Interview with Katrina Collier, design-thinking facilitator, author, mentor & speaker at Katrina Collier Limited

Meet Katrina Collier, design-thinking facilitator, mentor, speaker and author of the “The Robot-Proof Recruiter,”. We discussed the key challenges and top priorities of recruiting in 2022 and beyond.

That is an enormous question. If we were to talk about the bit that I refer to in Edition 2 of The Robot-Proof Recruiter that came out on August 3rd, 2022, I would talk about the fact that the Internet has made the world very noisy and also very transparent.

So, by noise, it’s tough to get someone’s attention. It’s very hard to hold someone’s attention. Transparent, as in they can see all the jobs, all the reviews, how you treat people, and this whether they’re a candidate, an employee, and so on. People have all these choices, and they don’t need to choose to work for your company.

Many people aren’t starting even when they’ve signed the contract, so there is a lot of ghosting. The other big challenge that’s happening with companies now is people. Even with a pending recession is the inability to keep people. Retention is currently a problem. So that would be one I would focus on too. That’s some of the critical challenges we’d see.

Again, I would go back to the information in The Robot-Proof Recruiter, where we’re talking about humans first, developing an experience that people want to stay and be part of.

I think if companies were to have a look at their recruitment processes and strip out all the stuff that’s making it difficult for people to apply and stay, it would work better.

Back then

And now I wouldn’t go just eight years ago; I would go pre-internet having its impact, which wasn’t eight years ago. When I started in recruitment, I would just call you, put an advertisement out, or I would find you in the database, you’d apply, we’d have a conversation, talk about the role, I’d send you to the client or into my hiring manager, and off we’d go.

Now, where do you think technology would have enabled it to be an easier process or more challenging?

So, there’s a lot more recruiter spam for recruiters to fight against. So that doesn’t help. There’s a lot of noise; many people use a LinkedIn recruiter to mass InMail people rather than showing that they have looked at someone’s profile and using that really personal touch. I think the answer is that we need to get a little back to basics, where it was easier eight years ago, or really pre-Internet.

We have more ways to communicate, these mobile phones that we have within reach that we don’t answer. But now, I think people are overwhelmed and just switching off all these messaging apps and ways to be contacted. And then, again, there’s that transparency. That ability to go and look at someone’s profile. The ability to think, ‘I don’t want to talk to Oksana. I don’t know who she is; she’s just a face on the internet.’ So, they’re craving information before they respond to someone and making sure, as I talk about in Chapter Two, that somebody must look worthy of someone’s time. That’s what changed in that respect.

I would prefer to remind recruiters that they’re human beings with thoughts, feelings, and emotions and that there needs to be more kindness, empathy, and compassion in the recruitment process.

There’s so much focus on tools and technology and data and not enough on the fact that we are trying to find human beings to work with other humans.

Ensure any recruitment technology purchased comes recommended by your peers because it improves the experience for the hiring manager, the recruiter, and the candidate. That’s what I’d like to see.