Seemingly every week heralds the arrival of some new all-singing-all-dancing app aka automated recruitment solution promising to take the pain out of the hiring process. Yes with just a simple app download you too can reduce those exorbitant (/ɪɡˈzɔːbɪt(ə)nt/ poor value for money) fees and hit the 3-cherry jackpot of purple squirrels.

Think again.

It will never happen. Not in a million years. Or at least, not until we’re all living in Starbases.

Why? for one fundamental reason. Recruitment is an art, not a science. It’s at best imperfect, full of subtleties, nuance, context and unconscious bias. Take the last bastion of the hiring process: the interview. It isn’t the best way of ascertaining whether someone is right for the job by any means but it’s the best we’ve come up with so far. Hiring is a punt, a calculated punt sure, but nevertheless a punt.

Get a human involved. Humans are very good at nuance, context, sixth sense, intuition, gut feel, call it what you like. Machines — at least for now — are very bad at it. A lot of jigsaw pieces need to fall neatly into place for that happy new employee with the beaming smile, slick haircut and freshly pressed suit to be sitting in your office come Monday morning. Lanyard proudly hanging around their neck, trying in vain to remember everyone’s name save for sexy Sam or luscious Luke in Accounts. Wondering if they should take lunch and what time they might get away on their first day.

Machines are very good at precision. Which is why we use technology to help us land 500 tonnes of flying metal at 180mph on a thin strip of tarmac in near/zero visibility with hundreds of lives on the line. Close or close enough just won’t do. Good luck flying with the next airline that promises to get you close to the runway. Fact is, hiring a new employee is almost always a case of close or close enough. It’s rare that a candidate will tick every single box on the wish list.

A good consultant will certainly start out aiming to tick every box on your wish list. A good consultant will ask the difficult questions. A good consultant will push back on unrealistic expectations and suggest alternatives. A good consultant won’t source candidates who are merely looking for another job but rather a better job. A really good consultant may also put forward candidates with transferrable skills who are performing a different role in a different industry sector.

Want to work with a good consultant? Say hello to make it so. We are humans. Humans that have worked in the very industry and performed the very roles we now recruit for. Sure we use a modern-day toolbox of tech tricks just like everyone else to help identify talent and generate leads but we do so with a human touch. Machines are not even remotely close to being able to replicate what we do. If you want a sad / comical view of how machines get it wrong just see the Tai debacle.

Having said that one might argue that automaton-like responses and failure to display any kind of empathy is something that has become all too familiar…

Isn’t it time you got in (human) touch? Call us on +44 (0) 203 701 1217.

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MONGOOSE GRAY | Recruitment. Consulting. Support. As IT should be.™

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