As a recruiter you know what a search strategy is!

It consists of the different steps you take when searching for candidates, the way you combine search criteria and the way you evaluate a shortlist of candidates.  Those sound like obvious and simple steps, but often it leads to long and complex processes.

If you know what you are looking for, why can it be difficult to come to a good list of qualified candidates?

There can be many reasons however :

    • It is not clear enough what you are looking for!

Example :  if you are looking for a software developer – are you looking for one with experience already, if so how many years?  Is it experience as a software developer or just having the skills to program?  What type of company did the person work for?  What is the person supposed to do short term and long term?  What is the strategic need to have someone on board?….There is many aspects that are often not well defined!

    • If you don’t find the ideal candidate right away (which is usually the case), what alternatives are you looking for?

Example : for the software developer, if you extend your search – let say not only searching for ‘software developer’ but also searching for skills that are associated such as java, database knowledge or even attitudes such being analytical.In other words, what is the entire set of criteria you have in mind and what is the order you want to apply these – start with experience first and then look for skills or vice versa, start looking for skills and consider experience as a nice to have.

    • If you don’t find the ideal candidate, what is the reasoning vis-à-vis the qualifications and talents you have already in your organization?

Example : if the software developer does not have the experience and even not all the skills you would require, there could be fit with the team because other have the ‘missing skills’ and teams can be composed differently – or you can train the candidate on the missing skills. In order to realize projects, develop products or services, you will need a set of skills and it is the combination that counts, not the qualifications and the skills of the individual team members.

    • Be clear in your conclusion (and be clear in your communication towards the candidate and the organization afterwards).

Example : tell the ‘new software developer’ clearly why he/she is being hired and which are the fields he/she can learn from the rest of the team members.


AI can help you defining your search strategy!

Even when it is not clear what your real requirements are, AI can help to make it more clear and guide you in the process :

  • AI can handle multiple criteria in parallel, even implicit criteria that you have not been thinking off – such as skills that are used in similar jobs or roles. AI can prompt you with suggestions of associated skills, comparable jobs,…
  • AI can use both historical information as well as future predictions to come to valuable suggestions of candidates. Your organization is changing constantly and as a result, making decisions only on history is wrong – a system should be able to help you in looking into the future.  It is not because you have always been hiring software developers that had previous experience that you have to continue doing so.  You might want to focus on skills only.
  • AI can make decisions fast based on a variety of criteria – not keywords. And AI will explain you the reasons for hiring and highlight also the so-called GAPS between candidates and positions you have to fill.

 

Is it that simple?

No, AI will clearly help you and support your sourcing, recruitment and hiring process but be aware that implementing an AI system to optimize your search strategy will require an optimal match between the system and your organization.  A black box AI system will not work for your organization and will not bring you the expected benefits – there is no ‘one size fits all AI system’

As Actonomy we provide flexible AI automation solutions that adapt to your processes easily and that provide you candidates based on a search strategy that is optimized for you.  We use AI not only to find candidates but also to assist you during the sourcing and searching process.  Contact us to learn more about our methodology for implementing automated search strategies.