Technology is playing an ever increasing part in all of our lives, and this is never more true than when we look at the process of recruitment. For both job seekers and employers, technology is becoming ever more influential in deciding not only who gets a job, but who sees that job post in the first place. So how can employers and employees use data and technology in their favour in the job market?
The Job Seeker
Recruitment can be both time intensive and expensive, and employers are using ever more sophisticated methods to weed out the right candidates from the flood of applicants in the most competitive roles.
This is especially true when applying for roles within large companies and multinationals, who will often be inundated with applications from candidates keen to work for high profile companies.
These companies are increasingly turning to technology to help them find the right candidates, and this presents a unique challenge for job seekers whose CVs might never be seen by an actual human being until the interview stage.
CV filtering through applicant tracking systems (ATS) are rejecting as many as 75% of CVs before they get into the hands of the employer, using keyword searching to ensure they are a match for the employer’s requirements before approving them to proceed through the process.
Other companies are using video interview software which monitors your movements and facial expressions to add an additional filtration level before candidates can meet a human.
This is forcing candidates to pay more attention to customising their CVs for each individual role applied for and practice interview technique to ensure they come across as confident in video interviews to even get into a position to speak to someone about the role. But is this necessarily good for companies? They could lead to only candidates that are good at interviews rather than good at the job getting through.
The Employer
LinkedIn has recently analysed 4.5 million job posts and hundreds of millions of candidates to better understand what makes a job advert successful. It has produced a list of recommendations for companies advertising jobs to help them make the most of this data. So what do LinkedIn’s algorithms tell us makes a good job ad?
- Mondays are key. Most job seekers view and engage with job adverts on a Monday, with over half engaging over the first three days of the week. Get your ads out there early in the week to succeed
- Short job ads of up to 300 words have a higher application rate than longer job posts. But although this may result in more applications, consider whether lengthier ads that give more details might attract a more suitable candidate that has more of the skills that you are looking for.
- Women are applying to fewer jobs that they view than men. Make sure that your ad isn’t putting women off applying.
Technology has many uses in recruitment, from harvesting candidates to enabling us to analyse the habits of millions of job seekers to help us to hone our job ads. Whichever side you are on, it’s important to understand how you can use the technology that is freely available to improve your performance in the job market.
Castle Hill House