As our lifestyles become increasingly driven by technology and technical innovation, so must consumer markets. The business landscape must constantly adjust to stay competitive, creating a growing need for top talent in IT, engineering, design, marketing, and other key areas. This need becomes even more intense as consumer demands for technical innovation are only gaining momentum.

One of the ways that companies of all sizes are coping is to use the same digital tools to locate and recruit the best candidates for every new position. However, the truth is that only 35 percent of applicants are actually qualified for the positions they apply to. Automation is helping to make the recruitment process much easier and more effective.

Recent changes in the hiring process

Hiring processes changed dramatically with the expansion of the internet and the appearance of job sites, interactive postings, and professional social sites such as LinkedIn in particular. Indeed, this produced a startling amount of information, often on the same applicant from multiple sources, that search engines or even site-specific searches alone couldn't scan efficiently. They often made search results even more exaggerated and unfocused.

More effective solutions like social outreach and applicant tracking have appeared to help streamline the process. These systems for actively locating and contacting candidates, and tracking their responses are talent-focused. According to Forbes, this approach is more productive than sorting through the average 118 responses that every job posting generates.

For some HR managers, this kind of technology doesn't go far enough. Job sites are beginning to implement email programs on behalf of companies that match online candidate skills with company postings to send emails that typically begin with phrases like: "Big Tech Corp is interested in you". While this is helpful, this shotgun approach isn't always effective. Many of these targeted candidates find this kind of outreach to be irritating and even misleading.

Finding a better approach

However, most experts agree that this kind of outreach to passive candidates can be more valuable as it's improved over the next few years. Currently, most solutions involve scanning posted resumes for listed job skills or titles (such as "Java" or "Project Manager") along with the associated email address to generate formulaic appeals. A smarter approach is not to generate a list of possible candidates, but to automatically exclude those who don't meet a defined set of essential criteria.

As Google and other search engines generate more sophisticated algorithms, we're beginning to see these ideas applied to candidate outreach. Newer outreach programs are being developed that do more than scan resumes or social sites for phrased requirements or credentials. They can examine several sources to get a fuller picture and even leverage analytics to rate suitability or likelihood of response.

More advanced algorithms can not just parse out unsuitable candidates, but gauge the relative skills, character, and cultural fit based on their years of experience, online posts, and job histories. This gives hiring managers not only a better idea of qualifications, but of how they will fit a particular company's environment.

Smarter, marketing-based recruitment

But humans may never be fully removed from the picture. Marketing concepts have come to recruitment, and it's long-established that a personal touch is more effective than a generic one. Newer ideas involve recruiting as a function of email marketing agencies.

Outreach materials are personalized with the inclusion of both the candidate's and the hiring agent's names. Companies are able to utilize their own custom email that's focused on building relationships as much as targeting potential candidates, and following up with links to online resources like videos giving company or departmental tours and introductions so that candidates can put faces to names.

The solutions now appearing provide a streamlined "decision tree" where humans can gather, filter and analyze a wide number of candidates with a few clicks, based on more in-depth and adaptive criteria.