Luddite Recruiters?

Colin Minto at Bornto sent me a press release this morning.  I'm going to mention it in the newsletter but it's too long to use it it's entirety. I'm sure he'll post it on his blog or website but in the meantime there were a few things I thought useful to share.

It's entitled "Are recruiters losing the technology race to employers?"

Basically, Colin and, his co-Director, Gareth Osborne are saying that recruiters need to catch up with existing and emerging recruitment related technologies if they wish to continue to add value to clients.  He states that:

"it is employers now who are embracing and implementing the latest innovations in integrated recruitment and employment technology."

How many recruiters can claim they have in place a fully integrated end to end technology suite giving them a job board style corporate website, advert creation and approval mechanism, multi-posting functionality, CV parsing, databasing, matching and selection abilities and fully automated back end processes!!!

Not too many, but when you look at the client lists of companies like Stepstone Solutions, Jobpartners and Vurv Technology, who have incidentally posted record growth and turnover figures quarter on quarter since early 2006, there are literally thousands of employers who now have the capability to attract talent to vacancies showcased on their corporate websites, multi-post these vacancies to job boards and screen and select the most suitable candidates to interview directly, without engaging a professional recruiter in the process.”

Colin admits that technology will never remove the need for human intervention in the recruitment process but if technology can serve up a short list of the best five candidates for a role in seconds, will that human be a recruiter or an HR manager?

I'm not disagreeing with the point that Colin is making. However, I personally believe there will always be a market for third party recruiters, whatever technological advances come along.  True recruiter's skills go way beyond the ability to make the most of the IT solutions. However, you should at least ensure you know what's out there, implement what suits your needs, and importantly, ensure you understand what technology your clients are utilising. Its no point cold calling for a meet in person when it's a robot they need!