Technology in recruitment

News from Signet - 5th March 2014

Jane Blackmore reflects today on the blog of how the recruitment industry has changed in the last fifteen years since she started within it.

Recruitment has changed substantially since I started within it, I remember the days of faxes, postal applications and calling landlines hoping to catch someone on a day off.  Today my desk is *almost* paperless, my candidates use apps to apply and it is a treat to get something through the post.

Image courtesy of twobee, from freedigitalphotos.net
Image courtesy of twobee, from freedigitalphotos.net

The digital age has transformed the way I work – but not necessarily how I work…

But is it all change good?

I have to be honest; I miss the speed with which you could turn recruitment around on the phone back in the good old days.  When you could meet a great candidate, call a client (on the office phone) and talk through why they are exceptional and arrange an interview for the next day without a CV ever passing hands.  This is a process I have carried through into the digital age, but, email makes it easier to get the CV to the right place quickly, which does take the fun out of it a little.  I prefer talking to reading and writing, quite possibly why I started a career in a customer focused role.

In addition, all the different social networking sites mean I know more about candidates than what used to be two lines under ‘Interests’ on their CV.  With a few clicks of a mouse I can normally find out a job hunters favourite songs on Spotify, where they have been most recently on 4Square and when they went to bed the night before on Twitter.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/social-network-background-with-media-icons-photo-p197902
Image courtesy of photoraidz, from freedigitalphotos.net

However,

The speed of which we can move in recruitment is fantastic as compared to a decade ago.  Email doesn’t eat paper like the fax machine did and mobile technology, SMS, and social media mean we can contact potential candidates within seconds rather than waiting for the first class post to arrive.

I still rely on the phone as my main form of contact and the best way to speak to clients and candidates about each other and vice versa, but I have a whole host of other means in my tool box to reach people I want to speak to.  I don’t miss the days of writing out my phone number on a compliment slip and popping it into the post box hoping the potential candidate will pick it up before they head out to work for the day.

So is it change for the better?

Definitely, technology has allowed the recruitment world to advance leaps and bounds, I can still do my day to day job in the same way but with far more ease.  Technology has allowed me more time to crack on and build relationships with the companies I partner and has freed me up to spend more time with candidates I am working with to source new career opportunities.

The only thing I really miss is my Rolodex.

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Author Bio: You can find out more about Jane on Signet’s twitter account, or on G+, let us know if you agree, has technology made recruiting easier?

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