial Intelligence, thoughtfully and ethically integrated into the platform, becomes a key component of hiring at scale – screening applicants and providing actionable candidate insights.
There are four key components of talent measurement in the hiring process:
Collating the data gathered throughout the typical hiring process via seamlessly integrated software results in all the information HR and talent acquisition leaders need to hire faster, better, and at scale. This is a talent measurement platform – a customized, digital platform designed to boost performance in screening, assessing, and interviewing candidates while delivering a fair, equitable, accessible, and pleasant experience for talent throughout the hiring process.
Implement a recruitment bot to answer candidate questions, display open jobs, even send assessment invitations on behalf of the recruiting team.
A recruitment bot automates the routine tasks of screening, leaving TA teams to focus on high value conversations with applicants and candidates.
Pre-hire assessments come in many forms depending on the industry and position. Find an assessment solution that is flexible and robust, easy to configure and customize. Types include behavioral, cognitive, learnability, and skill-based, such as coding (a must prior to tech-savvy interviews), typing, automated language test, etc.
Ensuring the integrity of remote testing with a proctoring solution is critical, particularly regarding certifications and assessments. In terms of effective hiring, TA and HR teams should not be expected to conduct comprehensive screenings of technology professionals, they simply don’t have the experience and knowledge required. This is where secure remote assessments come into play.
Simply the remote interview process. A robust solution should be able to automate scheduling, invitations, and tracking. Ideally, it should be able to provide feedback data for interviews, live or pre-recorded. By implementing powerful and effective screening and assessment software, time spent interviewing candidates should never be a waste. Only qualified candidates should make it to the stage of time investment required by interviewing.
By this point of the hiring experience, intelligence and analysis should provide candidate insights into the behavioral, learnability, and performance qualities of talent to identify, recruit, and hire the best-fit candidate for the role. Behavioral insights are too often overlooked but provide key information via natural language processing and psycholinguistic analytics based on established models, such as Big 5 and intrinsic values. An ethical behavior insight solution can provide an understanding of a candidate’s unique personality profile.
A time of disruption is also a time to open new doors of opportunity for everyone. There is an abundance of opportunity amidst the disruption, but companies are struggling with too many blockers and inefficiencies in traditional recruitment methods. In the emerging new normal, companies need to focus on HR analytics and candidate insights: wide-scope, in-depth data beyond a simple list of hard skills and experience. Organizations that figure out how to hire fast and with confidence, while delivering an effective digital hiring experience, will thrive.