Let’s say you have designed the best manual recruitment process with the rounds of interviews and tests that you need to manually sit down and go through. But somewhere down the line, in all noise and the deadlines that you have to meet, you lost a few good candidates that could’ve been a potential fit for your team or your organization.

This is where HR tech or automating your manual HR processes of recruitment comes into play. The role of a recruitment HR professional is to find and attract qualified candidates for employment with a company. This typically involves developing job descriptions and job postings, sourcing and recruiting candidates through a variety of channels, such as job boards, social media, and employee referrals, screening and evaluating candidates, coordinating interviews, and working with hiring managers to make final decisions. Other responsibilities may include managing employee records, conducting background checks, negotiating employment offers, and onboarding new hires. In general, the goal of a recruitment HR professional is to find the best fit for the company and the open position and to ensure that the hiring process is smooth and efficient.

“Recruiting talent is no different than any other challenge a startup faces. It’s all about selling.” — Vivek Wadhwa

What Is HR Technology?

HR technology refers to the use of software and other technological tools to manage and support HR activities, such as payroll, benefits administration, performance management, and talent management. HR technology can help companies automate and streamline HR processes, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve the employee experience. Some examples of HR technology include:

Applicant tracking systems (ATS): software that helps companies manage and track job applications and resumes

Payroll and benefits administration systems: software that handles the calculation and distribution of employee pay and benefits

Performance management systems: software that helps companies set and track employee performance goals and provide feedback and coaching

Learning management systems (LMS): software that helps companies deliver and track employee training and development programs

Talent management systems: software that helps companies identify, attract, and retain top talent, and manage employee careers and succession planning.

HR technology can be used by HR professionals and managers, as well as by employees themselves to access and manage their own HR information and benefits.

How does HR Technology Boost Efficiency?

In the post-covid-era, HR leaders will have to deal with a lot more online communication than in the earlier period. So, they should find new opportunities through human resources technology trends to make their communication work easier. For example, proper digital communication channels can help HRs communicate and pass information to a remote workforce in a better way. Thus, in this era of digital communication, HR technologies can boost the efficiency of Human Resource communications by helping HRs manage compliance with applicable employment laws and regulations, track time and attendance, process payroll for employees, and keep proper track of employee information and activities.

According to a survey conducted by Paychex Pulse in 2022, HR technology tools help HR leaders "streamline tasks and manage new and ongoing responsibilities more efficiently, helping to alleviate some of this burden of managing remote work." The survey also reports that HR technology has helped in improving operational efficiency, and has simplified payroll management and administration of benefits

How does HR technology simplify Recruitment

Automating job postings:

With HR technology, you can easily post job openings on various job boards and company career websites with just a few clicks. With the advent of technology and automation techniques, HRs don’t have to create and post job postings manually, which is very time-consuming. Automated recruitment creates a lesser human bias in the process of hiring. This offers equal opportunity to a wide network of candidates and integrates applicants from diverse backgrounds, ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. Being the start of the future of high-end technology, automated hiring makes functions of HR professionals in a better way, thus making it the ‘New Normal’.

Candidate tracking:

It takes up a large chunk of the work schedule of HRs to track and manage the applications and the candidate activities, during recruitment. HR technology can help you track and manage the progress of candidates throughout the recruitment process, including resumes, cover letters, and application forms. It saves a lot of time for the HRs as well as the candidates, by making the entire process easier and more organised. Applicant tracking software, or ATS, is one of the best investments in HR technology. This software helps in screening applications, detecting channels that will provide access to the best talent, and much more.

Some HR technology has built-in tools for assessing candidates, such as skills tests or personality assessments. The assessment platforms can also be automated, which again, saves a lot of time and manual labour. This technology can help automate most of the processes involved in recruitment, thus saving HR managers and their teammates as many as 14 hours of their week back. You don’t have to worry about the price of automation as well, because there are lots of ATS platforms available for free or low pricing.

Scheduling interviews:

HR technology can help you schedule interviews with candidates and remind you of upcoming interviews. This helps in organising interviews in a better way. The candidates, interviewers, and HRs can benefit from these technologies by moving the recruitment process in a more organised way. We are moving into times when video interviews are most commonly used. In fact, they are becoming the standard now. However, it is not the only way to conduct online interviews. You can also seek help from online platforms for assessments, questionnaires, and other screening methods to choose the best candidates from a long list.

When we look at the near future, technology is making a huge shift towards AR and VR, where you can create a virtual meeting space and conduct interviews on a real-time basis. This could be a huge revolution, where you might be able to create your own avatars, thus changing the face of the interview processes, and totally deleting the requirements for online interviews. This can save travel time and other expenses as it makes the hiring process lot smoother for both the companies and the candidates. It is efficient to cut down on recruitment costs by arranging online interviews so that you don’t have to spend money on a large number of candidates that don’t fit the job role.

Mobile-response System:

As we are in the era of smartphones, we use them for anything and everything. Not everybody opens their computers to hunt for jobs online. Job hunting can nowadays be done as easily as you play a game on your phone. Mobile applications and modern job-hunting platforms have made it very easy to hunt for jobs in the comfort of your home, as you scroll on your social media feed. Thus, it is important to make sure that your job listing pages are mobile-friendly, and also invest in modern digital applications and platforms, where you can reach young job seekers. Invest in updating your mobile technology so that you don’t miss out on a large market of candidates that might just be the perfect fit for your job role.

A mobile-responsive design should have a lightweight website, a simple application process, and user-friendly easy click-and-fill options, as well as tools and buttons to make uploading documents a smooth task. For instance, the Easy Apply option in LinkedIn makes it easier for applicants to apply for a job. It takes just a flash to complete the application. Candidates would prefer the ease of application over links that take you to multiple other pages before you even start the application. This mobile-friendly user interface helps people apply for jobs in seconds, saving a lot of time for them. Make it easier for applicants to think that their dream job is just a click away!

Onboarding:

HR technology can streamline the onboarding process by allowing new hires to complete paperwork and other tasks digitally. It reduces a lot of confusion for HRs when they will have to manage multiple profiles and onboards at the same time. Integration of AI in HR guarantees transparency in the entire process of recruitment and the procedures of management. With modern features like 360-degree feedback mechanisms and 1-on-1s, candidate performance evaluation becomes easier, employee-centred and subjective. This will create a positive atmosphere in the recruitment process and a balanced degree of employer-employee trust. It also helps in ensuring data privacy for both the candidates and the recruiters. And most importantly, HR technology brings an organised method of recruitment where candidates and employees get to know the status of the application without much hustle.

Social Recruiting:

The boom in HR technology is evident from the rise of social recruiting. In the modern day, people find jobs through online platforms more than in any other possible way. When it comes to job hunting, Linkedin might be the first thing that comes to your mind. LinkedIn did a very slow start as a social network, but today it is one of the leading platforms for recruiting, hiring, and online job-related networking. Even Facebook has a separate section for job hunting. These are just to name a few, we have a lot of other online platforms where candidates can register themselves for jobs databases.

HR technology also helps to make the hiring process more efficient by exploring the possibilities of recruitment campaigns and events. These events can be conducted more smoothly with the help of these technologies, reducing manual functionalities. Automated technology can help in collecting candidate information, evaluating talent, and efficiently following up with top prospective candidates.

Overall, HR technology can help make the recruitment process more efficient and organized, allowing you to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on finding the best candidates for your company. These new HR technologies show measurable results by enhancing the speed and efficiency of not only managers but their teams as well. The teams can seek help from HRs and IT professionals in choosing the best HR technologies that can help them make their jobs easier and produce maximum results in a shorter period.

Recruiters have embraced HR technology to make a better connection with the right talent, simplify workflows, and reduce administrative burdens throughout the recruitment process. However, advancement in HR technology benefits both the recruits and the recruiter by creating a smooth flow in the process of hiring. It provides a better candidate experience, making it easier for applicants to land their dream jobs in the easiest ways possible! Thus, it’s advisable to promote the usage of HR technology rather than spending time and manual labour on traditional offline hiring methods. When you have the ease of access to these advanced opportunities, why not use them?! Let’s hope to see better technology coming in to make recruitment processes a lot easier!

How To Simplify your Recruitment Using HR Technology