The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc throughout all industries, including talent acquisition. Many business and human resource (HR) leaders had to adapt to the unexpected chaos of the coronavirus quickly. Nearly all recruitment operations went virtual.

However, despite the coronavirus chaos within the talent acquisition space, technology sparked a fast shift to new recruiting and hiring practices.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA) explored this paradox of crisis and transformation during its inaugural virtual conference in October: Talent Acquisition Transformed Conference 2020. The conference gathered top thought leaders within the TA and technology space to discuss the pandemic's impact on talent acquisition and give messages of hope for the industry as we move into the future.

The conference opened with Ben Eubanks, author, speaker, researcher, and podcaster, giving an inspiring keynote speech. After the keynote, there were three sessions, each addressing different areas of talent acquisition transformation. Eleven TA industry leaders spoke on employer branding, remote work, fluctuating hiring demands, recruitment marketing, and the state of job seekers and employers in the era of COVID. The virtual conference ended joyously with Slash Coleman, founder of Laughter Yoga Richmond, providing the power of laughter to improve our health, energy, and attitude.

Efficient business operations begin with a happy workforce. Research from the University of Warwick shows that when a workforce is happy, productivity increases by 12%. Enhanced productivity equals higher profit margins, and happy employees start with creating a positive candidate experience. In 2020, to create positive candidate experiences, employers are searching for ways to empathize with their potential employees on a deeper level. These employers rightly believe that understanding prospective new hires will help recruit skilled talent in a small labor market. 

Andrew Brown began his career over 10 years ago supporting partners across MSP and RPO technology platforms as a value-added consultant delivering innovative technology. Today, as the Head of Partners and Alliances for Saba’s talent acquisition platform, he has observed a shift in the technology landscape driven by ever-changing recruitment demands. 

Although artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for a long time already, its active breaking into the recruitment technology landscape has started just a few years ago. Today, AI for recruiting is the dominant theme in HR technology.

Newer RPO generations have made great strides by embracing the added value of streamlining their initial approach using modern technology as the foundation from which they build.

Early generations of RPO adopters were primarily looking at high volume savings. Nowadays, companies investing in RPO want and need something more valuable. Newer generation RPOs bring their technical expertise to provide more innovative talent acquisition solutions.  

Let's talk about productivity; it's something everyone is trying to boost, no matter your job, niche, or industry. However, it does look like, regardless of how we spend our days, we never seem to have enough hours in the day.   

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.