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Lisa Jones spoke at The Recruitment Conference earlier this week to a packed audience about “cool tools for 2018”. She’s very kindly followed that session up with a blog post for us.
So, recruitment innovation has always been a hot topic. Recruiters want to be better, recruit faster, make more money. And we’ve become addicted to the notion that innovation is about technology.
But it isn’t.
According to Business Dictionary innovation is:
The process of translating an idea or invention into a product or service that creates value or for which customers will pay.
Innovation is not about having a computer or 20 job boards. Not about pretty pictures backing up our content. But what is it? Louise at UK Recruiter asked me to come to her End of Year Conference and talk about this.
Bear in mind that the Recruitment agencies sector is over 100 years old– born in 1902 in fact! Money, paper, phones, were all about well before someone decided that a recruitment firm would be a great business idea! It’s only in recent years that the industry wants innovation – and no doubt this is in response to the competition being not just from other recruiters, but clients and candidates too!
What is Recruitment Innovation?
- Is it using Photoshop or Canva to add images to our job specs? No!
- Is it LinkedIn Recruiter? No!
- Is it AI? No – not really, not yet in the agency world!
If innovation is:
“The process of translating an idea or invention into a product or service that creates value or for which customers will pay.”
…then funky images / LinkedIn Recruiter and AI – are not good enough!
Recruiters need to get Defensive
Consider this: What if the tech being created for recruiting is not for agencies – only for internal recruiters? You need to get on the defensive! And get clever!
You don’t need to imagine a world where recruiters are so paralysed by technology options that they don’t pick up the phone! It’s here and every day a recruitment leader tells me this problem is in their business!
Hence – we risk abdicating recruitment to technology!
My 5 Recruitment Innovations for 2018
I’m often asked “what’s cool”, “what’s new”. I’ve seen a lot of tech, a lot of unnecessary disruption, and a lot of hype about recruitment technology. Most of it sits on dusty shelves (and cluttered desktops of the average recruiter pc).
So – I had a think and came up with 5 innovations for 2018. Only number 1 is my number 1 – 2,3,4 and 5 can be in any order.
Recruitment Innovation 5: Candidates Management
How can an industry which cries out for candidate loyalty be so bad at managing the talent that they attract? 60% of recruiters last year claimed that candidate attraction and engagement was their biggest problem. But still 80% of placements made last year were already on the systems of the recruiter prior to advertising the role.
GDPR is kicking our butts and making us think about having less data and more candidates (and clients and consultants)
- Could innovative candidate management be the antidote to GDPR?
- Could it be the antidote to poor consultant retention?
- Could it be the antidote to reduced fees and unsustainable PSLs?
Let’s make sure that 2018 is not a repeat of 2017 where:
Recruiters are data rich and candidate poor!”
Recruitment Innovation 4: CRMFirst
If you get your recruiters addicted to your CRM – great data, speedy and transparent processes – then things change! CRMFirst is a mantra at Barclay Jones. Not CRMOnly – other systems are crucial – LinkedIn, Job Boards etc… but the sales funnel needs a strong data set and CRM to drive it.
- Create a USP
- Gain Confidence
- Be Competitive
- Reduce your time to hire by 50%! Yes, a recruiter actually did this!
Recruitment Innovation 3: Marketing Delivering the 3Cs
Marketers are not just for clicks, PDFS, PPTs, branded mugs and Broadband management. They are more than a “colouring-in department”. They need to innovate next year and generate:
- Candidates
- Clients
- Consultants
Not simply content!
Marketers! Think about:
- Genuine sector partnerships to promote your brand to the community of trade bodies and thought leaders (like Barclay Jones does!)
- Content to generate cash not just clicks
- Automated email marketing – not simply scheduled!
- Innovative antidotes to GDPR
- Sales-led marketing campaigns
Recruitment Innovation 2: Recruiters need to “Get Natural”
I blogged about Women in Tech and the Google conspiracy. It has become critical that job adverts attract passive talent, not simply brag about a spec.
Natural language processing for job descriptions needs to help your lovely job adverts become job PITCHES. Technology to help remove unconscious bias is here (thank god!) This is an amazing step forward for recruiters who are time, training and content poor.
Now… drum roll… what is my number 1 recruitment innovation for 2018?
Recruitment Innovation 1: The Recruitment Consultant
Now, when I ran this presentation earlier this week and I asked everyone what they thought and I got “the phone”… The phone is not an innovation in 2018 (it was in 1860!)! How you use your phone and is what counts. Yes, recruiters all need more phone and face time, BUT it needs to be credible activity.
So what do recruiters need to do in 2018 to be innovative?
Telling them to “get in the phone” is not enough. Buying them loads of tech is not enough. Giving them KPIs – or having no KPIs at all, if not enough.
Recruiters need training. Whether they be “the old guard” or “digital natives”
- Dump the “training is a luxury” mantra
- Work the 70:20:10 rule
- Get your managers engaged and accountable
- Less option paralysis and more process
- Effective KPIs (and ever changing ideally…)
- Don’t “de-niche” your business – create content for your recruiters to engage with and talk about when they have phone and face time.
If you want to innovate next year. If you want to create value, and sell more. If you want to attract and retain the 3Cs in 2018 – you need to innovate your recruiters. They are your “coolest tool”, but you may be holding them back with too much tech, not enough process or training to be awesome!
If you want to see Lisa’s slides:
