Interim Management

Over the next five years, technology will completely transform the workplace. Organisations, their people, the nature of work and how that work is done will all be affected quite profoundly.As we transition to a hybrid workforce, in which people work seamlessly with robots and algorithms in a digitally optimised environment, organisations will need access to people with the right skills, attitudes and mindsets for success.In fact, people’s skills, vision, rationality and creative thinking – combined with a passion for learning and an ability to cope with constant change and uncertainty – will make the difference between success and failure, and recruiters will play a crucial role in making sure that people with these vital capabilities are joining organisations at the right time and in the right roles.Recruiting in the future of workOur Human to Hybrid research examines the impact of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation and how recruitment specialists will have to respond. We talked to 350 HR and recruitment professionals, 500 business leaders and 2,031 employees for our research and found that business leaders regard the shift to a hybrid workforce as the biggest strategic challenge facing them over the next five years and that the key to making the transition smoothly is to focus on three strategic levers: digital (technological capability), data (workforce insight) and people (having the right skills, culture and leadership for success).Organisations must put digital to work within their recruitment function to create the best candidate experience – seamless and personalised across the entire process – if they’re to have any chance of finding and attracting the high-quality talent they’ll need to succeed. This won’t be easy as competition for top talent intensifies – 67% of HR and recruitment professionals predict the shift to a hybrid workforce will make recruiting high-quality talent even more challenging – but the majority (70%) recognise they need to digitise recruitment to compete effectively.Focus on candidate experienceDigitisation offers a multitude of benefits to recruitment, such as speeding up the process, reaching more candidates and addressing skills shortages. But according to HR professionals, the biggest benefit is improving the candidate experience throughout the talent acquisition lifecycle – 65% expect candidate experience to become a key differentiator within business over the next five years, and 53% think digital will drive improved candidate experience.What does an improved candidate experience look like? According to our white paper The digital opportunity: Delivering better candidate experiences in the shift to a hybrid workforce, it will be fast, tailored to candidates’ individual needs and preferences, seamless and easy to use across different channels, proactive, interactive and engaging, putting candidates in control.Failing to offer such an experience could have significant consequences, and HR professionals are acutely aware that they can’t afford to fail in this. If they do, they risk losing great talent to the competition, not having the right skills in the organisation to transform it successfully, and impacting their function’s reputation within the business.36% of HR professionals believe that candidate experience will suffer if they lag behind in adopting digital platforms.Benefits of automationThere’s been a lot of talk about the role that automation is likely to play in recruitment over the coming years, as technology such as automation and AI become used more widely.Our Human to Hybrid research reveals that HR leaders think it will have the biggest, most positive role to play in engaging candidates even before positions become available, offering an easier and more scalable way to build up passive talent pools and create relationships with a broader range of potential employees.Automation represents an unmissable opportunity for HR professionals to finally achieve something they’ve talked about for many years – being able to plan for talent more effectively – but have been unable to achieve because they’ve lacked the resources and time.It’s also seen as the preferable option (over human-driven processes) for defining and specifying roles and profiles, proactively searching for candidates and shortlisting applications. It’s not the answer to all recruitment challenges, of course, and HR professionals need to balance automation with human and delivery and interaction very carefully – they can’t afford to over-digitise and end up alienating prospective recruits by using technology inappropriately or excessively.HR professionals predict that rapid digitisation of recruitment processes over the next five years will have a profound and positive effect on the way that people look for jobs and how organisations find and recruit talent. It will make it easier for them to move on from simply reacting to immediate business needs to proactively and strategically planning.The biggest impact, however, will be on their ability to offer a seamless, personalised candidate experience throughout the recruitment process that meets – and exceeds – the expectations of an increasingly demanding talent pool.To find out more about the role of digital in recruiting high-quality talent for the hybrid workforce, download The digital opportunity: Delivering better candidate experiences in the shift to a hybrid workforce.

Technology’s rapid advance into the workplace over the next five years has the potential to completely transform organisations and their workforces, the nature of work and how that work is done.In our Human to Hybrid research we found that, although recruitment teams want to use data and analytics more effectively, enabling them to make better decisions and offer candidates a quicker, more personalised experience, they’re struggling to achieve this. 45% of business leaders report that they’ve made the least progress in data and analytics, compared to just 27% who claim to have made the most progress in this area. In our white paper, The insight edge in talent acquisition: How data and insight can deliver the skills needed in a hybrid workforce, we examine the impact of data on talent acquisition and how this will evolve in the future, the barriers HR and recruitment leaders face to using data and insight more strategically, and what organisations should be doing to exploit the full power of their data.From instinct to insightThere’s no doubt that, as the workforce transforms, the skills people will need to thrive will change too. Organisations say they will be looking for specialist skills such as computer programming and data analytics, but softer skills such as agility, resilience, communication and creativity also play a crucial role. They’ll also need people who are curious about the world around them, passionate about learning and developing their career, and able to thrive in a constantly changing, uncertain environment.Our research reveals that organisations will need to use data more effectively if they’re to recruit the skills they’ll need for success – some of which don’t even exist yet. Now, almost half (46%) of organisations rely on ‘instinct and gut feel’ when it comes to assessing the both current skills and those they’ll need in the future. Recruitment and HR leaders are under no illusion about what is needed: 83% acknowledge that they must improve their use of data and insight within talent acquisition and 81% recognise they must achieve greater visibility of skills within the workforce.Focus on quality hiresNot everyone may use it, but HR and recruitment leaders are very clear on data’s potential value within talent acquisition – 83% say that it’s critical for their organisation to improve recruitment and talent acquisition. The biggest driver, against a backdrop of skills shortage and an intensifying war for talent, is to make better hiring decisions – 67% of HR and recruitment leaders say ‘quality of hire’ is becoming their key metric, and data is seen as the best means of driving improvements.76% of HR and recruitment leaders say data and employee insights are vital to building robust and extensive talent pools, while 44% say data-driven recruitment would give them better visibility of skills in the workplace and 41% think it would save them money.And the benefits of data and insight extend far beyond the recruitment process to employee engagement and retention, diversity and business agility. As high-quality talent and skills become a higher priority for organisations, the approach, structure and process of how they attract, recruit and retain talent will transform as they compete with one another to secure skilled, passionate people with the agility, mindset and ambition to learn and progress.If they use data and insight effectively, they’ll be able to bring the right people and skills into the workforce at the right time. At the same time, they’ll improve people’s engagement and performance, and drive better business outcomes.To find out more about how data and insight has the power to transform recruitment in a hybrid workforce, download The insight edge in talent acquisition: How data and insight can deliver the skills needed in a hybrid workforce.