Not so long ago, the role of a recruiter in a staffing firm was more about scanning resumes, creating jobs, working on requisitions, shuffling paperwork, and making intuitive decisions based on limited information. Automation. Digitalization. Cloud. These technologies have transformed the way recruiters work and the outcomes they expect, creating new business models and new business opportunities. Indeed, staffing companies are quickly becoming technology companies and visions of what is possible change the industry landscape faster than ever before.

So it’s no longer enough to just automate a process here or dump data in the cloud over there. The technologies at the fingertips of today’s staffing company hint at superhuman capabilities soon to come, and companies taking a longer view – realigning fundamentals and assigning new value to services – are reinventing themselves. It’s an exciting time for staffers, so let’s see what industry forces are driving this transformation in 2020. 

Bias-free recruiting 

Moral psychology has taught us we judge other humans in quick intuitive flashes. Call it bias or a mental shortcut, our decisions rely heavily on non-conscious activities not tuned for the scale and strategy of today’s hiring practices. Enter AI. Artificial intelligence has no hidden agenda, blind spot, or lack of energy. AI augments both the individual and collective intelligence of your company, helping mitigate bias in your decisions and outcomes. AI is maturing fast and here to stay. 

Mobile hiring

Today everyone demands a great mobile experience. Convenience, access, and speed. That’s what candidates and recruiters – anyone touching your business – want today. This means candidates should be able to search and apply from a mobile device and recruiters should be able to engage and interact with both people and systems whenever the want, wherever they are. ATS to portals to apps, anything and everything mobile will be booming in 2020. 

Video interviewing in 2020

Video interviewing will soon be a critical part of the hiring process. Can’t sync schedules? Geography a barrier? Need an edge? Video interviewing solves problems and saves time: record, review, share, reply. So simple. Be two places at once, gain insight, get organized, and make better hires. Sure, candidates will love you because they can interview in shorts, but being fast and nimble and opportunistic is why you should love video. Many leading staffing solutions offer integration with video interviewing technology. Video will be hot in 2020.

Deeper Automation 

Staffing professionals have successfully automated manual tasks like sourcing, resume screening, candidate creation, onboarding, background check, and engagement. In addition, automation has reduced the number of steps required to complete complex tasks throughout key business functions. Going forward, smart companies will start combining and integrating tools and processes, resulting in a more sophisticated brand of automation. Automation will be everywhere. 

Integrated communication

Imagine receiving an incoming call from a candidate. Your ATS receives the same call, capturing all kinds of valuable customer data and summarizing it in one view. You have all kinds of communication tools at your fingertips: email, social, text, and, of course, voice. You think, this is it, I am bridging the gap between engagement and experience. One system. Seamless selling. Total control. Look for staffing businesses to integrate phone and ATS in 2020. 

Self-service in 2020

We live and work in the age of the experience. Self-service is the new customer service. So to provide excellent customer service in 2020 you will need to win the customer experience, and self-service portals and tools help you do that. This democratization of technology provides all of your business partners with easy-to-use applications without depleting resources. And without human roadblocks, self-service opens and closes jobs in a snap.

Analytics

Analytics will remain a top priority. From spotting opportunities to predicting outcomes to telling stories with data, evidence-based decisions are replacing gut-based decisions across the industry. Who doesn’t want to make their company more intelligent? Who doesn’t want simple answers to complex questions? The real genius, however, is pulling all of your data into a single source, unifying your analytical powers on one platform. That’s where analytics is heading this year.