The talent landscape is changing rapidly. There are 60 million contingent workers in the US workforce — it’s anticipated that the majority of the US workforce will be freelance by 2027 — and in some enterprises, the number of contingent workers are already outpacing full-time employees. Despite this meteoric growth, businesses and recruiters still know very little about how to communicate with this cohort to keep them engaged.
It’s estimated up to $550 billion is spent on HR tech geared toward full-time employees. In comparison, the digital transformation for recruitment tech has lagged behind, with recruiters using piecemeal SaaS products and manually handling interactions to source candidates who may not even stay in their positions. Research shows that 20 percent of contractors will renege on a job between offer date and start date and 15 percent of contractors will leave an assignment early. In spite of these numbers and available solutions, tech-driven products simply have not been deployed to analyze this lack of contractor engagement and promote the kind of communication that will enhance retention and job satisfaction within the contingent workforce.
The HR tech is in place for full-time employees, but companies must also invest in the technology to understand their contractors in order to have a holistic view of their workforce. If staffing agencies can’t facilitate successful placements with their recruits at scale, and if enterprises don’t have insight into what engages their workforce, the revolving door of talent will continue to swing and companies will continue to waste time and money on endless staffing. Digital transformation has unlimited potential for recruiters, with much of the ROI resting on data and the ability to scale.
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In industries that have long relied on digital systems, teams use vast amounts of data to quickly analyze both problems and successes and to predict future outcomes. Despite the staffing industry’s seat on a goldmine of data, it is only just beginning to realize the opportunity and value that the oft-cited digital transformation provides. People data and analysis will be the fuel companies use to differentiate themselves from the staggering competition in staffing, in terms of providing the best possible candidate and contractor experience. Following the successful integration of technology into existing processes, recruiters will be able to act on data and, by recognizing and identifying patterns to address problems before they start, constantly improve candidate interactions.
The most immediate data opportunity for recruiters is personalizing candidate outreach to increase engagement. Today, 84 percent of companies fail to personalize the candidate experience throughout the recruiting process. Tomorrow, and with the right tools in place, recruiters can automatically personalize their outreach, enabling them to devote their time to tasks that require more real, human insights.
Saving and more effectively using time is only becoming more crucial for staffing agencies as they scale alongside the growing contingent workforce and a strong labor market. Digital tools automate repetitive, mindless tasks like posting a job across multiple platforms, sharing content across social media channels, or scheduling reminders for when it’s best to communicate with individual candidates. New tech is also opening up new channels of communication, allowing recruiters to seamlessly share information on the platforms that are most helpful for their candidates, such as text messages.
With the right technology in place to empower recruiters and up-level the work they’re able to do, the future of recruitment has the potential to look a lot more human. Instead of limiting tech to matching words on a resume with words in a job description, this new era of recruiting technology powered by AI and Machine Learning will better enable recruiters to understand their candidates as individuals, help contractors develop professionally within fulfilling jobs and maintain regular redeployments.
It all comes back to having the technology in place to automate, analyze and communicate.
