Recruiting and Tech - Interview of Garry Levin

Recruitment is a people’s business? That’s right! Nevertheless, technology can improve every step of the recruitment process.

Too often, tech is still used in a limited way to digitise repetitive tasks or to keep track of candidates. With the establishment of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), analytics or digital matching, many administrative processes in recruiting would run much faster.

The Corona crisis has set important impulses and some nice-to-haves have become must-haves, but much more must be done!

We wanted to talk about the changes in the market in the last months, which ones are still overdue and what opportunities a data mindset offers in recruitment.

Garry Levin, Founder & CEO of LHC International gave us some input about his perception of today’s trends in Recruiting and Tech.

After virtual recruiting and remote working, other developments appeared since covid.

Digitalisation as a whole has been accelerated a lot and will have a positive impact in the long term, especially in HR & Recruiting. Besides the obvious changes, however, it is particularly exciting to look at what will change sustainably as a result of these trends.

There are 3 exciting topics in particular, which have entered the market during Covid:

Global Workforce

If we are already working remotely, companies will ask themselves whether they have to hire a software developer in Berlin or whether she or he can be based somewhere else in the world. Of course, this will also have a massive impact on recruiting.

New Work

Companies are just learning that there are many exciting alternatives besides the classic models. There are no final trends here, but the question of how many employees are permanent and how many are freelancers or what factor the office still plays in a new world with remote work (hot desk vs. fixed desk and offsites vs. meeting marathons) is exciting.

Purpose

After the time of industrialisation and information where our grandparents and parents have worked to survive or to get a higher life standing, in today’s society “the job” has shifted its relevance. We are in a social era where people can choose where to live and work and what to do. Since the demand is simply much higher than the labour supply, there is another understanding of work. This generation wants quality in their life and in their jobs. They are not interested in a feeding job.

There is an increase in the use of big data in recruitment.

The use of big data in recruitment has increased, but we are still a long way from using it in a similar way to marketing or sales. Companies that embrace the topic of Recruiting and Tech can quickly gain significant competitive advantages. And it is not that difficult to start and is usually completely compatible with existing tools and processes.

Technology permeates both direct applications by candidates and active sourcing in the passive candidate market.

Many occupational fields already have shortages, driven mostly by digitalisation and demographic change. Job advertisements for example should be used as a passive tool precisely when they also promise performance.

Active sourcing is always suitable when classic methods fail. Here, the diversity of different networks and platforms and the lack of uniform processes alone require greater use of technology.

Some developments are also expected in the next few years in Recruiting and Tech.

The trends mentioned, such as data-driven decisions or the general use of technology, will certainly continue to accelerate.

The question of what the profession of corporate recruiters or HR consultants will look like in the next 5-10 years will be particularly exciting. Here, more change than most of the industry representatives will be seen. It will therefore be important to be able to adapt quickly to a changing market. And in the process, some professions will certainly be completely replaced by technology; but many new ones will only emerge as a result.

In the end, as always, it is also about the competitive advantage that a company will have. It could be a recruiting process that has a more “human touch” in the important phases of the recruitment process than the competition.

No matter how much technology is used, it is mostly a support tool for decision-making. In the end, the decision of choosing a candidate is often made from a gut feeling, which is always based on human emotions, feelings, perception, and the little pinch of a smile to convince a candidate, or an employer to make the pick. And technology cannot replace this.