Recruiting 2.0

The term "Recruitment 2.0" is heard often in personnel selection circles (some are already 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 that new terms often fall into.

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 the fascinating virtual world provides us with today. This does not mean that traditional personnel selection techniques are replaced or eliminated, but rather that they are expanded, automated, and made more effective.

Before Recruitment 2.0, the options were mostly physical and limited; now there seem to be 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 browse job vacancies 400 km away, choose the one they are most interested in, and get in touch with the company through a button, by filling out a form, or by sending an email using various devices.

Recruiters can work and carry out the entire personnel selection process from anywhere there is internet, and their information is usually in the cloud rather than on a local or corporate computer.

Job boards are part of Recruitment 2.0 because they exist thanks to thousands of people building their job profiles or attaching their CVs. In turn, their revenue comes when the recruiter pays to gain access to the CVs of high-quality candidates. The focus is on quality over quantity, which reduces the costs of selecting candidates. The platform itself, through an algorithm, performs a pre-selection.

Job boards are not the only thing used today; there are also specialized social networks such as LinkedIn, where recruiters can search for a given profile both within and outside their network of contacts. This social network even has its own job board where companies can post their vacancies. Another function is training. This social network has the particularity of being free, and it also offers a paid version. This last option makes it possible to post jobs and to take training.

Other social networks that are not necessarily work-related, such as Facebook or Instagram, offer the possibility of selecting people or posting job vacancy ads. They are also very useful for candidates, since there are numerous Facebook groups built around job searches based on location, industry, or type of work. Instagram offers a perfect setting to get to know a brand, above all in what it conveys, and it provides a feed of what the brand or company is communicating in real time.

Beyond being able to conduct an interview with two or more participants or post on social networks, in Recruitment 2.0 a variety of tools can be used, ranging from the semantic analysis of CVs to automated online tests to evaluate candidates, where with a simple subscription you get a series of tests for selecting candidates for various positions. This makes selection processes easier and more efficient and shortens their times, since the questionnaire is sent via email to the candidate or candidates, and as they respond, the tests completed by the applicants arrive in the recruiter's account. For example, with a platform like Evalart it is possible to evaluate multiple candidates remotely and online, assessing competencies and aptitude, and even practical skills such as a programmer's ability to program.

As can be gathered from the above, an important aspect of Recruitment 2.0 is giving the candidate control over the experience and allowing options: they can take tests from home, respond to bots, take part in simulations and video interviews, among the endless processes and options that exist today in the Human Resources field.

For example, a few months ago I learned about the selection process of a person in which no human being contacted him. He applied for a job vacancy on a job board, which he checks from his cell phone once or twice a day. After three or four days, he received an email in his inbox informing him that if he was still interested in the offer, he should click to be redirected to Messenger. From there, a bot interviewed him through monosyllabic answers. At the end of the interview, this bot (with a name and a very cordial attitude) told him that they would let him know whether he was still in the process or not. A week later, the bot got in touch and told him that he was not continuing in the process for that position, but that they had his details for a later search.

This real case is one of the many that can be seen today. Today, bots are part of personnel selection processes. Without going into whether a bot can carry out a selection process, it is clear that the "human touch" must be present at some point in the process. The (human) recruiter must analyze the candidate's aptitudes, knowledge, experience, and so many other variables, something that has not been developed so far. Technology has arrived to help us, and it is up to recruiters (and also candidates) to know how to make use of it.