big data

Apps, interactivity, Big Data in recruiting | Recruiters Weekly News

“Efficiency” was once a euphemism for redundancies. Today, it is far more likely to mean resourcefulness. Being efficient in our modern, digital landscape means finding creative uses for the Big Data that is collected almost as a by-product of everyday activities.

Digital Transformation

Necessity is the mother of invention – or so the saying goes. This week, we will see a few real-world examples of that creativity. But what is driving the current burst of inventiveness in the commercial sector? The short answer is: The Digital Transformation.

An encouraging set of figures was posted by the SmallBusiness website this week, showing the extent to which business leaders are already getting to grips with automation and machine learning in the modern workplace.

The data, collected by Robert Half recruiting found that organisations are prepared to create new positions to address digitization, and that 81 per cent of CFOs thought that recruiting new talent would be essential for achieving business objectives.

But what are the key qualities that business leaders will be punching into their semantic search engines and recruitment software? Data analysis, communication skills, problem-solving, strategic vision, and business acumen were all at the top of the list.

Not the easiest skills to quantify, one might assume. If only there was a way to assess those “soft skills” that employers place so much value in…

Assessing the intangible

We already spoke a few weeks ago about the material value placed on soft skills in the Australian jobs market. And now we are beginning to see a new generation of technologies which seeks to quantify those often-intangible talents which a candidate might possess.

Assessment specialists cut-e launched the Scales mt aptitude test this week. Conceived as a solution for for the recruitment to practical roles such as pilots, the test measures skills which are just as vital to customer-facing roles in retail and business relations: the ability to listen, concentrate, multi-task, and make decisions.

While the digital transformation may often be seen as a disruptive force shaking up the jobs market and exposing skills gaps, it is refreshing to see digital solutions emerging to address some of those challenges, too.


Jaguars, Gorillaz and big game recruitment

Last month, our recruitment news round-up explored the idea of gamification in the hiring process. We asked whether the approach was on the verge of becoming the breakout trend of 2017. This week, while checking over the recruiting news stories making the headlines, I found one of the more high profile applications of the technique to date.

Although most of the coverage focused on the welcome news that Jaguar Land Rover is to create 5,000 new job, here at eBoss we were more interested in how they plan to achieve this.

It seems that the car giant will use an app-based game – also featuring the pop band Gorillaz – to identify potential hot prospects in key areas such as mechanical engineering and software programming.

Through a series of gamified technical challenges, it is hoped that players with the requisite talents will be easier to identify.

So much of our discussion and analysis in recent months has been focusing on the struggle to track and assess hard-to-measure skills; this is a novel solution to address that challenge. Will it work? We shall have to wait and see.

From customer… to candidate?

Virgin Atlantic has combined its brand management and recruitment activities in a new initiative which it showcased at the National Online Recruitment Academy’s RECex event last week.

HR representatives used customer satisfaction data collected in-flight to generate what it described as a “behavioural framework” – essentially a blueprint of everything that contributes to making a flight a positive experience.

The airline intends to re-use its data to improve the recruitment processes, and in-flight entertainment will feature recruitment adverts for the first time: the idea being that if the customer has enjoyed a pleasant flight, they will enjoy working for the airline just as much. How’s that for efficient use of data?