The future of HR: Why tech is key to hiring smarter 

Hiring new talent is rarely a quick and simple process. For many, finding the right person takes a lot of time, so employers need to be doing all they can to ensure they have the information they need, throughout the recruitment process, writes Lee Martin Seymour, CEO and Co-Founder at Xref

This puts pressure on recruitment teams and hiring managers to not only carefully assess every application, resume and reference for background details, but also to identify someone who is going to make a positive impact on the future of the business. 

This is where technology can take the load off and help people make the best choice for their business. Technology has been revolutionising the workplace for some time but now it can help fill the gaps in the way we work, by automating previously human-driven processes and helping us to make more informed decisions efficiently and confidently. 

Hire right, quickly! 

As we move into a new decade, the need for hiring smarter and faster is a necessity, especially when industries around the nation, from health and aged care, to technology and education, are in short supply of talent. This shortage means Aussie businesses are facing an increasingly competitive environment, battling others in their industry to secure the same great candidates. The race is on! 

But we hear time and time again, about cases of the wrong hire being made and the question always comes back to, “who was checking they were suitable for the role?” Hastening hiring under time constraints, made without robust and data-led processes to mitigate risk, is a recipe for disaster led by corner-cutting and missing details. 

By using tech throughout the recruitment process, from sourcing to screening, businesses arm themselves with the insights they need to feel confident about their decisions and win the race to hire the best talent.  

Verification and validation

A major problem for many businesses is the risk of candidate fraud. In most cases, it’s often not until a candidate becomes a new employee that their deceit is uncovered. The talent that was once thought to be an amazing find is now a huge waste of time and resources, and a potential threat to the business. After weeks of searching it’s time to go back to the drawing board. 

With technology used as part of the hiring process, fraud can be detected before a poor hiring decision is made. Rather than having to play detective, employers can rely on secure systems to weed out the suspicious candidates. It gives peace of mind that everyone coming into the business is legitimate without the extra hours and resources wasted to double and triple check each person.

Breaking international borders  

Research from ManpowerGroup has shown that 34 per cent of Aussie employers say they can’t fill open jobs –– the lowest since 2006! More can be done. 

We’re seeing employers increasingly looking abroad to hire the right talent for a role. Traditionally, when conducting hiring processes internationally, there were a number of challenges, from time differences to language barriers and everything in between. 

Technology is helping with global hiring, by offering job seekers and businesses around the world access to online services that can connect people anywhere at any time.  

Taking all this into consideration, it’s clear the role tech is playing in closing many of the gaps faced in the traditional recruitment processes. Technology helps HR professionals to hire right the first time, every time, ensuring they are doing their due diligence with data and speed on their side. 

With this in mind, technology should help HR and talent work together better so that the candidate is job-ready and pre-vetted. Companies need to retain the right talent in a whole new way, helping them continue their career with a new business rather than hinder them and invite talent back in the future into new roles.

We are sharing our cars, houses and rides. Why can’t we learn how to share our talent to the benefit of our economy and our own business peaks and troughs? We validate the who, what and where of a candidate’s background to safeguard not only our bottom line and culture of the business but as a whole we are inviting technology into our processes, in turn, not only raising the quality of recruitment but the quality of talent coming into the market.