Education Technology Offers Improvements to Talent Acquisition
Education technology has shifted how students and teachers interact in the classroom, and now the same innovations are transforming how institutions search for candidates for their leadership roles.
Across industries, injecting technology into talent acquisition has helped organizations streamline their hiring process in order to find the best candidates while decreasing the amount of time positions remain vacant.
According to LinkedIn’s “2018 Global Recruiting Trends” report, 69 percent of talent professionals believe using data analytics and other technology could help their decision processes, and experts believe new hardware can broaden the scope and reduce the cost of employee searches.
“Executive search in higher education is experiencing huge changes, just like it is in other sectors,” Emily Parker Myers, CEO of Myers McRae Executive Search and Consulting tells Hunt Scanlon Media. “An online candidate review portal, conference calls and videoconferencing have enabled search committees to complete their review and evaluation of candidates in an effective and efficient manner while reducing costs and meeting time.”
Along with videoconferencing hardware, universities now have access to new software options to help optimize the hiring and applicant review process.
Cloud Infrastructure Can Streamline Talent Acquisition
At some universities, HR administrators have begun to use cloud software to help organize and improve their hiring processes.
Using cloud technology allows universities to cut down on some of the cost of talent acquisition while simultaneously expanding administrator’s reach to find the best candidates.
“Customized HR SaaS solutions also have the ability to create job posting efficiency, reach and efficacy by creating one portal for touching multiple platforms, while standardizing and aggregating candidate information and profiles into a single, searchable source,” says Matt Charney, social media engagement manager at Monster in a blog post.
At Shawnee State University in Ohio, administrators use Oracle’s cloud software to acquire and manage new faculty.
“I am going to be able to see our staff be more efficient and effective in what they do and they are going to help us to move the organization to where we want to be,” Dr. Elinda Boyles, vice president of finance and administration at Shawnee State University, says in an Oracle blog post.
Google has also added its own hiring tool, Google Hire, to the list of cloud applications it offers through G Suite. Google Hire allows universities to more easily track applications, and can even help reconnect HR staff with applicants they have previously considered who may be a good fit for newly open positions.
Use Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence to Find the Ideal Candidate
While using data is not new to the hiring world, the amount of data now available allows universities to greatly narrow their scope when looking for a candidate.
“By analyzing the skills and attributes of current high-performers, a profile for new hires could be built and combined with local demographic and socioeconomic data to form the basis of a highly effective sourcing plan," Corinne Ripoche Van Hecke, president of Pontoon Solutions, a global staffing and recruiting firm, tells the Society for Human Resource Management.
For universities already using Microsoft 365, the company offers Dynamics 365 for Talent, which can be easily integrated. The tool, according to Microsoft, uses existing tools like Microsoft PowerApps, Flow and Power BI to analyze applicant data.
The tool also uses Azure machine learning to pick out ideal applicants by comparing their qualifications against the open position’s job description.
“Now data is everywhere,” Brendan Browne, LinkedIn's vice president of talent acquisition tells SHRM. “We need to embrace it and use it to get better results and drive productivity and efficiency for our teams."
