The Human Touch in Recruiting

Lately more and more of our contact with candidates and even with clients (employers) is electronic. “Conversations” occur by e-mail and text, and even through neutral sites like LinkedIn. It should come as no surprise that there are even robot interviewers where you record your questions, and the candidate records his/her answers. One company providing this service advertises that you can turn a stack of resumes into the perfect candidate "while you sleep."

However…. Once the candidates get to the hiring manager, chemistry, personal presentations and all the human factors come into play. So, how can a professional recruiter, whether internal or external, adequately evaluate a candidate without knowing what the candidate is like, how the candidate expresses him/herself, etc.? I would say you can’t. Perhaps my age is showing, but I think that one of the primary skills a recruiter must have is knowing who is or isn’t a fit, and why, based on their personality.

If you’ve read my stuff before, you know that I preach using a Performance Based approach, determining if a candidate can produce critical results. Can you use a recording to determine that? Not sure. I think I hear results in tone, inflection, confidence, etc., as much as I hear from the words.

If you have an opinion on automation in recruiting, please let me know. I think this is evolving, and it will be interesting to see where it all goes.