There are many ‘traditional’ candidate shortlisting and assessment methods that have been used for decades by recruiters and talent acquisition professionals, but with the latest advances in technology are these going to change the landscape for us all or only the pioneers?
When advertising a particular role and attracting candidates to apply, the more traditional process is to then conduct an initial sift of applications against the specified criteria and person spec. There will be those that make it through to the next stage of assessment and those who don’t.
Further stages require careful screening and skills matching to be sure you are getting the right individuals into the right roles – all while being fair, transparent and acting without discrimination or bias throughout the process. Many in-house recruiters use technology such an Applicant Tracking System to make this process quicker and more accurate but 
with the alternative technological solutions available for candidate shortlisting and assessment and are these better than the more traditional methods?
A process often used as part of recruitment and selection is longlisting and shortlisting, application and pre-screening, telephone/face-to-face interviews, other testing and assessments and reference checks. There will also be variations of this depending on your particular recruitment workflow but with the latest advances in technology available to us, are we seriously considering investing in these and introducing them into our business against the more traditional methods?
The Firm, a forum for In-House Recruiters, commission an annual survey with their members and asked if they used traditional and/or new technology as part of their recruitment and selection process. Members revealed in the 2017/18 report that the top two forms used in assessment and selection were competency based interviews (80%) and telephone interviews (86%).
What does the future hold?
There are many other assessment methods available to us; video interviews, gamification, live video assessment days, virtual reality platforms to name a few but it seems that right now they are a vision of the future rather than part of today’s reality.
According to the survey above, gamification was used by just 1% of respondents to screen talent, artificial intelligence 2% and live video interviewing take up was 25% - so possibly the technology available to us isn’t currently utilised by the majority of typical recruitment teams.
One survey question asked was ‘Has Video Interviewing replaced your usage of telephone interviewing in the recruitment process?’ The percentage of recruiters solely using Video Interviewing (14%) is steadily increasing year on year, and those not using Video Interviewing at all have decreased from 53% in 2016 to 49% in 2017. All in all, 38% of recruiters use both techniques to interview candidates.
So, it appears that traditional methods of assessment are still very much in use and the latest technology to shortlist and assess candidates is more akin to gathering some momentum rather than a step change.
Are you using traditional methods in your organisation or planning to replace these with dynamic assessments, video interviewing, gamification or virtual reality? If so, when?
Regardless of the methods used, effective way to recruitment needs processes that ensure consistency of assessment in screening applicants and pinpointing the right people. Given humans propensity for bias, assessment and selection should be developed to add and combine insight into hiring decisions so when considering new technology make sure these add value to the process, address any challenges you face and provide data-driven recruiting rather than gut feel and hunches.
Recruitment Capability Checklist
Take a look at our practical checklist for both HR Manager’s and Recruiters that provide a series of questions to check your current recruitment capability.
If you are not already using online assessments build them into your hiring process to customise your online application processes with screening forms that grade candidate suitability to the role. This will provide consistency in screening and grading. Don’t just head to the next ‘big thing’ to provide all the answers, utilise your existing ATS/Recruitment platform to provide additional support at each stage of the recruitment process. After all, the name of the game is to be sure you are getting the right individuals into the right roles.
Start with a review of your existing ATS/Recruitment solution and how it supports your assessment and selection process in line with incorporating new technology.
Additional Resources…
Malmaison & Hotel du Vin took control of their recruitment in a structured and measurable way. They see the importance of candidate experience, combining ‘traditional methods’ with video interviewing and face-to-face assessments to get the right balance of initial screening and understanding personality and cultural fit to get the right talent.
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