Recruitment is still a people business

Written by: John McCluskey, Managing Director Whizdom and APSCo Director

It’s difficult with all the Technology, Applications, Automation, Artificial Intelligence (Ai), Data Intelligence, Chatbots etc., that are constantly being promoted to the recruitment industry. We must wonder if we are in the technology business or the recruitment business?

The line can be blurred at times, but I would encourage people to leverage off technology for those repetitive process tasks, so consultants can focus more on the human interaction, or why are we here.

Do people really want a bot and Ai managing their careers and substituting one of the few remaining personal interactions to find them the ideal role and cultural fit for their careers.

Do clients want bots and Ai telling them who they should and shouldn’t employ, devoid of any empathy, cultural awareness, communication?

I maybe a bit old school, but what you have to love about the recruitment profession is building that personal interaction with Candidates and Clients to make that connection that adds value to both parties and the personal satisfaction for recruiters knowing the difference they can make with a successful placement.

Very few of us chose recruitment for a career and surprisingly that is also true for many other professions that people end up in. Often this is due to a third-party introduction that saw qualities and passions that a bot or Ai cannot sense.

A human has the emotion and aptitude to think unilaterally to make these disconnected connections.

A good friend of mine spent much of his career driving taxis and working at the Executive level in the public service and absolutely hated turning up to work and was depressed.

To cut a long story short he ended up through a referral into a job with Bunnings and absolutely loves it.

Who would have made that connection other than a human?

Recruiters don’t underestimate yourselves you are important, valuable and who else is best to unwind the many complications that a human-to-human interaction requires other than a human.