How to Get the Most Out of Your HR Tech Right Now

AI-powered recruitment technology was already beginning to trend globally among companies striving to increase efficiency and improve the candidate experience. Now, as workplaces continue to adjust their hiring and retention activities, industry experts predict the surge in interest will only accelerate.

And for good reason. Productivity has never been more critical as HR professionals are being tasked to do more, with less.

Demonstrating ROI using a new talent experience platform’s highly powered metrics and analytics clearly defends its value. But first and foremost, you need to ensure recruiters are actually using the software you invested in. “How do you know your recruiting system isn’t optimized? Take it down in the middle of the day—and nobody calls to complain,” quipped HR industry thought leader Ed Newman at our annual IAMPHENOM conference.

Newman is the Founder and CEO of TalentExp, a company that provides innovative consulting to help companies plan and implement talent technology. According to him, launching a new talent recruitment platform involves far more than pushing a button. It’s important to address how the system will align with overarching goals and existing processes, content strategy, and data rules and requirements, he said.

Drawing on his 30 years of experience helping large corporations optimize their talent strategies and technology infrastructure, Newman shared key questions and considerations that HR should address at the outset of technology implementation. A common theme? Communication with other departments to delegate responsibilities and ensure staff is prepared to carry out related functions.

6 Steps to Successful Adoption of HR Tech

Here are six steps that can bring you closer to the end goal: implementing a platform that recruiting staff will embrace and leverage for increased efficiency across the entire team.

1. Consider Goals and Objectives

What are the business drivers? What do you need to accomplish?

To capitalize on potential benefits, the system needs to be set up to support the organization’s larger recruitment strategy and goals. Consider how critical a job role is compared to availability of talent. Look at it in quadrants: high availability of candidates versus low availability of candidates; high criticality of the role to business versus low criticality. Use this approach to help determine how to filter candidates.

2. Examine Process Alignment

How are you organized? What is the process? Who does what, where?

It’s important to have a clear overview of the processes and interactions that make up current recruitment practices. Creating a color-coded map that depicts who (candidate or recruiting staff) does what (fulfills a step in the application/interviewing/hiring process), where (in what system or on what site), and at what stage of the recruitment lifecycle brings current processes into focus, and shows where friction might arise.

3. Define Data Requirements

What data will be required to segment talent pools and feed reports?

Identify talent pools that need to be created and the type of data required to easily retrieve those candidates. The ability to extract data to create metrics scorecards is key to the system’s functionality. Remember, the end goal is for people to use the tool to perform job functions, producing a natural flow of meaningful data into the system.

4. Establish a Content Strategy

Who is your target audience and what are your key messages? What types of content will be required?

To maximize ROI, a content strategy should encompass more than posting job details. Managers and team members can better engage candidates by sharing fresh content related to company news, events, culture, and educational information. Get creative with message delivery in terms of emails and landing pages, and don’t forget that video is an extremely powerful tool that can bring a job description to life.

5. Integrate and Configure the System

What are the bi-directional integration requirements? What configurations need to be made to support the process?

System configuration will depend on the selected operating model. Systems should always be configured so that data from the ATS flows back to the CRM to provide the ability to dynamically include or exclude candidates based on their status. A bi-directional data flow between the ATS and CRM is encouraged—and mandatory for organizations planning to use a full lifecycle operating model, where one user will handle a candidate’s entire journey and maintain their data in both systems.

6. Find a Practical Approach to Change Management

What will be different for which stakeholders?

To prevent pushback—and eventual workarounds that can derail optimal use—clear, early communication regarding changes to job roles and functions is essential. But detailed information on how things will change at your specific organization isn’t exactly included in the training manual. HR departments should work to identify key changes so they can be incorporated in communication and training plans.

A valuable tool for this effort? Create a matrix listing the change category, issue, impacts or concerns, and any needed actions or decisions to guide change management.

With these tips to clear a path for smooth rollout and optimal usage, it’s time to get excited about the game-changing possibilities recruitment technology can unlock.

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Need to do more with less? Make sure recruiters know how to use the HR tech they have.