7 Digital Recruitment Terms You Should Know

The biggest game changer for the digital recruitment world has undoubtedly been the internet. Its arrival has sparked the start of several big trends that will profoundly change the way we do digital recruitment. To paint you an up-to-date picture, we’ll outline the most significant ones in today’s post: 7 digital recruitment terms you should know.    

1. AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for quite some time now. Slowly but surely it has also found its way into different parts of HR, recruitment included.

There are various applications of AI in recruitment and their number is growing rapidly.

For example: a candidate just applied to a company and filled in his personal information and CV. He then gets a personalized confirmation email with information about the next steps and a timeline, signed by the recruiter. The email is, of course, automatically generated and unique for every candidate.

A different, more advanced, application of AI in recruitment can be found in preselection tools. This kind of software uses data and analytics to make predictions about an applicant’s likelihood of success in the role they apply for.

Examples of such (preselection) tools can be found at companies like Harver and Hirevue.

There is such a vast amount of information to be shared about AI in HR that we’ve decided to dedicate an entire section to it here at digitalHRtech. For regular, in-depth articles on all things AI and HR related, you’re best to go there.  

2. The Candidate Experience

If there’s one thing that’s really gained attention over the past couple of years, it’s the candidate experience.

There are various reasons for this increased interest in those who seek a job. Especially in certain industries – think hospitality and retail for instance – candidates often are (future) clients of the business. They apply for a reason: they are a fan of the company they want to work for. Try not to disappoint them!

Employees apply for a reason: they are a fan of the company they want to work for. Don’t disappoint them!

The experience candidates get during the selection procedure influences their perception of the company and brand. A positive candidate experience might turn even a rejected applicant into your brand ambassador, but a bad encounter is likely to turn them (and their family and friends) into ex-customers.

Another aspect that plays a role in the growing attention for the candidate experience is the consumerization of HR. This means that job seekers expect a personalized, (mobile) experience, similar to the ones they get outside the professional world.    

3. Data & Analytics

A mini-intro is probably in order here. Two things caused the boom in data & analytics tools: the rise of the internet of course, but most importantly the emergence of the Cloud. The latter facilitated the mass storage of data and basically made it mainstream. Since you need heaps of data to do analytics, that was the moment things really started to kick off.

Particularly in recruitment and preselection, predictive analytics is changing the way companies hire. The idea – in a nutshell – is to gather historical data and use this to predict a future trend or event. As such, predictive analytics can be used to assess an applicant’s suitability for the role he or she applies for, but also the likelihood they’ll fit into the company culture.

4. Employee Referrals

It might seem strange at first, especially as a trend in digital recruitment, but employee referrals keep gaining popularity. Why? Because referrals generally are high quality people, less expensive, less likely to leave and a good source to find passive candidates. Oh, and they’re good for overall employee morale. To name just a few fine reasons.

The big advantage when we talk about digital recruitment however, is that getting referrals becomes easier. Candidates could upload their LinkedIn profile to your website for instance – and in the process – you can ask them to select the most suitable candidates for similar jobs. You could even make a preselection based on this candidate’s network. The possibilities are endless!

5. Flexible Workforce

Remember those times when the vast majority of an organization’s workforce consisted of full-time employees? Well, those times are long gone.

The average 21st-century workforce is a mix of contractors, freelancers, full-time employees and everything in-between. A result of, among other things, the gig economy and a changing perspective on work and its place in our lives. Needless to say, this new, blended workforce reality brings plenty of new recruitment challenges.

6. Mobile & Social

Whether you like it or not, many of us have become one with our phones. According to a study by research firm DScout, we touch, swipe, tap and click it about 2617 times a day! Average users spend 145 minutes a day on their phone and heavy users no less than 225 daily minutes. We use mobile for everything: to read, order an Uber, book a hotel, watch videos, you name it.

In their hunt for new career opportunities, job seekers already turn more to their mobile devices than to their desktops. Because of this, and because of the consumerization of HR, applicants expect a super smooth mobile application process. Time to say goodbye to lengthily job adverts and those painfully slow upload features.

HR 2025
Competency Assessment

Do you have the competencies needed to remain relevant? Take the 5 minute assessment to find out!

Start Free Assessment

I’ve put mobile and social together since the two are inextricably linked. Social media such as LinkedIn, and to a lesser extent Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well, can be a valuable source of potential talent and/or a useful recruitment tool for companies.

Social networks can be a great additional way for candidates to find their next professional match.

7. Sourcing

When it comes to the proactive searching of qualified candidates to fill a position, programmatic advertising has been a complete game changer. This new way of targeting an audience has blown over from the marketing industry to the HR sector.

Programmatic advertising is another example of how AI is being applied to HR and recruitment. It enables recruiters to send the right message – or job advert in this case– to the right type of candidate.

With programmatic advertising, recruiters can define precisely what candidate profiles they’re looking for and hence target only relevant applicants. As such, this way of sourcing can be a big time and money saver.  

And there is more. Programmatic advertising also is a powerful tool when it comes to engaging with relevant audiences. The targeted job adverts don’t just go to the right job boards; potential candidates will also see them pop up via display ads and on their social channels.

In Short

Digital recruitment is about much more than ‘just’ finding the right person for the job. Rapid developments in (HR) technology and a changing workforce ask for a tech-savvy, open-minded and flexible breed of recruiters. Because one thing’s for sure, there are a lot more changes to come!