The Future of Hiring is Remote, Automated, and A.I.-enabled.
As a hiring manager, you already know the hiring landscape has changed in 2020.
Although you may think you can hire top talent now for the lowest price, this short-term mindset would only come back to hurt your bottom line in the long-run.
So, how would you go about hiring in 2021?
Here are the top 3 hiring to avoid in 2021
Mistake #1: Not Hiring Remote Workers
With all the challenges, the pandemic did open the world of remote work so you could now hire the best talent irrespective of their location.
Do you remember when your top candidate declined your offer because their spouse refused to relocate?
Now, with the remote work option, you no longer have that problem.
Imagine what it would be like to hire the best of the best from anywhere in the country to work on exciting projects alongside you.
This brings us to highlight an important piece for the remote work to work for you, which is thinking of remote work as project based work.
Think of all the exciting projects you want to start this year and then hire remote workers against those projects.
That way you’ll have an easier way to measure the success of your remote workers. Also, you’d then need not to worry about whether or not they’re online at 9:00 am sharp.
When the actual work becomes the measuring metric you’ll enjoy higher performance on your team as a direct result of that mindset.
It’s no longer about how long you can see a worker sitting in front of their computer, with you assuming that they’re working. They could very well be shopping online or looking for another job on company’s time.
So, shift your mindset from time tracking to project tracking to truly reap the benefits of remote work.
Here’s a free resource on creating a flexible workforce by Timewise in collaboration with Deloitte.
If you want to learn more about this topic, join Emily Schur, Senior Vice President, Global Talent from Sun Life Financial at the 2021 Future of Leadership Summit on Feb. 11 where she’ll share how she created a flexible workforce successfully during the pandemic using an MVP concept.
“We celebrate and promote people who work flexibly, recognizing that there is absolutely no difference between someone who is a mother working three days-a-week, and a father who works term time. Promotion is about ability, not the number of hours you work.”
Mistake #2: Not Automating Your Hiring Process
You no longer need to post your job, and pray that your ideal candidates will see that job posting and apply for it.
Think of it this way.
Let’s say you wanted a brand new iPhone.
So, you post an ad for a smart phone online and wait to see who wants to sell that iPhone to you.
You may get the following responses:
- People may reach out to you to sell their different smart phones
- You may get no response at all because you were not clear about the type of smart phone you’re looking to buy
- Lastly, you may get lucky to have a person or two reach out to sell you an older version of an iPhone.
In other words, you’ll need to be incredibly lucky to have just one person reach out to you to sell you a brand new iPhone exactly as you envisioned it buying it from the Apple store.
Do you see any problem with that buying process (i.e. posting and praying)?
That’s exactly how your hiring process probably looks like at this very moment.
In real life, you wouldn’t post an ad if you wanted a brand new iPhone. You would go directly to an Apple store and buy one, isn’t it?
Then why would you apply that old and outdated buying process when hiring top talent for your team?
When you know exactly who you want for your team or project, you must then actively seek those talent out.
Sometimes you also need to wait if you want a brand new iPhone because the new model is not out yet, isn’t it?
The same is true for hiring top talent.
You may not be able to hire your ideal candidates right away.
That’s why you integrate automation into your hiring process so that your ideal candidates can be warmed up to apply for your jobs weeks before you have them open.
And, that’ll result in you hiring top talent, every single time, with precision you always wanted.
So, shift your mindset from posting your job right away to building a talent funnel through automation.
If you’re interested in building a targeted talent funnel through automation for your critical roles, contact us because we can definitely help you get there faster than you ever thought possible.
By the way, we have direct experience in building diversity talent funnels so reach out if that’s something you’d be interested in exploring further.
Mistake #3: Not Using Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) When Hiring Top Talent
When tech giants like Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft are now offering permanent work from home option, it will make hiring top talent still difficult for you unless you’re hiring for those tech companies.
Therefore, differentiation is what will win you top talent moving forward.
One way you can differentiate your offering is through using artificial intelligence (A.I.) in your hiring process.
You could use virtual humans (digital personalities) to humanize your hiring process.
Imagine creating your digital personality to greet your top candidates when they land on your job posting.
Would that create a WOW first impression for your ideal candidates?
It would, absolutely.
We’re exploring this topic of creating virtual humans to engage our desired audience online at the 2021 Future of Leadership Summit on Feb. 11 so if you’re interested in using A.I. in your hiring process, you may want to attend our virtual summit.
If your company is using A.I. to screen candidates, you may want to be aware of machine bias surrounding it. Here’s a recent article where New York City is thinking about restricting the use of A.I. in hiring talent, which will provide you with a broader understanding of the topic.
Lastly, if you benefited from this article, please share it with your colleagues, thank you.
