Recruitment is dead! At least, the way we have conventionally known it. In fact, in the wake of growing workplace expectations of top talent, recruitment is no longer about rapidly filling up vacant positions. Talent acquisition, by contrast, is a more proactive approach, emphasizing workforce planning, employer branding, and creating a compelling candidate experience. The seismic shift can be felt across the top echelons of the corporate world. The same thought was recently shared by Cognizant, pressing the need for modern organizations to distinguish between recruitment and talent acquisition to reframe their hiring strategies and meet the evolving demands of today’s workforce.

Tech Evolution Reshaping Recruitment

It’s a brand new world, after all! The landscape of tech recruitment is rapidly evolving, given its deep interplay with technology. Here’s how:

• The advent of AI-led automation— As per BCG, 70% of the companies experimenting with AI or Gen AI are doing so within HR operations, and within HR, the top use case is for talent acquisition. AI is automating a host of marketing and admin-related tasks for HR, in addition to reducing human bias and making the process more inclusive and quicker!
• Decision-making becomes data-driven— By leveraging the power of analytics, recruitment firms and hiring organizations are making informed hiring decisions. This includes discerning trends in candidate behavior, sourcing effectiveness, and hiring outcomes.
• Virtual & Remote Hiring— With the rise of remote work, there is a growing demand for virtual recruitment tools and platforms. As online assessments, video interviews, and virtual onboarding gain mainstream prominence, companies get to access a global talent pool.

Evolution of Modern Tech Recruiter

The role of a tech recruiter hasn’t remained in silos; instead, it has evolved with the ever-changing tech landscape. As traditionally relevant tasks like creating and posting job alerts, promoting it, and doing an initial screening round are getting automated, tech recruiters must adopt the emerging skills and capabilities to maintain their competitive edge. Here’s how:

1. A deeper tech proficiency—To begin with, recruiters today need to be proficient with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), data analytics, and AI recruitment tools. However, that’s only the starting point. Given today’s tech evolution, a good understanding of emerging technologies like AI, cybersecurity, blockchain, etc., is crucial. An ideal tech recruiter today is one with an engineering background who understands the rapid changes the sector is going through and can seamlessly bridge the gap between ambitious companies and skilled talent.

2. Futuristic Thinking—Recruiters need to think beyond filling the immediate vacancies. Instead, they need to focus on the long-term business goals, plan the workforce ahead of time, and build optimal talent pipelines. The need for tech recruiters to be “people persons” and build long-term associations with a diverse crowd has never been more important than right now!

3. Enthralling Communication Skills—Comprehension & Communication are the two most important skills for tech talent acquisition. To comprehend the requirement, discern the talent needs, and effectively communicate the same is the need of the hour, as various firms compete for top talent in tech.

4. Inclusivity & Awareness—Diversity & inclusion has become one of the top priorities for companies in present times. Tech recruiters need to not only respect but share these values of the organization. Finding a candidate who is the right culture fit for the organization and vice versa has become mission critical in the present times.

Best Practices for Top Tech Talent Acquisition

To easily navigate the world of modern-day tech recruitment, which is only getting more complex with every passing day, organizations can adopt the following strategies:

• Brand Building for the Employer—Building a brand that’s highly coveted in the tech world is the most effective way to attract top talent. However, it’s not every day that one gets to hire for Google, Meta, or Microsoft. And there lies the creativity and awareness of tech recruiters to present the core company values and cultures and create a brand that’s so distinguished from others in a competitive job market.
• Providing an Impeccable Employee Experience—To our partner firms seeking top talent, we always advise that their current employees are the best network that they can get hold of when it comes to attracting top talent. Referral job hires offer one of the best returns on investment for companies while combatting attrition and saving a lot of time and effort that would have otherwise gone into orienting and helping the new recruit get better acquainted with the company.
• Build Relationships, Sans Agendas—At the firm, we recommend all the recruiters go and hang out where the top tech talent hangs out, whether it’s a comedy gig or a gaming event, etc. The secret is to build long-term relationships with the talent, whether they are looking for a job upfront or not.
• Provide a delightful hiring experience— As per a BCG survey of 90,000 employees across 160 countries, it was discovered that the majority (52%) of candidates will decline an attractive offer if they had a negative experience during the recruitment process. Thus, integrating AI-led automation in HR recruitment is not enough; companies should focus on providing a world-class experience at the initial stages; the process should be clearly defined, and a candidate should be moved swiftly between different stages and rounds of discussions.

To conclude, traditional hiring functions are a passe and the job of top tech recruiter is evolved to encompass branding, strategy, perception management, and well, of course, a deep and sound understanding of technology. The evolving landscape requires recruiters to embrace technology and implement forward-thinking approaches to best navigate the modern-day job market.

(This article is authored by Mr. Praveen Tiwari, Lead Tech Hiring, Scrabble)