Balancing Tech, Brand, and Genuine Connections in Hiring with Cielo

Balancing personalized experiences with scalability is a common challenge in HR, especially when adopting new technology. How can organizations leverage the efficiency of cutting-edge technology while maintaining genuine human connections?

Elaine Orler, SVP of Consulting at Cielo, and Marco Abato, Cielo’s Vice President of Global and Employer Brand, offer their insights on how you achieve that balance with a talent acquisition strategy that blends brand recognition, technology adoption, and genuine human interactions.

Watch the entire conversation on-demand below, or keep reading to get the highlights.

How Did You Get Into HR?

Not many people wake up in the morning and say “I wanna work in HR.” Still, people find their way to it and discover rich, rewarding careers.

Orler began her career in elementary education, teaching kindergarten and first grade for several years. An interview with Qualcomm led to her first role in talent acquisition.

“It was transferable skills between teaching kindergarten and first grade and recruiting design engineers,” says Orler. “You just need to work them the same way you would a classroom.”

Related: Volume, Velocity & Value: How This Education Leader Hires At Scale

Abato was initially interested in advertising and brand, which led to his transition to recruitment marketing. He worked at an agency before finding a role at Cielo six years ago.

How Do You Define Brand Recognition in Terms of Talent Acquisition?

Brand recognition is the key to effective talent acquisition. Organizations must learn to effectively communicate their reputation, values, and culture to attract the best talent in a competitive market. Abato defines this combination as “Talent Magnetism.”

Talent Magnetism has three elements:

• Reputation: How the company is viewed by potential candidates

• Candidate experience: The quality and personalization of the interactions candidates have with the company

• Employee reach: The company’s visibility and accessibility to job seekers

As Abato puts it, “We define it as Talent magnetism, a combination of their reputation, the experience that you give the individual job seeker, and the reach that you have as an employer.”

Related: Employer Branding vs. Recruitment Marketing: What’s the Difference?

How Does Technology Impact Brand and Candidate Experience?

Adopting new HR technology can significantly improve the candidate experience by facilitating smoother interactions and accelerating the hiring process.

An efficient and personalized application process makes candidates feel valued and engaged. However, over-reliance on technology can depersonalize the hiring process, making candidates feel disrespected and undervalued. This can impair the overall candidate experience and damage your brand reputation.

Orler emphasizes the need for technology to create more efficient recruitment processes in a way that aligns with the organization’s brand and user expectations.

“One of the greatest pitfalls is not really seeing the process through the candidate lens,” says Orler. “When we implement technology just for technology’s sake...we’re really struggling to find a way to be successful with that.”

What Are Some Challenges or Pitfalls with Technology in Recruitment?

Using cutting-edge technology in recruitment can make the hiring process faster and more efficient, but it comes with its own set of challenges. One of the biggest challenges is overlooking the candidate’s perspective.

When candidates get rejection emails that they can tell are automated or AI-produced, it rubs them the wrong way, leaving them feeling resentful and frustrated. They go on to vent their negative experience to others, potentially deterring other future job seekers from applying to your organization. Another issue is a long or burdensome application process which can deter candidates from completing their applications, driving away talent.

To avoid these challenges, technology should be implemented to enhance rather than hinder the candidate experience.

How Can Organizations Appear Genuine in Their Employer Branding?

There’s been a shift in the last few years towards purpose-driven organizations. Candidates are more interested in what a company stands for rather than what they build or produce. So how do you effectively communicate your company values? Authentically and transparently. 

Authenticity and transparency make your brand feel human and real, fostering trust with candidates before, during, and after the apply process. 

Related: Employer Brands That Stand the Test of Time

Candidates want to see and hear real, relatable stories from employees. These stories should convey your company’s values and culture, showing it’s a place where people want to work.

Abato stressed the importance of authentic employee stories that highlight personal and professional growth. Showing what employee’s day-to-day is like offers a glimpse of what it’s like to work at the company.

“It can be the reason why they join and the purpose that they’re focusing on as an organization,” says Abato. “Where those two things align, that’s where you see the powerful stories come across, and that’s what we want to portray.”

Abato shared an example of a client in the Asia Pacific running a campaign focused on women in technology. They shared the stories of first-generation professionals to create a powerful story that connected with their candidates.

How Do Retention and Internal Mobility Play into Brand and Technology?

A negative candidate experience can damage your brand in ways that are hard to undo and make it harder for an organization to find good talent.

Having a strong internal mobility program in place that supports employees with their career development helps organizations retain their best talent. It also positions them as a supportive workplace that invests in their employees' growth.

Keeping employees in a role that doesn’t align with their long-term goals is a sure way to push them to look for opportunities elsewhere. The flip side is that when they eventually get promoted or transferred to their desired role within your company, you need to find someone to take their place.

“I don’t know if that’s something that technology solves. I don’t know if that’s something that brand solves,” Abato says, “But in both instances, they can have a negative impact on the brand if you keep someone stuck in a role that they feel they have grown beyond.”

How Can Companies Balance the Human Touch and Technology in the Hiring Process?

The future of technology has a lot of exciting possibilities for the future of talent acquisition. Orler is especially excited about the impact of generative AI on recruitment. This technology is changing how candidates present themselves to employers and how recruiters assess talent.

Generative AI tools can streamline the creation of resumes and cover letters and make them more tailored and personalized to specific job descriptions. This evolution means that recruiters will need new ways to better evaluate the skills of candidates beyond traditional resumes.

Related: Why ChatGPT Is NOT The Best GenAI Tool for HR (And What Is)

“Generative AI has definitely changed and reshaped a lot of the things we’re doing today within messaging, within content, within the distribution of content,” notes Ordler, “but it’s disrupting the way candidates are presenting themselves as well.”

What Advice Would You Give to Someone Facing Challenges in Talent Acquisition Related to Brand and Technology?

The best way to balance brand initiatives with technology adoption is to start integrating both simultaneously. Above all, keep the focus on impacting candidates' lives positively by giving them meaningful career opportunities.

“Start with both, but the reality is just start,” advises Ordler. “That’s the biggest thing I can ask for of anybody in talent acquisition.”

Key Takeaways

Here are Orler and Abato’s takeaways about how to balance brand, technology, and the human touch in talent acquisition:

• Balance Brand and Technology: Adopt new technology solutions that align with your brand values and goals to improve the candidate experience, but don’t lose the human touch

• Embrace Authenticity: Use genuine and transparent communication and share real employee stories to convey your company’s culture and build trust with your candidates

• Leverage Emerging Technologies: Start using generative AI and other advanced tools to improve the way you assess candidates

Ready to take a deeper dive into the power of authentic storytelling? Take a closer look at how Life Time balanced an authentic employer brand with technology to drive 350,000 candidates for 28,000 open roles.