This week I read a great post on RecruitFest by Glenn Cathey. In the post, he provides his insights into the conference and some of the issues discussed during it. One topic in particular that I found particularly interesting was his take on technology and recruiting. As he had in his post:

During The Genesis of RecruitFest! 2010 session, I was tuned into the #RecruitFest Twitter stream and saw a number of tweets commenting to the fact that recruiting is about people and that technology cannot build relationships. Here are 2 examples:

• “Recruiting is losing the human element. An ATS will NEVER, EVER determine if a human is a cultural fit in an organization.”
• “An ATS is a tool & will not build a relationship. Recruiting is about HUMANS.”

Those tweets enjoyed a retweet love fest. Not from me, however – I was fighting the tide alone.

He goes into more depth on the subject which I encourage you to read. This is a topic that I’m very passionate about as well. I’ve written articles about it in the past but wanted to reiterate my stance on this issue.

The Recruiting / Sourcing function at it’s base level is a social one. It is about the relationships that are built between recruiters and candidates. Technology will never take over this process and recruiting organizations that expect a technology solution to automate their recruiting will always be disappointed. What technology can do is help organizations more quickly and cost effectively handle the same tasks that make them successful today. From job ad distribution to Recruitment CRM to LinkedIn to Twitter / Facebook to Resume Sourcing to Google, technology has made it as easier for recruiters to complete the tasks they already do so they can focus on the more important aspects like overall fit of candidates into a companies culture.

Technology used correctly can not only be a huge time and money saver, but it can be a competitive advantage as well when it comes to recruiting top talent. The question is how do you know what technologies are the best fit for your organization? I believe that recruiting organizations need to assess their organizations in three main areas when determining which technology is best for them:

Current Needs: What parts of the recruiting process cause you the most pain during a recruiting campaign? Is it distribution job ads to recruiting channels (job boards, social networks, email, SMS, etc.)? Is it obtaining recruitment metrics behind all your job campaigns? Is it filtering through the resumes you receive? Is it keeping track of the candidates that you talk to? Whatever you determine the pain points to be, you need to identify technology that can help you solve these problems so you can enable your recruiters to have more time for the most important activity in their day: engaging with candidates.

Future Needs: Where is your recruitment marketing strategy headed? What things would you love to do today that you do not currently have the capability to do? What trends in the marketplace do you see becoming important that you want to be a part of? When deciding the technology to use you need to weigh the current and future needs of your organization and there are plenty of technologies that should fit both these needs. Make sure the technology you decide on is scale-able and innovative!

Adoption: The biggest disconnect between technology and recruiting is usually user adoption. When you choose a technology, you need to make sure your technology provider has training that helps your organization to use all it’s tools. You also need to make a commitment to making sure your entire recruiting organization uses the new recruiting technology the way it should be used.

Technology should never be an afterthought when it comes to recruiting. The right technology for your recruiting organization can improve your overall recruiting strategy and results tenfold. Make sure to understand your recruiting strategy and pick technology not only that fits your current and future needs but also one that you will feel capable of adopting across your entire organization.

Originally posted on the SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Blog.