Annual conferences like HRTech are always a good time to observe what’s changed in the last year. As we take stock of our industry’s evolution and reconnect with industry peers, we gain validation for our talent acquisition challenges and explore new solutions. 

After several years of limited business travel and unprecedented changes in hiring due to the pandemic, HRTech 2022 was a bellwether of what’s to come, and a reminder that the promise of efficiencies from technology cannot be fully realized without support.

A team of 20 Smartians  – our name for SmartRecruiters employees – gathered at HRTech 2022. Our mascot Winston brought joy to the show floor with his antics and provided relief from the more serious conversations. In the current economic conditions, it’s harder to hire – to find great talent, provide a great candidate experience, and keep hiring managers engaged. Talent acquisition is a bigger business priority than ever before and point solutions abound, but getting them all to work together is a challenge for many companies.

We observed three themes in our conversations:

1. AI and automation are necessities, but adoption lags
2. Integrating point solutions doesn’t have to be hard
3. A mature talent acquisition function requires a purpose-built tool 

If there’s anything the pandemic proved, it’s that talent acquisition cannot be viewed as a cost-center. We’ve always said that TA is a C-level priority, and the struggles of many organization the past few years have made it even more apparent that TA cannot be lumped in with other HR functions. Here’s our perspective.

1. AI and automation are necessities, but adoption lags

When companies increase their talent attraction game, they also have to increase their ability to process candidates. AI-driven tools like chatbots, text messaging, pre-hire assessments, and candidate matching lead to major productivity gains, but they need to integrate with an overall talent strategy. Patching these solutions into an older system can cause unnecessary headaches. A modern TA suite with native AI and automation functionality offers a streamlined experience for both IT and recruiters.

Automated Interview scheduling is another area that is in high demand. With native candidate self-scheduling and integrated interviewer calendars, SmartRecruiters helps TA teams increase efficiency and improve time to hire. One day, we’ll look back on manual interview scheduling as a relic of the past,  like VHS tapes and CDs. As more companies adopt these tools, it will be increasingly hard for laggards to compete.

2. Integrating point solutions doesn’t have to be hard

Any show floor is filled with newly-born point solutions that solve real problems. Some, like background checking, reference checking, sourcing, and assessments offer great productivity gains – that is, when they seamlessly integrate into a main talent acquisition suite. Messy backend configurations and broken reporting don’t have to exist when you use a system like SmartRecruiters. Built with open APIs and an integration marketplace of more than 600 vendors, our customers can build efficiency exactly where they need it, when they need it.

The SmartRecruiters partner alliances team was out in full force at HRTech to reaffirm relationships with existing partners and grow our marketplace with new tools that help our customers hire more efficiently.

3. A mature talent acquisition function requires a purpose-built tool 

Companies’ fascination with the HRIS has reached a turning point. While the HRIS serves its purpose of bringing employee-related processes and data together, HRIS talent acquisition modules have set many companies back. TA leaders’ dissatisfaction with a degraded candidate experience, limited automation, and sub-par reporting is not mere complaining: only a purpose-built talent acquisition suite can fulfill their needs. 

Many HRTech attendees we spoke to are gathering the resources to make the business case for a purpose-built talent acquisition tool. They simply cannot fulfill the talent needs of their businesses and compete in today’s talent marketplace without one. Let’s hope that in the future, no major technology investments get made without consulting the people who use it the most.

To get over the hurdle of C-Suite and HRIT objections, companies need to know that data from a talent acquisition platform can integrate with their HRIS and point solutions, and that the work of implementation won’t set them back. We’re happy to say that SmartRecruiters, built on open APIs, is surprisingly easy to implement and integrate with other solutions.

Which systems your company uses after employees step onboard with you is not our business. But everything that happens before it is. From the moment potential candidates find out your company is hiring – and even before –  SmartRecruiters has considered every step of hiring through the lenses of people, processes, and technology. We focus our innovation efforts on the core processes that make hiring easy all the way from talent attraction to candidate selection and onboarding.

We may not have been able to speak to you in person on the HRTech show floor, but we’d love to start a virtual conversation today.