Here in 2021, the recruitment technology ecosystem is not as crowded as one might believe or speculate. If you strongly disagree with this statement, you have a valid argument, but only on the surface. The reason you might disagree is primarily due to the similar nature in the marketing language used to describe and highlight every platform being offered in today’s marketplace.
The same language is being used over and over again eg. Hire Faster, Hire Easier, Hiring Simplified, Speed up your Hiring today, Make your Recruitment Process Easy, Faster, Cheaper, so on and so forth... Be it a brick & mortar staffing firm or recruitment technology, it’s all too similar.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of creativity happening when it comes to marketing recruitment-centric companies, hence the reason it looks and feels so crowded.
3 Myths about the Crowded Nature of Recruitment
1. If it’s Artificial Intelligence, it must be Good
The Myth: Leveraging the acronym doesn’t afford recruitment platforms FOW or disruptive innovation status. AI is a broad term and overused in the marketing efforts of recruitment platforms. In many cases, it’s not AI you’re actually receiving, it’s closer to workflow automation than true AI. AI is fast becoming a marketing term, similar to the ‘Big Data’ craze we experienced several years ago.
The Truth: AI is only a benefit if it truly benefits and brings value to your company. The true value is how AI is being used or applied to bring more efficiency, innovation, or cost savings to the business. Otherwise, be it AI or workflow automation, what’s the point.
2. Humans are Being Phased Out
The Myth: This couldn’t be further from the truth. There are day-to-day tasks being phased out with workflow automation and technologies like AI and NLP, but humans will always be involved with the hiring process in some capacity.
The Truth: It’s very exciting to see innovation in an industry that is old and antiquated, but people need reassurance from people, and employment is no exception. Candidates will not accept a new job unless they’ve had the chance to vet the company and work environment, speak to and assess the team dynamic, connect with their future boss to ensure there are positive synergies, and weigh out the benefits/downsides of accepting a new opportunity. Most of what will be assessed have to do with connecting with people in the process. There’s still a rigid dichotomy between technology and the ‘human factor’, which remains the X-factor in measuring recruitment success or failure.
3. Not every Platform Brings the Same Value
The Myth: All platforms are the same.
The Truth: All platforms are NOT the same, however, most platforms leverage the same marketing language which makes it very confusing as a consumer. An ATS may use the same language as a sourcing tool or job board even though all three offerings are completely different and bring unique value-props to the equation. Always take a deeper dive into what a platform actually does, inquire about their competitors to provide some context into what category they play in, and do your due diligence — ask for a demo or trial to see if it aligns with your internal workflow and will function the way it says it will. Most platforms tend to oversell and/or undersell their value, and it’s up to us as consumers to differentiate.
Presented by TeamRolebot
