Why Robot Recruiting cannot be the solution - survival tips for HR professionals

Screening as well as communicating with prospects are among the most sensitive topics in recruiting. Classifying these tasks as routine reveals the low status they still have. And that is precisely why the ongoing digitization of HR is raising old fundamental questions in recruiting more than ever before. The first and probably most important: Where is the human being as an individual and pivotal point in this development? Will the learning systems really be better than a recruiter at recognizing the human being in his or her unique personality behind the applicant? And how reliably will they ultimately decide what potential the person has and to what extent the cultural fit fits?

Faster, mobile and connected standards for more robot recruiting?

Whereas in the past, let's say in Stone Age recruiting, a handwritten resume was required to characterize and evaluate applicants, it seems that the opposite extreme will soon be reached in the future. The use of people analytics turns people into transparent applicants. And all of this comes at a price. Of course, recruiting processes should and must evolve, even in technical terms. Applicants, too, rightly expect uncomplicated, faster and, above all, mobile and networked standards in their contact with potential employers, standards that have long since found their way into all our lives. In contrast, many representatives of the employer side still expect "meaningful application documents" and fail to recognize that this form of professional matching is not only not very meaningful but, especially in the age of Instagram & Co. has long since ceased to be state of the art. So the gap could hardly be bigger here, too.

Seeing through the eyes of applicants

But what about the candidate experience if applicants only communicate with chatbots instead of real people in the first phase of contact with a potential employer, which is important for them professionally, or even fall through the cracks of the initial selection due to the parameters of the digital recruiter. Because just as with human personnel decisions, the question of the quality of the parameters arises again in the context of digitalization. So are robot recruiting tools a real help in times of ever faster personnel processes? Or do they end up spitting out literally uniform working robots that only meet purely superficial criteria? The fact is: In the past, as today, and also in the context of AI, the selection parameters are initially defined by humans. And as long as they continue to assume that an applicant must fit the job and not the job fit the applicant, this is and will remain the fundamental sticking point in recruiting. So it is not the algorithm that is the problem, but rather how it is handled. Possible risks and side effects of AI on the part of all parties involved are therefore not yet known. And the risk that interested parties will not even respond to a job offer for precisely this reason, or that they will jump ship prematurely, should also be considered.

Recruiting: Consistently underestimated

But despite all the technical progress, recruiters are still struggling with a fundamental, completely analog problem: even in the context of their everyday professional lives, they are permanently caught between two stools. On the one hand, they are supposed to be digital trendsetters who always have the applicant's interests in mind, and internally they are often still in the position of an unloved vicarious agent who has to fight to ensure that the importance of their position does not fall by the wayside. As a result, the (working) life of recruiters is also being turned upside down more and more. They have to deal with pressure from all sides, including problems of their own making. Because if the important significance of their work is often still completely unrecognized even by the management level, they themselves lack on the one hand a clear awareness of their new roles in the recruiting of the future and on the other hand also the will and the desire to courageously break new ground.

Survival tips for HR professionals

Instead, prevailing grievances between company management, HR and the specialist department continue to block the best possible staffing success far too often. As a result, HR staff all too often experience displeasure and frustration on the job, and this fact is anything but sustainable in view of the increasing relevance of recruiting. With regard to these multi-layered existing and new challenges, only one thing helps: self-help. For example, with these ideas and impulses:

• More fun in your own job: How could you redistribute tasks in the team so that ideally everyone does more of what they are good at and enthusiastic about? Who do you really need for your recruiting change? For example, does a colleague from IT have what it takes to be a "digital recruiter" because he not only knows IT, but also loves people? Or is one of the recruiter colleagues a real researcher type with a nose for new trends? The job crafting approach is just one way of modifying your own area of responsibility in line with the "strengths first, then the job" approach so that your individual strengths and talents are in the best possible alignment with the requirements.
• Added value "Collegial Recruiting": Recruiters are often in the role of the first or second decision-maker in the selection process. The person in charge of the department usually makes the decision primarily from his or her perspective. Actively invite future colleagues to the table as well and clarify any common questions such as "Who do we really need?" and "Who really fits us?" Even trainees with a good intuition have what it takes here to come up with innovative and surprising ideas.
• Turn processes on their head: When it comes to personnel marketing and contact with applicants, it's all about starting from scratch. Replace boring job advertisements, for example, with magnetizing questions along the lines of "Show us what makes you tick and what you're on fire for." Let creative minds develop suitable alternatives to traditional job applications and interviews, such as blind dating, coffee drinking via Skype, or reflected-best-self presentations. For your part, offer real-world insights into the fields of work to be filled, e.g., via an action cam. Attract your target groups and multipliers with innovative ideas and experiments.
• Use the sympathy factor: Missing contact data in job advertisements and the like is still a no-go and a real "turn-off" for interested parties. So it's high time for recruiters to make themselves visible not only by providing their contact details, but also by including an individual or team photo on the company or career page, in social media, on evaluation platforms, etc. The opportunity: from person to person, you arouse significantly more sympathy than a chatbot. The prerequisite for this: see through the eyes of the prospects.
• Courage does good: New ideas enable new insights and experience. Do not wait reactively for a solution from above, i.e. from the management, but become proactively curious about all the exciting trends and developments. In the end, it's all about optimizing and facilitating your work in a meaningful way. And some things can simply be tried out on a small scale, such as giving interested parties the choice between a quick and a long application, a concrete work sample instead of a cover letter, a strengths analysis instead of a resume.
• Stay cool even without a tool: Of course, you should not completely forgo technical support, because modernization, development and the sensible use of digital helpers in recruiting are undoubtedly becoming increasingly important. However, the unconditional use of analytical tools at any price - which many advertise - is not. Not every hype has to be followed, especially if it doesn't suit you as a company and the target group. It is important to know the relevant trends, systems and solutions as well as their possible side effects in order to then clearly define what is really right for optimizing your processes. Only intelligent and, above all, conscious use of modern and forward-looking tools will actually make your recruiting fit for the future.

About the author: Brigitte Herrmann is a speaker, potential consultant and author. For 15 years she was an independent headhunter and filled more than 400 positions at specialist, executive and management level - in top management up to the board of directors. She is the owner of Inspirocon Potenzialberatung, which stands for both sides of the job market. With her experience in headhunting and consulting and with a view to the working world of the future, she inspires different perspectives, new paths and shows the valuable opportunities when potential is used intelligently. She is the author of the 2016 business non-fiction book "The Selection." As a speaker, she provides forward-looking impulses on the "human opportunity in the digital age". She is one of the Top 100 Excellence Speakers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. More at www.inspirocon.de