The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a byword for a few years as the next best thing, but few people realize what impact it can have on their lives and their jobs. It is more than having a Roomba, that's for sure.
Brief history of IoT
The idea of ultimate connectivity is not a new concept. It's been around since the mid 1980s, and the term "Internet of Things" was coined in 1999 by Procter & Gamble employee Kevin Ashton, who was trying to sell the idea of RFID integration for supply chain optimization.
Now, technically, RFID doesn't use the Internet to communicate. In fact, RFID at that time was a standalone technology using electromagnetic fields. However, the Internet at the time was the big thing, so he called his presentation the "Internet of Things," referring more to connectivity rather than the world wide web itself.
Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) is no longer a convenient misnomer. It is an actual process of bringing physical objects online for the purpose of data gathering, automation, and remote control. A good example is the smartphone, which, with the right settings and apps, can monitor your health, schedule your appointments, control your smart TV and lights, find the nearest Starbucks to your location, and so on. If your toaster or coffeemaker was connected to the Internet, your phone could "talk" to them and synchronize when to start making breakfast.
Another IoT technology that has been around for quite a while is the QR (Quick Response) code which first came out of Japan for use with cars (of course). It's a sort of barcode that your smartphone should be able to read. It contains a lot of useful information about anything you're trying to promote, including the URL of your website, promotions you're offering, or your physical address. This is the type of big data capability you can expect with the IoT.
Effects of IoT on Recruitment
While its earliest and most prominent applications were for the health and automotive industry, the IoT is poised to explode into the mainstream in the next few years.
Indeed, aside from existing IoT technology for smartphones, smart homes, and smart cars, there are plans for smart grids and smart cities. It is just a matter of time, and perhaps sooner than expected, that everything will be online, connected, and communicating. It is easy to see how such connectivity will have an inevitable impact on recruitment.
HR professionals and recruiters should realize that more and more people are connecting digitally. The internet is no longer used to simply chat with friends on social media, play online games, or go shopping for Christmas presents. It has permeated more fundamental processes in people's lives, and that includes job seeking behavior.
Many of the old ways of recruiting will no longer work, at least not with the most desirable candidates available. While a well-written resume from professional services like Essay Scholar Advisor will still be the basis of deciding which candidates are qualified, that comes way down the road. First, you have to get them to submit their resumes, and the inability to keep up with the times in terms of recruitment reflects poorly on the progressiveness of the company. This can be a major turn-off for qualified candidates.
On the other hand, these changes can be used to good advantage by proactive recruiters and HR professionals, as the market demands candidates that are similarly current, and hopefully savvy, with technology. Here is how the IoT can actually improve the recruitment process for 2017, and beyond.
IoT and the Recruitment Process
Instead of bemoaning the fact that candidates are unimpressed by your traditional methods of recruitment, you can use their obsession with technology to keep one step ahead of the game. After all, IoT gathers information and enables communication. What else do you need to make the best recruitment pitch ever to the most qualified candidates that use a smartphone?
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Getting ready for IoT.
The IoT means everything you use equipped with connectivity is potentially talking to other "smart" objects that your target candidates are using.
You can (theoretically) have access to any information they make public about them such as the retail establishments they visit, the number of steps they take a day, and the frequency in which they buy milk. This can help you target desirable recruits based on their recorded behavior.
At this point, access to IoT data is restricted as the paradigms of privacy continue to shift. However, that is not going to be the case for very long. A savvy recruiter would be prepared to use the data when it becomes available by acquiring the skills and hardware necessary to capture and process this data. This will give them a great advantage over other recruiters that have ignored the potential of IoT.
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Now is the time to hire the right talent.
As part of preparing for IoT, you need to hire people who can serve as your support team in creating software or applications that will help you get on over to the side of the IoT-ready hiring professional. You can readily imagine how much data the IoT is going to produce, so you need people onboard that have the skills to make sense and use of big data.
Right now, the demand for people with IoT skills is rising rapidly, so you should not delay in investing in some people with HTML5, IOS, and Android programming skills today. You don't want to be the only kid on the block without one.
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Social media is still the bomb.
The IoT only heightens the need to be very active indeed in social media and inbound recruiting efforts. Connectivity is the essence of social networks, and your future candidates practically live there.
If you have not yet come on board with that concept, then you are definitely on the wrong side of the equation. When the IoT goes full mainstream in the next few years, your social media strategy will become even more important, especially when recruiting IT professionals.
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Digital recruitment will come naturally as part of the IoT.
The best use of the IoT is in streamlining the sourcing part of the recruitment process, usually the most labor intensive and time-consuming part. Instead of shotgunning for candidates on job boards and other forms of advertisements and whittling down the submissions to the qualified applicants, you can program on existing and coming technology to target the best candidates for a position. Once identified, you can then spend more time and resources in building a relationship with them. This can greatly reduce your offer rejection and turnover rates.
The recruitment process is all about finding the right people, and the right people are ready for the IoT. Are you?
About the author: Stacey Marone is a freelance writer and advisor who helps individuals and organizations get better result in leadership and team building. In her free time she also does volunteer work and organizes some activities for children. Her passions also involve traveling and exploring new places. Follow Stacey on twitter.
