As recruiting practices continue to evolve, tech companies are pushing forward in kind, producing new and more advanced technology solutions for talent acquisition professionals. Keeping up with tech development is a challenge, but a must in the current competitive recruiting environment. Here we continue our coverage of new tech trends and tools to watch in the upcoming year.

Talent acquisition leaders have come to understand the growing importance of branding and recruitment marketing. As Staci Johnson, Vice President Marketing at Roth Staffing Companies noted, organizations need to continue to recruit existing employees with just as much effort as spent on recruiting external candidates. In this sense, both the candidates a business seeks and the existing employees they possess are customers.

Regardless of whether a company is staffed by only ten people or 1,000, recruitment can be a complicated, yet necessary process. The right software can make life a lot easier for those scouting for talent. This list highlights ten of the top recruiting software HR professionals can utilize to strengthen the talent of their companies.

IBM recently held IBM Think 2018, a first-of-its-kind conference dedicated to the technological innovations and research going on inside of IBM and the world at large. The multi-day conference covered everything from the rise of big data, to blockchain and its use outside of cryptocurrency, and even quantum computing.

According to data gathered by O.C. Tanner, an enterprise specializing in employee recognition solutions, 69 percent of employees are more likely to stay with a company for at least three years after an excellent onboarding experience. It is safe to say that the onboarding process is critical to employee acquisition and retention. It never hurts to have the right tools to make the process more efficient and effective. Read on for five apps to upgrade the employee onboarding experience.

With the substantial number of technological advancements arriving in the recruiting space, there’s a growing worry that technology and AI will replace recruiters wholesale. Certainly, there is some truth to the notion. Technology often finds a way to replace the rote activities humans don’t care to perform (such as the auto industry or manufacturing). But should recruiters be scared for their jobs?

Technology has drastically changed talent acquisition over the past two decades and more changes are expected in the near future. “In the next 24 months, maybe sooner, the hiring and recruiting landscape is going to meet very meaningful thresholds,” said John Younger, CEO of HireMojo, a hiring automation platform in San Francisco, CA. What’s the impact of recruiting technology on talent acquisition professionals? The evolution in recruiting technology “is going to hit home, specifically for recruiters... recruiting firms will push harder for more tools to meet demands and stay competitive,” commented Younger.

Technology is arguably the single most important factor that is contributing to the complexity of daytime recruiting. Keeping up with advancements in recruiting technology is essential in competing for potential talent.

“Siri, tell Susan I’ll be right there.” “Siri, find a table for four in Palo Alto”.

Today, you can tell your phone to send a message to a contact and find restaurants in your area, among other things. Virtual assistants, like Siri from Apple and Alexa from Amazon, are becoming increasingly mainstream in our daily life. And these aren’t the only places where automation and machine learning are making a splash. New technologies featuring machine learning and artificial intelligence are finding their way into other applications in our life - including recruiting and talent acquisition.  

Technology is transforming industries including the talent acquisition and recruiting space. Amazon moved much of our shopping online and put the customer in the driver's seat, while Tesla is moving humans out of the driver’s seat and revolutionizing our commute experience. Technology has also transformed the candidate and recruiter experiences. Arguably, "talent acquisition is becoming a consumerization practice, where candidates are treated as customers of the employer and expect a great experience," per Talent Acquisition Technology: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond, Zack Lahey, Aberdeen Group 2015. 

To understand the evolution of talent acquisition technology from a recruiter’s perspective, we spoke with recruiting veteran and Moore eSSentials’ Partner, Tricia Tamkin. Here is an edited version of our interview.