Shortlist, 10 August 2009
Recruitment technology is nothing
without the right people: Ross Clennett
This article originally appeared in ShortList on 10 August 2009.
All the new technology in the world will not replace the critical element of personal contact in the recruitment process, says recruitment trainer Ross Clennett.
Clennett, who will be speaking at the RecruitTech conference in Canberra next month, said that the recruitment process had stayed essentially the same since the late 19th century - with employers advertising a vacancy and interviewing the best applicants.
In recent years, he said, new technologies had developed which gave employers a wide range of tools to promote their vacancies and screen candidates, including social media sites, databases, psychometric testing and CRM systems.
However, a bigger shift occurred when employers realised the importance of relationship-building in the recruitment process, he said.
This was typified by the example of Google, he said, which used its own staff as company ambassadors, and involved them in the recruitment process.
"They understood the power of a brand, and of their own employees being the most important thing in terms of getting other good people in," Clennett said.
While Google was still the exception, rather than the norm, he said, it had demonstrated that "ultimately it's the quality of the people running the recruitment function that is going to make a success of your campaign".
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