{"id":71134,"date":"2021-03-18T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T09:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bullhorn.com\/eu\/?p=71134"},"modified":"2021-09-08T06:32:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T05:32:52","slug":"productivity-and-workflow-optimisation-textkernel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bullhorn.com\/eu\/blog\/productivity-and-workflow-optimisation-textkernel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Recruitment Bounceback of 2021 Is Underway. Is Your Workflow Ready?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s March 2021, and there is hope on the horizon. This time last year, we wondered what the potential impacts of a short lockdown would be, though today, we know things turned out differently. Rather than rehashing the instability and uncertainty of the last 12 months, let\u2019s look at the positive: the industry is already recovering.<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on our data from Jobfeed, the lead generation and analytics platform that tracks over 1 billion current and historical job postings across North America and Europe, we see a slow but steady increase in the number of job postings month on month. This bodes well for agencies who have survived the pandemic so far and can give them the ability to build long-term resilience.<\/span><\/p>\n\"\"\n

The number of job postings per month shows not only are we trending upwards, and we\u2019re making up for the lost time.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

[Source: <\/span>Jobfeed by Textkernel<\/span><\/a>]<\/span><\/p>\n

And that same data is reflected in Bullhorn\u2019s latest Global Recruitment Trends (GRID survey), <\/span>where 70 percent of respondents expect revenue to increase in 2021<\/span><\/a>. Does this mean the agencies that have made it this far can go back to their pre-pandemic workflow? Perhaps, but the smart ones have learned much from the last 12 months about productivity and workflow optimisation and would do well to apply these learnings through 2021 and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pre-pandemic pressures pose productivity problems<\/b><\/h3>\n

If we look at the <\/span>GRID survey<\/a> again<\/span>, we\u2019ll see that \u201cafter the impact of COVID-19, tight talent pools (skills shortage\/gap) are still the main concern among agencies\u201d. And this makes sense. While the influx of new resumes to market has helped pad out agency databases, sourcing ready-made, perfect-fit talent remains difficult.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\"\"\n

But, while GRID respondents report sourcing as the most challenging part of the recruitment lifecycle, \u201cit\u2019s also the process that recruitment professionals say they\u2019re most likely to automate.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\"\"\n

 <\/p>\n

This is fantastic news as agencies recognise the benefits of automating the most difficult part of their workflow to boost productivity. Rather than expecting recruiters to work harder, we\u2019re getting technology in to help them work smarter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCan a robot really shortlist better than me?\u201d<\/b><\/h3>\n

No. Not today, and not a year from now; fully automated sourcing that cuts the recruiter out of the loop is still far off. As with any industry that has embraced automation, blending \u201cmachine intelligence\u201d with \u201chuman intelligence\u201d is key.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A quality automated search can take your job description and search based on its entire context, rather than just keywords or phrases. It knows many (if not all) synonyms and related terms to bridge the language gap between how hiring managers write job descriptions and how candidates write resumes. It can work across languages and regions and never gets sick, never needs a coffee break, and never needs to pick the kids up from school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the entire process. With an automated shortlist in hand, recruiters can then tackle the far more difficult job of assigning importance to the various parts of the search and discover the nuance of the position from both the Hiring Manager and potential candidates. After all, the machine won\u2019t know the Hiring Manager\u2019s preference for \u201cBig 4\u201d experience, nor the LA-based candidate\u2019s preference for working early hours with Mountain Time companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

One reason for the slow adoption of automation and new technology is because, as our <\/span>CEO Gerard Mulder put it in a recent Bullhorn blog<\/span><\/a>, \u201cPeople felt left out of the process and didn\u2019t connect with these candidates applying. This remains the same today. Organisations need to take their teams with them on the AI journey and help them to understand how new technology can help them do their jobs better and connect better with candidates and customers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Automated shortlisting has the primary goal of saving recruiters time, with bonus points for finding candidates recruiters may have missed. But \u201crecruiters\u201d is still the most important word in that sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the best part about automation is that it\u2019s not limited to only a single part of the recruiter workflow. Saving up to 2 hours per recruiter per day with Textkernel\u2019s automated shortlisting is great, but even better would be applying those savings across the entire recruiter workflow. This is where the Bullhorn Marketplace comes in, and we\u2019ve personally partnered with CloudCall, Herefish, Kyloe, Mya, Sense, and TextUs to keep recruiters as productive as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you remain productive through a changing business strategy?<\/b><\/h3>\n

For now, we\u2019ve focussed on the area where automation has the greatest potential to save time,\u00a0 but this is only one part of a greater story. The global pandemic has businesses evaluating their strategy and considering questions such as:<\/span><\/p>\n