Recruiting 2.0

The term “recruitment 2.0” is widely heard in recruitment (some are even starting to talk about 3.0 or 4.0). But what do we mean when we talk about recruitment 2.0? In this post, we will explain a little about what it is, beyond the clichés into which the new terms often fall.

Recruitment 2.0 is a type of personnel selection process that marks an evolution over the traditional process. The novelty is that it proposes a paradigm shift; if the expression is allowed: the recruiter not only looks for the candidate, but the candidate can look for work and interact with the web tools that today provides us with the fascinating virtual world. This does not mean that traditional personnel selection techniques are replaced or eliminated, but rather that they expand, automate and become more effective.

Before recruitment 2.0, the options were mostly physical and limited, now it seems that there are no limits and you can select a candidate who lives 10,000 km away but has the skills you are looking for. And vice versa, a candidate can study job vacancies 400 km away and select the one they are most interested in and communicate with the company through a button, filling out a form or sending an email using various devices.

The selectors can work and carry out the whole process of personnel selection from any place where there is the Internet, and their information is usually in the cloud and not in a local or corporate team.

Employment boards are part of recruitment 2.0 as they exist because thousands of people develop their job profiles or attach their CVs. At the same time, the profit of these is when the selector pays to obtain access to the CVs of high-quality candidates. The focus is on quality rather than quantity, thus reducing the costs of selecting candidates. The same platform, through an algorithm, performs a pre-selection.

Not only are employment boards used today, but there are specialized social networks such as LinkedIn in which recruiters can search for a certain profile either within their network of contacts or outside it. This social network even has an employment board where companies can post their job vacancies. Another function of this platform is training. Also, this social network has the particularity of being free and, besides that, offering a paid version. This last option allows you to post your job offers and enroll in training programs.

Other social networks that are not necessarily job-related, such as Facebook or Instagram, offer the possibility of selecting people or publishing job vacancy ads. Also very useful for candidates, as many Facebook groups are built around job searches based on the area, category or mode of work. Instagram offers a perfect scenario to know a brand, especially in what it transmits and allows you to feed about what the brand or company is transmitting in real-time.

Beyond being able to conduct an interview with two or more members or publish on social networks, in recruitment 2.0 you can use a wide variety of tools, ranging from semantic analysis of CVs to automated online tests to evaluate candidates. With a simple subscription, you get a series of tests for the selection of candidates for different positions and fields. This facilitates and optimizes the selection processes and shorten their times. And,

since the questionnaires are sent via email to the candidate or candidates, as they respond to the questionnaires, they display in the recruiter’s account. For example, with a platform such as Evalart, it is possible to evaluate multiple candidates remotely and online. It allows you to evaluate their competencies, aptitude, and even practical skills such as the ability of a developer to develop.

As you can see from the above, an important aspect of recruitment 2.0 is to give the candidate control over the experience and allow options such as responding tests from home, responding to bots, participating in simulations and video interviews, and many other processes and options that exist today in the area of human resources.

For example, a few months ago I heard about the selection process of a person in which no human being contacted her. This person applied for a job vacancy in a job portal, which he checks from his cell phone once or twice a day. After three or four days, he received an email in which he was informed that, if he was still interested in the proposal, he must redirect to Messenger. From there, a bot interviewed him through monosyllabic answers. And, at the end of the interview, this bot (with a very cordial name and attitude) told him that they were going to let him know if he was going to pass to the next phase of the process or not. A week later, the bot contacted him again and told him that he was not still in the process for that position, but that they had his data for a later recruitment process.

This case is one of many that can be observed today. Today, bots are part of personnel selection processes. With no desire to detail if a bot can carry out a selection process, it is clear that the “human hand” must be at some point in the process. The (human) recruiter analyzes the skills, knowledge, experience, and so many other variables of the candidate; something that has not been developed for now. Technology has come to help us and it is up to recruiters (and also candidates) to know how to benefit from it.