What should the next generation of recruiting technology look like?

We talk a lot on this blog about the technology that exists today that can help your organization recruit more cheaply and effectively. But today I want to talk about and get your opinions on where recruiting technology is going and what pain points technology can solve for recruiters.

The big question is: where do you think innovation is needed in the recruiting space? Distribution of jobs? Social Networks? Metrics & Analytics? Identifying candidates? Something else?

To get you thinking here are our own views on technology trends we see developing in the recruitment marketing industry:

Multiple components, one solution – We’re seeing more and more companies that are looking for one vendor to provide them with all their recruitment marketing components in one solution (that seamlessly integrates with their ATS) from job ad distribution, social recruiting, Recruitment CRM, mobile recruiting, Resume Sourcing, recruitment metrics, SEM, SEO, etc. Companies don’t want to work with multiple vendors and see the value of having all these solutions integrated with one another in one solution.

Talent Network – Companies spend so much time, money and effort in filling job requisitions at their companies, however, many still start from scratch every time a new job requisition needs to be filled. We see there being a more concerted effort by companies to connect and leverage all the qualified candidates that come through their job ads and career site through database and social technologies. The companies that do this well, will be able to create their own robust Talent Network and then tap this Talent Network as the first source for any new job requisition (and target the best candidates for this position within their Network.) In time, this will hopefully become the only source you will need to tap to fill a position.

Business Intelligence – Companies will look more and more to combine all their metrics and analytics into one streamlined dashboard. From recruitment marketing metrics that provide them with insight into the effectiveness of their recruitment messaging and application to the applicant data provided by their ATS (applicants, interviews, hires, etc.). Strategic recruiting professionals want to see the full funnel from distribution to hire and understand what is working and not working with their recruiting process.

These are trends we are seeing, but what trends do you see with recruiting technology space? What features would you most like to see in recruiting technology? What are the biggest recruiting pain points that technology can help solve?

I would love to hear your input and opinions on how technology vendors can best drive innovation forward for recruiting. And what innovations will be the most helpful.

About the Author: Chris is the Marketing Specialist for SmashFly Technologies. SmashFly is the provider of the first recruitment marketing platform that provides companies and staffing firms with job ad distribution, Recruitment CRM, mobile recruiting and the best real time recruitment metrics for all their recruiting efforts online.

Comment by Paul Alfred on November 17, 2010 at 10:23am: Great Post Chris ... I am seeing the same trends in the market place.

Comment by Chris Brablc on November 17, 2010 at 11:07am: I appreciate the comment, Paul! Confirmation is a beautiful thing, Thanks!

Comment by Neil Costa on November 17, 2010 at 1:40pm: Hey Chris - As usual, great stuff. We are constantly reminding folks that they need to reconsider everything and build their own recruitment marketing mix. Recruitment marketing mix goes beyond buying from three, four or five different jobs boards.

Corporate recruiting teams and staffing firms need to consider all of today's digital recruitment marketing options and then measure the heck out of it. What works for which jobs? Does SEO work for engineering jobs but PPC Recruiting works for sales and marketing jobs? Everybody will be and should be more accountable because we should be tracking everything.

Comment by Chris Brablc on November 17, 2010 at 2:12pm: Thanks for the comment Neil! I totally agree with you. Companies not only need to be measuring everything from a high level but dig down deep into the metrics. Different positions and disciplines most likely will require different recruiting strategies. You need to determine what works for your organization for to find qualified job seekers in these fields.

Comment by Dan Boersma on November 17, 2010 at 8:42pm: Chris,

I agree with multiple components, one solution. With the rise of the web based SaaS model traditionally smaller software products can seamlessly become more robust by integrations and partnerships. When we developed our ATS product, ReusWe, we used this approach.