Jobhop Jobhop's blog : How Will Brexit Affect Recruitment In The UK?

Let's talk about Brexit and recruitment.

Brexit is historic, it is also going to generate a lot of change in the way things are done and that change will impact the world of recruitment.

Sid Jhunjhunwala from Web Spiders the creators of Gecko Artificial Intelligence Video Recruiting talks us through some of what companies should expect.

Listen to the “Recruiting Talent After Brexit” podcast here …. >>> Click to play podcast

Sid explains that companies will have to up their game and become much more competitive when recruiting the best talent. Companies that have already embraced social recruiting and employer branding will have an advantage but going forward they will need to be more efficient and speed up the recruitment process. Companies that have still yet to learn how to attract and source good candidates have a lot of catching up to do if they are to compete in post-Brexit times.

The UK chose to be independent and the talent pool is going to decrease. Over the last few years, the UK has already seen a decline of European workers coming to the UK due to Brexit.

According to a report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, more than 40% of UK employers said it had become more difficult to fill job vacancies over the past year.

Companies are going to have to look further afield to fill vacancies and sourcing candidates needs to be precise or it can end up being a costly expenditure to the company and the candidate.

With candidates willing to relocate, they would appreciate not having to travel miles for the first interview, to be told that they’ll hear soon and then not hear anything. This type of candidate experience is poor and damages the employer brand because with social media the candidate can share their bad experience with the masses. Employers tend to forget that a candidate could also be a customer who is connected to many other potential customers.

One example that’s discussed on the podcast is the NHS, where over 40,000 nurses are required. This number will increase because each day more nurses leave the profession and as we live longer and get more illnesses then more nurses are needed. Currently, the NHS has an old fashioned, clunky recruitment process, that along with the negative news constantly shared about it, is making recruiting nurses even more difficult. Artificial Intelligence could help the NHS to speed up the recruitment of nurses, it’s an urgent issue because the probability of filling these roles will get worse.

When we look at a typical candidate today they are mobile and they cross-pollinate many social media channels, they expect employers to be digital and up to speed with technology. If a candidate wants an answer to a question they don’t want to be waiting for days for someone to get back to them. If an employer isn’t embracing the world of digital then the best talent will go to their competitors. Employers should be using online methods to showcase the company, job positions, employees, benefits etc.. then use artificial intelligence to speed up the whole recruitment process.

We now live in a Tik Tok world where candidates are comfortable with artificial intelligence, an online interview isn’t strange anymore.

Using AI for first interviews will help with the employer brand, the company will look modern and up to speed with tech, very few people want to join a company which isn’t up to speed with technology.

When we look across the waters we see Asia and the US embracing Artificial intelligence, the UK seems to be dragging its feet, but it mustn’t be left behind. You could say that Asia and the US have had to use AI to reach candidates in remote places, but that is now the case with the UK, we have to cast our fishing nets wider. The UK also has the added threat of companies from abroad, especially Berlin trying to poach remaining talent who have become disillusioned with the UK due to Brexit.

For businesses to survive they need the right people, companies succeed due to their people, UK companies can’t afford to have positions left open for months.

If employers are embarking on AI recruitment solutions for the first time they needn’t be concerned, it’s all very straight forward.

Let’s take the AI video interview, questions are still set up by humans and fed into a question bank. Having many questions set by different people is a much fairer system and helps to stamp out lookism. The candidate then answers the questions that are selected via video and the ai checks for answers, expressions, voice tones, pauses, energy, fidgeting etc

Some companies have 4-5 rounds of interviews so letting AI assist with the first one makes business sense. Research shows that 90% of video interviews are being done via the mobile app, today’s candidate is on the go and completing an interview when it suits them makes for a good candidate experience.

Hiring managers can then share the interviews internally which speeds up the recruitment process, especially if one of the managers is at another location. In times of past companies had time to wait, but these days hiring managers need to make decisions quickly or the competition will snap up all the best candidates. Once hiring managers agree and decisions are made then the selected candidates can be contacted for a face to face interview; all of this can be accomplished from an easy to use dashboard.

This is just one solution that AI can help with and British companies mustn’t drag their heels or the UK economy will be greatly affected.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that we must ensure a flow of workers from anywhere in the world following the end of people to and from the EU. Attract the brightest and best Boris says, have you thought how your company will do that?

Recruiting after Brexit Podcast

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Julie Bishop Jobhop.co.uk

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