2017 Recruiting Technology Trends

Technology continues to enhance the biotech and pharmaceutical recruiting process and here are some trends to consider as a hiring manager or head hunter.

Technology can significantly enhance your recruiting process

Tablets/smartphones are replacing computers as preferred methods of electronic communication – especially among millennials. It’s already beginning to replace many web-based approaches and options.

One-Touch/Easy Apply

The ease of submitting an application from your phone is a convenience that shouldn’t be overlooked. Streamlining the initial application submission process to accommodate mobile-based applications is essential to staying relevant. A recruiting process that is mobile friendly should be everyone’s goal for 2017, especially if you’re interested in attracting top Gen Y talent.

Texting

Texting is slowly edging out phone communications, and as widespread acceptance grows across industries, the recruiter who offers text as an option for communication will stand to benefit greatly. While you may personally have a preference for a phone call or face-to-face communications, adapting to the changing needs of the workforce will help you reach the potential candidates you’re hoping to attract.

Is texting the new email? No but you can’t ignore it in today’s application process.

Recruitment Technology Software

Thanks to the complex and intricate algorithms used by recruitment technology developers, it’s becoming easier to identify, attract and assess pharmaceutical and biopharma candidates. And their 24-hour response options mean faster response to qualified candidates. With advancements in interview assessments, these data-driven systems offer more than increased accuracy; they can actually help you make faster placements. And that means happy clients.

Blind Resumes & CVs

The use of blind resumes and CVs increased in 2016, and it shows little signs of stopping now that 2017 has arrived. By removing inherent and institutional bias from the recruiting process, blind resumes and CVs increase merit-based diversity. They’ve also been shown to decrease the risk of bad hires. It’s here that algorithms will play a dominant role in blind resume & CV assessment and pharmaceuticals candidate evaluation. At the very least, you no longer need to include your address in your resume. Companies will generally email all but the most important documents and a physical address is no longer necessary.

Video

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million. Well, closer to two million words for one minute of video, according to Forrester Research. Add to that, increased odds at Google showing your content a little love and it’s easy to see why video is a powerful technology trend for 2017. Just look at this 5:50 minute YouTube video Google Interns First Week. It’s been viewed more than five million times and has nearly six thousand responses, like Aliana Welth’s most recent comment, “is this supposed to make me want to work for Google?…cause it’s working.”

Leveraging technology to become more competitive, cost-effective and efficient can help you stand out. By embracing technology trends, you’ll be telling biopharma and biotech candidates you’re relevant, and your vacancies are relevant. Implementing just one of these technology trends for 2017 can help you attract the right candidate, speed up your hiring process, and make more successful placements.

AI/Machine learning for automated résumé screening

Let’s face it. The bulk of applicants are not qualified for the job. By some measures 75% don’t have the qualification listed yet will still apply. This makes manual resume screening the most time consuming part of the interview process. New AI applications like Mya, the newest job recruiting and application tool and  IBM’s Watson can substantially shorten the

AI Can streamline your qualifying process but you’ll still need recruiters

qualification and screening process though, be careful, as no digital tool can replace human instinct and computers can’t read between the lines very well. There is a potential to lose qualified candidates through the process.

Clearly, technology is changing the way we apply to jobs and screen candidates. Recruiting is still however, very much a human dependent process and its success is still  predicated  on traditional human interactions. Keep a balanced approach and add technology to avoid bottlenecks but keep a human touch throughout the recruiting process to avoid making it feel too sterile and non-personal.