One of the main worries for management is that they could be missing out on recruiting the best talentHR leaders are ever more aware that AI will become a regular part of their workflow within the next five years. In order to adjust to this shift, recruiters’ skill sets will naturally need to change to adapt to the new workplace.
The new recruiter skill set will include skills focused on both people and data.
- People-focused social skills
As the job search becomes more efficient and automated through AI, recruiters will be relied on more than ever to add the missing piece: a human touch. The desire to deal with an actual human throughout the recruiting process will still be all-important.
A recent survey by Randstad found that while 91% of job seekers believe technology has made the job search process significantly more effective, 87% also believe it’s made the job search process more impersonal.
Accenture predicts that people-focused social skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and empathy will become even more valuable as social skills are hard to automate.
Research already proves this to be the case with a recent study revealing that nearly all job growth since 1980 has been in occupations that rely heavily on social skills. Workplace tasks that require social skill tasks grew by 24% from 1980 to 2012, compared to only 11% for math-based tasks.
Rob McIntosh calls the talent acquisition leader of the future a talent advisor, which he defines as:
“A trusted recruiting partner to the business who consistently delivers the best candidates in support of the business mission while continually improving the hiring process and candidate experience.”
Essential skills of a talent advisor include solving recruiting problems through creativity, using business acumen to achieve better outcomes, and influencing both hiring managers and candidates.
Talent advisors will be able to better spend their time on initiatives such as reducing bias in recruiting, analysing the ROI of their recruiting software tools, and planning strategies for proactive hiring based on future growth and revenue rather than reactive backfilling.
- Data-focused analytical skills
The demand for data-focused recruiters exists today – a Visier survey found that 70% of hiring managers believe that recruiting departments need to become more data-driven in order to improve long-term business impact.
This greater alignment means which recruiting metrics an organisation considers crucial will depend on what the desired outcome for their business is.
The skill set of the data-focused recruiter includes a scientific mindset for collecting and testing data, domain knowledge to properly interpret results, and business acumen to get buy-in to implement their recommendations.
Although recruiting has always been a data-heavy function, this data has mainly been used to create descriptive reports on metrics such as the true cost of hire.
Head of Talent Analytics at Chevron, RJ Milnor, states that today’s analytics experts have progressed from reporting on metrics to advising on analytics.
It’s no longer enough to explain what happened, you need to explain why something happened along with a recommended solution based on your analysis.
This shift in skills may appear daunting, however with the right attitude and willingness to adapt, it can be a positive shift for recruiters, providing an excellent recruiting experience for both the hirer and candidate.
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