Algorithms and AI dominate recruitment

Algorithms and AI dominate much of the current discussion around recruitment. So it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it’s a people business.   

Don’t get me wrong. Tech is a vital tool in the recruitment process. But real success comes when the right people are at the wheel.  

It’s not hard to see that in action in the current climate.  

Over the past couple of decades, there has been an extraordinary democratisation of information in the recruitment chain. 25 years ago, companies would go to a recruiter simply to have a chance of finding a person with a particular skill. Today, a search on LinkedIn will do that job.  

What’s more, in the last couple of years, automation and AI have taken centre stage; you don’t need to even write your ad or read the applications – just sit back and let ChatGPT take the wheel.   

But what has been the effect of all that?  

Primarily, chaotic noise and a growing sense of frustration on all sides. People apply for jobs and hear nothing: companies are drowning in applications but struggle to make any headway into working out who they actually need.  

What’s needed isn’t more automation. It isn’t more pace. It isn’t more volume.  

It’s more thought.  

Enter Vocative.  

Because we’re people, we have real relationships with real people:  

Computers can’t have meaningful relationships with humans (I hope we all agree about that). This means that they can’t know what someone is like, what they’re looking for in a job, how they might fit in with a particular team. They don’t build their understanding through decades in the industry spent talking to clients and candidates, finding out what makes companies tick, getting to know the ins and outs of the individuals in this sector.  

They don’t have real commercial expertise to bring to bear on a CEO’s problems. Even AI is just churning back what it has found on the internet. It can’t actually think. 

Take our conversation with a senior leader in a government organisation last year.  

She is at the helm of a very significant organisation-wide transformation. It’s a vast undertaking, intended to change not just company structures and efficiency, but to improve the way it serves other government departments and tax payers.    

The trouble is, she needs significant commercial heft in her team – capability that can mostly be found in the private sector. And she doesn’t have private sector money to spend.   

So advertising gets her nowhere. The applications are from people without the skills, and the skilled people aren’t interested for the money.  

How do you square that circle?  

By understanding people’s motivations. By being able to approach people directly and articulate the opportunity and the way in which this role will have an impact beyond a base salary number. By knowing who is ready to take a role for the opportunity and isn’t money-led at this stage of their career.   

In short – by having spent the time understanding the situation, and knowing the people well enough to attract them.   

There’s a big difference between finding a candidate and hiring a candidate. That’s the gap the technology can’t cover.

We aren’t just role-fillers, we’re problem-solvers: 

Databases are great, but all an algorithm can do is churn out people with the qualifications you ask for. We’re not just coming up with names to match requirements, we’re finding people to solve the problems that are hard to articulate.  

Our job isn’t just to have the contacts. We’re hired to find the problem, find the people, and find the solution. And we really care that we find the right solution for the nuances of your company.  

If you want to find out more about how this process has worked out in the past, you can listen to this chat I had with Mike Rowland about his experience with Vocative: Recommendation: Mike Rowland – Vocative Consulting.