Talent and Innovation in 2022: How Can You Use Tech to Solve Big Workforce Challenges?

If you hoped 2022 might be the year that stability returned to the talent market, I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed. Labor shortages, the shadow of the great resignation, and shifting talent needs mean that engaging contingent and permanent talent remains tough for organizations around the world. It's impossible to solve these big workforce challenges by falling back on the same old processes and strategies.

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Workforce technology and solutions are accelerating faster than ever, and deploying the right tools in the right way can ensure your business stays ahead of the competition when it comes to attracting, engaging, and retaining the people you need.

I sat down with my  team of workforce experts to discuss the most important and impactful ways that businesses can deploy talent tech to overcome obstacles – big and small – right now.

Attraction

To successfully attract candidates, a business has to have a clear understanding of who they are attracting. It’s a simple step, but one that far too many organizations rush past. At KellyOCG, we use market analytics to understand the demographics our clients are engaging with, based on the skills and experience required, and these insights inform every element of our strategy.

Deploying data and analytics tools to qualify the candidate market and understand supply and demand increases hiring success significantly, even in a competitive market.

With a candidate profile identified, an organization has to consider how to attract the right people quickly and effectively. Today, 75% of candidates use social media to find jobs – and there are many tools that can automate outreach to various platforms – but it’s a talent technology that’s hugely underutilized. The right tools can help businesses post jobs, scrub applicant tracking systems (ATS), and engage with multiple social platforms. Description optimization is another way that technology can help to ensure a job posting reaches the people it should. Content optimization improves traffic levels, diversity mix, and posting impact. 

Personalized messaging is a simple way to boost candidate attraction

Right now, candidates are being bombarded with communications from recruiters, and many feel  impersonal. Video messaging can add a level of human connection that your competitors don’t have, and a range of virtual tools now deliver this service. We are also seeing much stronger responses from text-based outreach when compared to email – though it’s important to ensure that the rest of your application process is mobile-friendly and that your message meets local SMS regulations. For high-volume hiring, automated, bot-driven technologies like KellyOCG RPO Boost can increase the speed of response and ease of interface.

Engagement

The hiring process must be intuitive and easy, with a low barrier to engagement. Technologies that allow candidates to book their own interview slots, automatically email out interview information, or populate resume details from LinkedIn, save time and effort, reducing dropout rates at every stage. Removing duplication and time-consuming processes should be a priority for organizations that want to stand out against the competition. Businesses should also be mindful of keeping candidates updated at regular intervals; a major criticism from applicants is radio silence during the application process or post-interview. Advances in video software can even enable organizations to fully automate the interview process and increase bandwidth, with candidates recording answers to key questions before returning them. Though this type of approach is not suitable for every role, businesses can’t afford to make any part of the hiring process harder than it needs to be. A consumer-level experience is what candidates expect, and this has to be your baseline.

Retention

The best way to avoid a hiring crisis is to retain and develop existing talent. Onboarding isn’t the end of the road, and in a fast-moving and fierce talent marketplace, organizations need to keep their hires engaged to improve retention. In terms of technology, this means adapting communication methods to suit your audience. Giving employees the choice to get updates and information by text, email, or via another online platform, enables them to curate their experience and feel more connected to the organization as a whole. It’s also important to keep a human approach front and center. Video technology is a great way to add a personal touch to corporate messaging, especially in highly remote environments. Businesses should apply the same principles to retention that they strive for in their hiring approach – keep it simple, personalized, and intuitive, to ensure all workers stay connected and engaged.

Onboarding isn’t the end of the road, and in a fast-moving and fierce talent marketplace, organizations need to keep engaging their hires to improve retention.

The range of talent tech on the market can feel overwhelming, and it’s impossible to implement or understand every solution out there. Start by figuring out the biggest hiring challenges you face, breaking them down into key obstacles before exploring the technologies that meet these specific needs. However you adjust and upgrade your attraction, engagement, and retention processes, you can’t afford to stand still in a candidate-led market.  

If you want to learn more about the latest talent tech or chat about a specific hiring challenge, get in touch for extra insights and advice.