With the advent of modern recruiting technology there are tons of data at the disposal of organizations. Are organizations catching up to the data potential? What is the role of outside experts in bringing greater insight to an organization?

In 2016, John Younger, co-founder of the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association and an early RPO pioneer, suggested that recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) crossed the Chasm of the Adoption Curve and is climbing the Early Majority stage (accounting for 16 percent of the potential market) but is "nowhere near Main Stream yet." He also argued that as more and more companies try RPO, they will be "blown away with how much control they have and how much more elasticity it gives them in their recruiting and hiring functions."

The talent acquisition space has undergone a variety of challenges within the last few years. Many of these challenges were brought by rapid advances in technology. Others emerged from an economy on the rise, with jobs increasing and top talent becoming more fiercely contested.

The way companies recruit people has changed in the past few years. In the current candidate-driven job market, candidates have the power in the recruitment process.

A good illustration of this trend is that 95 percent of the people businesses want to hire for critical positions are not looking for a job. As a result, recruiting people has become more expensive and time-consuming for companies. Employers are competing for the best candidates who are treated as customers. This had made effective recruitment strategies all the more important.

It’s no secret that in today’s economy, with unemployment at a historic low of 4.3 percent, organizations are faced with the task of fighting tooth and nail for top level talent. Combine these unemployment levels with rapid changes to the way retail operates and turns a profit, and it’s easy to see why some are saying we live in an age of disruption.

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.

When Lumina Foods decided to partner with an outside vendor on scaling up their hiring capabilities, they weren’t entirely sure what to expect. Mandy McPherson, Vice President, Human Resources at Lumina Foods knew from prior experience that recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) vendors  were often used by big businesses to fill high-volume recruiting needs, and thought that was the extent of their use.

Keep an eye on your best employees this year – they might just be eyeing up their next opportunity. According to a recent Glassdoor survey, nearly 35 percent of hiring decision makers expect more employees to quit over the span of 2018 than they did in 2017.

According to the National Center for The Middle Market, “In the third quarter of 2017, middle market companies continue to report strong growth, confidence, and optimism. At 7.0%, year-over-year revenue growth remains steady and the 6.4% growth in employment is well above the historical average. While confidence in the U.S. economy is down slightly from the first quarter of the year, global and local economic confidence remain near peak levels.”  

We wanted to investigate what the current state of the middle market means in terms of hiring and recruiting, and what the business drivers are affecting talent acquisition. To find out, we recently interviewed talent acquisition expert, Pam Verhoff, president of Advanced RPO, a recruitment process outsourcing company based in Chicago, IL.  Here is an edited excerpt of this interview.  

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.