Shally Steckerl
Founder and President
The Sourcing Institute
What area of the HR function will be most impacted by emerging technologies, and why?
Talent acquisition is one area where emerging tools are making it easier to use technology to drive decisions. In the past, companies that wanted to make sense of hiring data first needed to know what message they wanted to convey, be skilled enough to manipulate data to match that message, and turn the results into something that could be easily understood. Now, with even the most minimalistic of platforms, companies can sort through decades of data using visualization tools to examine trends such as the time it takes to fill positions and common traits of valuable employees to appropriately allocate resources and find the best talent.
In acquiring and implementing new technologies, what’s the one or two most common mistakes HR organizations make?
Implementing new technologies never goes off without a hitch, but a common mistake is adding more technology to an already overloaded system. If you have a customer relationship management system for tracking applicants and then implement LinkedIn Recruiter for connecting with candidates, the systems won’t talk to each other, and data will have to be duplicated. Every time a new system is added, you multiply the chance for data to collide. It might make an individual task easier, but it can also add friction in another area in an unpredicted way.
Are there certain strategies that are more effective than others when it comes to getting your workforce to use new HR technologies being put in place?
When bringing in new technology, pick a system that is intuitive, easy to use, and simple enough that it can be managed by the users themselves. If a new tool requires extensive training and supervision to ensure its success, it may become more complicated than the problem or gap it was implemented to fix. Appropriate technology in talent acquisition is having a hiring system that candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers share, dismissing the need for a coordinator to schedule interviews and serve as a “middle man.” It should also be able to smoothly integrate with the user’s workflow and environment.
