Pratyush
Accountability of bringing right talent at right time for the right job has always been with recruiter. This is a phenomenon that existed over thousand years, ages when warriors were scouted for a mission or mercenaries were hired to assassinate or mimes were evaluated for a royal court’s entertainment..
Kind and type of hiring may have changed, but the underlying values remain the same, in exchange of a talent one should have a proposition which diligently and adequately conveyed to the “Recruit”.
As my career progresses through its own trajectory involving different aspects of recruitment, I often ponder on the exciting journey and transformation of recruitment.
It’s fascinating to revisit historic recruitment practices and tools and to find its roots are still strong and alive resulting in nascent methodologies to not only adapt to revolutions but also thrive through it.
There has been a paradigm shift in recruiters over the ages.
Recruitonids are what I like to believe as the earliest form of recruiters. Times when jobs were publicly announced or published on a publically accessible medium or even just word of mouth. Interested applicants would take the first step and meet the recruiting party and the decision would be taken on the basis something very abstract like tales or life experiences behind the applicant and skill test by the king or the ruler. Recruitment wasn’t structured and recruiter was nothing more than a messenger. This very simplistic and yet effective approach was what worked very well till earliest advent of industrial revolution.
"55 BCE marks the beginning of a very early form of “Employee Referral”.Julius Ceasar offered 300 sesterti to any soldier recruiting another loyal and strong candidate into the roman army. A compensatory reward was madepayable on death of new recruits within the first 3 months. These very basic unstructured and effective policies ensured high involuntary attrition rates."
Recruitabilis (Channeling Commoners : 1940's to 1970's)
When the Industry from hand production methods to machines was happening, also new chemical manufacturing process, iron production, increase use of steam power and water power marked their presence. In other words, it was a rise of mechanised factory system. Industries like chemical, textile, metallurgy were largely mechanised generating the need of more précise and skilled work force. The first industrial revolution that spans over 6 decades had its cascading effect of transforming Recruitonid to Recruitabilis . Industries around the world were changing from raw labour intensive hand made goods to faster improvised machines , new chemical manufacturing methods . Unexplored potential of energy sources like steam,water and iron was opening new doors and at the same time creating a huge demand for a skilled and engineering centric work force.
Though the industrial revolution had kicked off a complete transformation Interestingly the actual evolution from Recruitonids to Recuitabilis was slow.Hence it was only in the post revolution era (1940s – 1970s) where Recruitabilis came into its own well defined shape. Print and press were seen as an unexplored territory by the Recruitabilis that offered great potential. Job advertisements via post , print , newspaper advert became an easy and impactful medium .It was not only the recruiting party that was transforming but even the “candidate” was getting a face lift with well worded resumes and business cards. I like to think of it as the beginning of the “Headhunter era” marked by attributes like cold calls for name generations using tools like typewriters, rolodexes, name generators and reaching out to broader population via newspapers and trade journals .
Rectruiterectus (Boon of Internet 1980s - 1990s):
In 1969, when internet was invented, it brought in measured and revolutionary changes.In 1982, Internet Protocol Suite, we better know it as TCP/ IP, was standardised, which marked the beginning to Recruiterectus, era of recruiters which started pursuing active candidates and fill job requisitions using tools like desktop computers, Online job boards, ATS (applicant tracking systems) and Resume databases. Mostly it was post and pray mechanism of sourcing and recruiting. New technology edges into the job application process with the fax machine, which allowed easier submission of resumes and cover letters. By 1989, more individuals gained access to computers and internet, job seekers could email their applications to potential employer.
Recruiterectus utilized more of World Wide Web post 1991 when users got introduced to it, it accelerated the future of online job boards and eventually applicant tracking system. In 1994, job boards like Monster, Netstart (later became Career Builder) and Career Mosaic were launched. In 1996 Martin Ouellett in Canada created an early for of ATS. He also had a French - Language job-board for employers and applicant called "Viasite" which in 1999 was renamed as Recruitsoft, Inc. and registered as a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. This company launched an online hiring management system called Recruiter Webtop. In the same year Monster's historic Super Bowl commercial aired and online job-boards almost phased out Newspaper classifieds for job search.
Recruitapiens (Digital - Gen - 2000s - Present):
New Age or Digital Recruiter or Recruitasapiens are the recruiters who largely bank on digitalization and automation. They are using cognitive science to develop the art of connecting to a resource pool that might be hidden/unexplored or even unaware of new opportunities. The New-information-centric-age relies on the Applicant tracking system to develop effective dashboards. Forecasting and predicting the demand based on trend analysis. The evolved recruiter not only focuses on hiring an individual but reengineers the sourcing technique to engage the potential recruits. New tools and techniques evolved like Artificial Intelligence driven ATS, Social Platforms, use of mobile devices. The new era works on creating an Employer Brand story by building state of art Hiring Experience. Hiring Experience which talks about creating a high collaborative stakeholder, engaged candidate, brand ambassador employee and high value digital experience for participant and recipient.
Recruitosapiens has following traits:
Recruitment has gone through a natural evolutionary change all through Monolithic Era followed by Industrial Revolution, Information Revolution and Digital Revolution. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning would provide additional edge from varied lenses of Recruiting. However, an equilibrium with the old, new and future tools can only be achieved, if the human connect with the evolution can be sustained, otherwise a tool and technique can only create a short-term impact
"In this age of digital disruption, machine should be seen as an augmentation of human intelligence and us humans as an augmentation of machine’s sensitivity. "