Apps, bots and AI: What’s going on with recruitment software?

09 Aug, 2017

Recruiting sometimes feels like an age-old industry, especially given the rate at which it has evolved over the last few decades. Unlike years past, recruiters today have access to an unimaginable number of tools and platforms designed to help streamline their day-to-day processes.

For example, many agencies in Australia now use artificial intelligence and bots designed to hunt down quality candidates, as well as various mobile and desktop apps that do much of the dirty work for recruiters. As great as these developments are, there are a number of issues that have come with the rise of digitised recruitment.

So, what's wrong with recruitment technology today, and what's the future of recruitment software in Australia?

Pitfalls of contemporary recruitment

One of the most pervasive problems facing the recruitment industry – and the business world as a whole – is the declining focus on human-to-human interactions. More so than many industries, recruitment is about building personal relationships, and software should be aiding recruiters in this regard, not attempting to do it for them.

A good portion of agencies throughout Australia are caught up chasing big numbers and are using recruitment technology to do so. Recruitment Systems CEO Neil Bolton elaborates:

"It's all about quality, yet so many recruiters are still stuck in the "spray and pray" method of attracting applicants," he explains. "Put an ad on Seek, get 200 applications, somehow determine the top "best" applicants, send the ten "best" ten to the client and pray."

This issue is further exacerbated by the impersonal nature of social media and the frequency with which recruiters are relying on it today. 

"As recruiters, I don't believe we should be chasing a social media presence – we should be building human relationships," Neil claims. "Human relationships are real. If they are good they last for years. Social media, on the other hand, can be fake, transient and low-touch."

While social media can occasionally be helpful, it's paramount that recruiters don't rely solely on the internet to build the relationships they should be chasing themselves, in person.

Where is recruitment technology headed?

As an industry, we need to redirect the focus from expecting technology to do the work for us to allowing it to help us. Recruiters are constantly bogged down by administrative tasks they have to do each day; this is one area in which recruitment software can be an enormous asset without compromising the foundation of recruiting – the human relationship.

TRIS Recruitment Software is specifically designed to streamline workflow, manage candidate pools, improve communication and eliminate the administrative processes of the day-to-day. Since the beginning, Recruitment Systems has been striving to stay ahead of the pack with regards to technology, which is why we're in the process of developing the newest innovation in Australian recruitment software.

Known as TRIS5, our mobile app will expand upon our current software, allowing recruiters to work on-the-go with a speedier, more intuitive user interface. Neil explains:

"Apps are the future of computing – browser-based software is very old and very difficult to write. But companies who have everything invested in browser-based systems really cannot move to an app-based architecture the way Recruitment Systems has," he says.

TRIS5 should be hitting the market in the first half of 2018, so stay tuned.

The digital age has brought many benefits to the recruitment industry, but it's important to remember what truly matters, both to candidates and clients: the human touch. TRIS can help give recruiters the much-needed time to go out and build the relationships they need in order to find the best quality candidates. Reach out to Recruitment Systems today for more information.