Recruitment processes have changed dramatically over the last decade. The arrival of the internet has turned everything on its head. This connectivity enables candidates to view job adverts, submit CVs and contact recruiters straight from their computer, tablet or smartphone.

Recent research showed that in 2015, 50% of responses to adverts were submitted from a mobile device (Source: FIGAROCLASSIFIED). Applying for jobs or watching for vacancies is now disconcertingly easy, even if you spend only a few minutes a day on it.

From an employer’s point of view, the ease with which candidates can apply for jobs makes the recruitment process more complex. Recruiters are finding that they face new problems, such as being swamped with applications even though many of the candidates applying will not even match the advertised profile.

So, recruiters are increasingly busy, whether it’s because of responses to job adverts or because of social networks; every candidate wants that special relationship with a potential future employer. There’s no doubt that technology has changed candidates’ expectations by making it easier to access information and view job vacancies but also by raising the profile of individual recruiters.

Because of these technological advances, candidates expect to have better quality relationships with recruiters. They don’t always realise why recruiters can’t give them personalised feedback on their profile and the suitability of their application by email within a few days of receiving their CV.

For recruiters, the mass of information generated by these new technologies means that they have multiple points of communication with candidates. It’s not uncommon for a candidate to submit an application by email, send a message via the company’s website and contact the recruiter direct via a social networking profile.

Managing relationships with candidates can become a real headache: how can a recruiter reply personally to everyone and at the same time keep track of all the relationships that they’ve established? Although we’re talking about human resources, this is as much about the need for good commercial management.

In future recruiters will probably have to manage candidate portfolios in the same way that business engineers develop and maintain customer portfolios. It therefore seems likely that HR tools will become more akin to CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools.

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