HR.

com’s Future of AI,

Prepare for what
Automation and Recruitment could be radical
changes
Technologies 2023-24
NOVEMBER 2023

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 CONTENTS
Executive Summary
3

The Use of Talent Acquisition Technologies

9

The Use of Recruitment Metrics

15

21 Job Advertising Methods and Technologies

Time to Fill Jobs

27

Optimizing Recruitment for Mobile Devices

30

Recruitment Outcomes
33

The Use of AI-Powered Recruitment

34

Looking Ahead to the Next Two Years

47

Key Takeaways
50

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 Executive Summary
Technology and talent acquisition have long been inexorably
intertwined, to the point where no job seeker today could
About the Survey
conceivably look for a job without relying on some form of “HR.com’s Future of AI,
dedicated recruiting platform or point solution. And, even if they Automation and Recruitment
were to find one, they’d also find it pretty much impossible to Technologies 2023” survey ran
apply for that role without touching enterprise talent technology. from August to October of 2023.
We gathered 222 complete

The bottom line is that talent acquisition (TA) processes and and partial responses from
HR professionals in virtually
policies are largely subservient to the features and functionalities
every industry. Respondents
of whatever existing tech stack an employer happens to have.
were located around the world,
Recruitment tech influences and informs every element of the but predominately from North
hiring process from application to onboarding. Even how we America.
manage and measure the recruiting function is largely driven by
whatever software and SaaS-based solutions we’ve implemented.
The participants represented a
broad cross-section of employees
It’s been said that job search success has long been determined by workforce size, ranging from
not by what you know but by who you know. But today’s 100 to over 20,000 employees.
proprietary algorithms for sourcing, screening, and selection Over two-thirds of responding

trump personal networks in a lot of cases. organizations are, however, either

small or mid-sized.

More Tech, For Better and For Worse

Our reliance on tools and technology within talent acquisition is
the result of decades of increased investment by employers to
transform talent acquisition from an intuitive art into an empirical
science. Employers are pumping tens of billions of dollars every
year into their TA tech stack – even if the ensuing recruiting
results remain mixed.

Employers spent an estimated $31.5B on talent technology last

year, a number that’s expected to balloon to $53.3B by 2028. This
works out to over $9 for every one of the estimated 3.4 billion
members of the global workforce. So, when we talk about talent
acquisition technology, we’re not talking about some arcane niche
or esoteric industry – we’re talking about a huge business.

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 So, how much bang are recruiters getting for their buck? Are
we better at addressing even relatively niche issues such as
accurately measuring the quality and cost of hire – or even
correctly attributing the source of hire, for that matter? Those are
some of the questions we’ve tried to answer in this year’s Future
of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies.

The bad news is that only a minority (39%) of organizations feel

as if their TA technology stacks are good or excellent at improving
overall recruitment and hiring capabilities in their organizations.
But the good news is that those who report more effective TA
tech stacks are considerably more likely to report successfully
measuring things like time to fill, quality of hire, and candidate
experience.

So, TA technology is more likely to pay some dividends

for organizations that excel in this area, but not that many
organizations do excel despite today’s more advanced
technologies. The TA function still has a long way to go. The
question is whether technology alone can close these gaps or
whether it is, at best, only part of the answer.

Are Radical New Technologies on the Horizon?

Virtually no one in the recruitment profession can have escaped
all of the discussion of—and some would say hype about—the
role that generative AI may wind up playing in the sphere of
TA technologies. It’s too soon to know whether these newer
AI technologies will ultimately result in radical changes and
improvements.

However, we did ask our survey participants about these

generative and other types of artificial intelligence. Our findings
are far from conclusive, but we do provide a snapshot of the
perceived promise as well as perils associated with these newer
TA technologies. We can’t yet know whether large and impactful
changes are on the TA technology horizon, but it’s not too soon to
begin tracking what could turn out to be major new features and
capabilities.

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 Our Major Research Findings

Major
Finding 1 Only a minority of organizations say their current TA technology stack
does a good job of improving their recruiting capabilities.

●● Only about 4 in 10 respondents report their existing TA technology

stack as being “good” or “excellent,” with the majority reporting
that their current capabilities are no more than average (or
worse).

●● Only a slight majority of employers have adopted mobile-based

capabilities as part of their hiring process. That means that just
about 1 out of every 2 job applications still cannot be completed
on a mobile device.

●● Rumors of the applicant tracking system “black hole” are greatly

exaggerated, with only 11% of respondents reporting missing
out on quality candidates due to the limitations of their ATS. On
the other hand, only 15% feel that their ATS helps them attract or
find higher quality candidates who would they’d have otherwise
missed.

●● While applicant tracking systems are often derided by candidates

and recruiters alike, our research suggests that they are still seen
as the most effective talent acquisition technology.

Major
Finding 2 Organizations continue to struggle with successfully measuring talent
acquisition, though some feel they excel in this area.

●● There are two areas where recruitment professionals feel as if

they are doing the best job in measurement: retention of new
employees and time to fill. About two-fifths (39%) say they are
“above average” or “excellent” at successfully measuring these
two areas, though this still means that a majority view themselves
as only average or worse in these areas.

●● Respondents are marginally less successful in the areas of

quality of hire, hiring manager satisfaction, and candidate
experience.

5 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 ●● The area where recruiters feel least successful is in the area of
cost per hire, where a mere 18% say they are above average or
excellent. We think that the inability to calculate the cost in what’s
essentially one of the larger cost centers in business should
be the cause of some concern, particularly when it comes to
measuring TA-related ROI or P&L impact.

●● Organizations that report more effective TA technologies (that is,

recruitment technology leaders, as defined below) are also more
likely to feel they excel at TA metrics. In fact, in five of the six
metrics we asked about, a majority of such organizations say they
are above average or excellent, and they are 3 times more likely to
say they are above average or excellent at cost per hire.

Major
Finding 3 Job boards aren’t dead but they’re diversifying.

●● While general job boards like Monster or CareerBuilder might have

lost both market share and brand equity in the past decade or
so, recruitment advertising remains one of the most significant
sources of talent-acquisition-related spending, with the typical
employer leveraging at least four (4!) different methods for
advertising the average open requisition.

●● While programmatic advertising and behavioral targeting have

emerged as among the hottest categories of TA technology,
more traditional methods still dominate the overall recruitment
advertising market, with career sites, external job boards, internal
job postings, and social media ranking as the four most common
methods for job advertising.

●● The way employers fill jobs might have undergone some seismic
shifts in the past few years, but the way they advertise them
remains effectively stuck in the status quo. Employers have been
slow to adopt programmatic advertising, with only 18% reporting
that they currently advertise jobs using one or more programmatic
platforms, choosing instead to “post and pray,” even if those
prayers are rarely answered in today’s tight talent market.

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 Major
Finding 4 Most organizations take at least 61 days to fill open positions and many
of them take 90 days or more.

●● The average time to fill currently sits at around 30 days for entry-
level hires and about twice that for mid-level jobs (manager and
below), with the range topping out at around 60 days.

●● A majority say senior-level positions take 61 to 90 days to fill (37%)

or 91 days or more (20%). This suggests a clear and present danger
to both business continuity and recruiting ROI.

Major
Finding 5 AI remains the exception rather than the rule in TA, and many recruiters
see risks, but organizations with more effective TA technologies are also
more likely to use AI.

●● Despite its ubiquity in both recruiting conversations and content

marketing collateral, the actual prevalence of AI in talent
acquisition remains rare; surprisingly, 73% of respondents to our
survey reported that their company doesn’t currently use any AI
tools or technologies as part of their hiring process.

●● The slow adoption of AI in recruitment suggests there’s

considerable hype linked to this emerging category, seemingly
created by product providers and external vendors rather than by
demand from practitioners and TA leaders themselves.

●● TA practitioners that use AI expect several benefits such as greater

personalization, analytics, automation, and augmentation, but
TA practitioners in general have a variety of concerns about AI,
such as depersonalization, low trust in AI-based decisions, and
vulnerability to bias

●● For AI, the good news is that among recruitment technology

leaders, 45% use AI for TA to some extent, which is still high
compared to just 11% of recruitment technology laggards.

Definitions of recruitment technology leaders and laggards

Recruitment tech leaders are those organizations that answered the question "Please
rate your talent acquisition technology stack in terms of its ability to improve the overall
recruitment and hiring capabilities of your organization" as “excellent” or “good.”

Recruitment tech laggards are organizations that answered “below average” or “poor” to
the same question.

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 Major
Finding 6 A majority expect recruitment technologies to become more useful over
the next two years, but some remain skeptical of such optimism.

●● Many have great expectations for the future

 60% say recruitment tech will become more useful

 49% say AI in recruitment will increase
 39% say hiring will involve more data-based decisions
 39% say hiring will be more automated

●● On the other hand, some remain skeptical that TA technology

will have much of an impact, pointing to all the problems with
regrettable hires and poor metrics even though fully 92% of
respondents leverage some form of TA technology

Major
Finding 7 Compared to their laggard counterparts, the recruitment technology
leader organizations:

●● use more than twice as many technologies

●● are over three times more likely to rate their average success with
recruitment metrics as above average or excellent

●● are over three times more likely to post jobs to talent communities

●● are close to three times more likely to use programmatic

advertising to post jobs

●● are over two times more likely to agree or strongly agree that their
job application process is optimized for mobile devices or is device
agnostic

Please note that the findings and recommendations contained in this report are informational only. Nothing in this report should be construed as
constituting legal opinions or advice. Please consult an attorney if you have questions about the legal requirements, rules, or regulations associated
with any content discussed in this report.

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 The Use of Talent Acquisition
Technologies

Finding: Only 39% of respondents say their

talent acquisition technology stack is good
or excellent

The core components of a talent acquisition technology stack are

mature technologies. Since they are the backbone of recruiting, one
might expect them to do a good job of improving the overall recruitment
and hiring capabilities of an organization. But for most organizations,
this is not the case. Only 39% of respondents say their talent acquisition
technology stack is good or excellent. The rest of the respondents rate
the capability of their talent acquisition technology stack as average at
best, and a quarter say it is poor or below average.

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 Survey Statement: Please rate your talent acquisition technology stack
in terms of its ability to improve the overall recruitment and hiring
capabilities of your organization.

7% 19% 35% 28% 11%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Poor Below average Average Good Excellent

Over one-quarter of respondents say their talent

acquisition technology stack is poor or below average

In order to understand what differentiates organizations that are satisfied with the efficacy of recruitment
technology used in their organizations from other organizations, we analyzed responses and segmented the
data into two cohorts:

• Recruitment tech leaders: These represent respondents who answered the question "Please rate your talent
acquisition technology stack in terms of its ability to improve the overall recruitment and hiring capabilities
of your organization" as “excellent” or “good.”

• Recruitment tech laggards: Those who answered “below average” or “poor” to the same question.

Correlation does not necessarily indicate causation, of course, but these relationships can provide clues
about possible best practices related to employee retention. In various parts of this report, we report on the
differences between leaders and laggards in terms of recruitment technologies, practices and approaches.

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Definitions of Small,
Finding: Three talent-acquisition-related
Mid-sized and Large technologies are used by more than half of
Organizations the respondents
For the purpose of this report,
large organizations have There are many different talent-acquisition-related technologies but
1,000 or more employees, only three are used by more than half of the respondents:
mid-sized organizations have
100 to 999 employees, and
●● employment hiring platforms
small organizations have 99
or fewer ●● applicant tracking systems (ATS)

●● background or reference checking

Most recruiting functions would probably find the features offered by

the other technologies attractive but they may face other hindrances
such as a lack of budget. Recruiters should keep an eye on the wide
range of solutions that are available and every year or two evaluate
whether it makes sense to add some new technologies. It’s likely that
with the rise of generative AI and related technologies, there will be
rapid changes in various TA technology systems over the next two
years.

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 Survey Question: Which of the following talent-acquisition-
related technologies does your organization currently use?
(select all that apply)

Employment hiring platform (e.g., Indeed) 68%

Applicant tracking system (ATS) 63%

Background or reference checking 60%

Employee referral solution 38%

Onboarding automation 35%

Recruitment analytics 33%

Video interviewing technology 33%
Assessment tools (such as skills assessments) 32%
Dedicated social platforms and tools for employers 32%
Texting or SMS campaign tools 21%

Automated scheduling 20%

Candidate relationship management (CRM) system 19%
Recruitment marketing platform 18%
Resume screening software 16%
Programmatic advertising 12%
Vendor management system 11%
We do not use any recruitment technologies 9%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Less than a fifth of respondents use resume

screening software

Differences by Organization Size

Among large organizations, 71% use an ATS, compared to just 63% of mid-sized companies and 51% of small
organizations. Large organizations were less likely, however, to use employment hiring platforms (just 57%)
compared with mid-size (72%) and small (68%) organizations. Meanwhile, small organizations are over twice
as likely (at 15%) as other organizations to say they do not use any recruitment technologies.

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 Finding: Recruitment tech leaders use
more than twice as many technologies as
laggards

Recruitment tech leaders are those whose technology acquisition stack

gives excellent results. One reason for this success appears to be the
number of different technologies they use. Recruitment tech leaders
use on average about seven different talent acquisition technologies.
That’s more than twice as many as recruitment tech laggards.

Number of different talent acquisition technologies used

(on average)

8
7
7

4
3
3

0
Recruitment tech laggards Recruitment tech leaders

Recruitment tech leaders use on average about

7 different talent acquisition technologies

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 Finding: Only 11% of respondents say their
ATS surfaces candidates whom they might
not have considered otherwise to a high or
very high extent

One of the main features of an ATS is filtering out poor candidates.

The risk is that the ATS is so aggressive at this task that it filters out
people who might otherwise be good job candidates. However, among
organizations with applicant tracking systems, only 11% say they have
this problem to a high or very high extent.

Another feature recruiters hope for is that the ATS will surface
candidates whom they might not have considered otherwise. However,
it’s rare for ATSs to excel at this, with only 15% of respondents saying
their ATS surfaces candidates whom they might not have considered
otherwise to a high or very high extent.

Survey Statement: To what degree does your ATS do the following:

Filter out people who might otherwise be 30% 34% 23% 10% 5%
good job candidates

Surface candidates who you might not 35% 34% 25% 7% 4%

have considered otherwise

0 20 40 60 80 100

Not at all Low extent Moderate extent High extent Very high extent

Editor’s note: respondents who answered don’t know were removed from the data set. These respondents accounted for 10% of those who responded to
“Surface candidates who you might not have considered otherwise” and 9% for “Filter out people who might otherwise be good job candidates”.

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 The Use of Recruitment Metrics
Finding: Only one-fifth say their ability to
measure cost of hire is above average or
excellent

Two of the basic recruitment metrics that leaders will ask for are the
operational ones of “time to fill” and “cost per hire”. Respondents had
a relatively positive view of their success in measuring time to fill, with
39% saying they are above average or excellent and only 21% saying
they are below average or poor.

The results flip when it comes to cost per hire, where only 21% say they
are above average or excellent and 40% say they are below average or
poor. We think this finding should be of concern to HR because the CFO
in particular will focus on this one metric, and it is important to be able
to present it with confidence.

That’s not to say that accurately establishing cost per hire is easy.
There are many hard-to-pin-down variables. For example, determining
cost per hire involves deciding how to account for soft costs such as
the time managers need to spend interviewing. Still, HR should be ready
to provide their best estimate of these soft costs as well as the easier-
to-measure hard costs from, for example, using recruitment agencies.

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 Survey Statement: Please rate your organization in terms of its ability to
successfully measure the following. (Operational metrics)

Time to fill (or time to hire) 5% 16% 40% 24% 15%

15% 25% 40% 12% 8%

Cost per hire

0 20 40 60 80 100

Poor Below average Average Above average Excellent

Editor’s note: respondents who answered don’t know were removed from the data set. These respondents accounted for 4% of those who responded to
“Time to fill” and 9% for “Cost per hire."

Nearly two-fifths say their ability to measure

time to fill is above average or excellent

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 Finding: Organizations are more likely to
be poor at measuring candidate experience
than at hiring manager satisfaction

Two satisfaction metrics are frequently captured in recruitment: hiring

manager satisfaction and candidate experience. Both are important,
but hiring manager satisfaction will be more on the radar of HR leaders
since they will hear about this right away. Poor candidate experience
can erode the reputation of the organization and impede its ability
to hire talent, but this may not be visible for some time. What will be
visible with candidate experience, and could get HR into trouble, is if
candidates post negative reviews on sites like Glassdoor and these
come to the attention of the CEO.

A large majority of respondents say they are at least average on both

these satisfaction metrics. Over 80% say they are average or above in
measuring hiring manager satisfaction, and 76% say they are average or
above in measuring the candidate experience.

Survey Statement: Please rate your organization in terms of its

ability to successfully measure the following.

Hiring manager 12% 45% 25% 12%

6%
satisfaction

Candidate
7% 17% 39% 24% 13%
experience

0 20 40 60 80 100

Poor Below average Average Above average Excellent

Editor’s note: respondents who answered don’t know were removed from the data set. These respondents accounted for 5% of those who responded
to “Hiring manager satisfaction” and 6% for “Candidate experience."

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 Finding: One-fifth say they are poor or
below average in measuring quality of hire

We believe that the most important recruitment metric is quality

of hire. One in five respondents say they are poor or below average
in measuring the quality of hire. It is easy to understand why an
organization might say this. After all, measuring the quality of hire is
difficult.

Given its importance, however, any measure of the quality is worth

gathering, and over a third of respondents are confident enough in the
metrics that they report being above average or excellent in measuring
the quality of hire. This means that the large majority of organizations
say they are either average or above in terms of their ability to measure
the quality of hire.

One possible way of measuring the quality of hire is by measuring

employee retention rates. Therefore, it makes sense that about the
same percentage (39%) measures employee retention.

Survey Statement: Please rate your organization in terms of its

ability to successfully measure the following. (Outcome metrics)

Quality of hire 7% 13% 42% 24% 13%

Retention of new 38% 13%

7% 15% 26%
employees

0 20 40 60 80 100

Poor Below average Average Above average Excellent

Editor’s note: respondents who answered don’t know were removed from the data set. These respondents accounted for 4% of those who responded
to “Quality of hire” and “Retention of new employees."

Over a third of respondents are confident that

their quality of hire metrics are above average or
excellent

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 Finding: Respondents have the least
confidence in their cost-of-hire metrics

Among the six recruitment metrics we listed, we find that respondents

have the least confidence in measuring their cost of hire. Only 21%
of respondents say their ability to measure the cost of hire is above
average or excellent. The intriguing fact is that among the remaining
metrics, two (candidate experience and manager satisfaction) are
perceptual and intangible metrics and the organizations are still more
confident in measuring them compared to the cost of hire.

Survey Statement: Please rate your organization in terms of its

ability to successfully measure the following
(percentage responding "above average or excellent")

Retention of new employees 39%

Time to fill (or time to hire) 39%

Quality of hire 37%

Hiring manager satisfaction 37%

Candidate experience 37%

Cost per hire 21%

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Editor’s note: respondents who answered don’t know were removed from the data set.

Except for cost of hire, over a third of organizations

feel their success with recruitment metrics is above
average or excellent

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 Finding: Recruitment tech leaders are more
than three times as likely as laggards to
rate their success with most recruitment
metrics as above average or excellent

Looking across all six recruitment metrics (cost per hire, time to fill,
candidate experience, hiring manager satisfaction, retention of new
employees, and quality of hire) recruitment tech leaders are at least
twice as likely as laggards to rate their success as above average or
excellent.

In essence, this indicates a strong correlation between a high-quality TA

technology stack and the ability to measure recruitment outcomes well.
This suggests these technologies not only lead to greater effectiveness
but also a better ability to gauge that effectiveness.

Survey Statement: Please rate your organization in terms of its

ability to successfully measure the following:
(percentage responding "above average or excellent")
61%
Hiring manager satisfaction
16%
60%
Time to fill (or time to hire)
13%

58%
Candidate experience 22%
56%
Quality of hire 19%
54%
Retention of new employees
25%

Cost per hire 32%

10%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Recruitment tech leaders Recruitment tech laggards

Editor’s note: respondents who answered don’t know were removed from the data set.

Only 19% of recruitment tech laggards are above

average or excellent at measuring quality of hire

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 Job Advertising Methods and
Technologies
Finding: Organizations typically use at least
four methods for advertising job postings

Organizations like to cast a wide net in sourcing talent, and they

typically use at least four methods for advertising job postings. The
most popular ones, each used by around three-quarters of respondents,
are:

●● company website

●● job boards

●● internal postings

●● social media

It makes sense that these are the top four given how long these
technologies have now been around, but we find it surprising to see
how slow recruitment professionals have been to adopt programmatic
advertising. Only 17% do so. Programmatic advertising is, of course,
the use of technology to automate and optimize the online distribution
of job ads across various platforms based on data and algorithms that
match the ads with the most relevant candidates and websites.

Given the reported benefits of programmatic products—such as

greater efficiency, reach, and cost-effectiveness than other forms of
paid advertising—we expected a fast uptick in its usage, but perhaps
organizations are A) using it but not recognizing that they are doing so,
B) preferring to rely on “free” advertising on company websites, internal
posting boards, and social media, or C) simply not finding it to be very
effective.

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 Survey Question: Which of the following ways does your
organization advertise job postings? (select all that apply)

Company’s website 87%

Job boards (single sites where
85%
jobs are posted)
Internal posting, emails or
78%
other communications
Social media 74%

Job aggregators (sites that pull job

43%
ads from many job boards)
Talent communities (qualified
36%
candidates not actively seeking work)
Programmatic advertising 17%
Alumni associations
(collection of former employees) 15%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Less than one-fifth use programmatic

advertising for job postings

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 Finding: Recruitment tech leaders are close
to four times more likely than laggards to
post jobs in talent communities

Recruitment tech leaders use more methods of posting jobs than

laggards do. They are much more likely to use social media and
job aggregators. However, the most dramatic differences are in the
use of less common posting techniques. Nearly half of recruitment
tech leaders (46%) use posting to talent communities versus 12% of
laggards. And nearly one-quarter of recruitment tech leaders (24%) use
programmatic advertising versus 9% of laggards.

Survey Question: Which of the following ways does your

organization advertise job postings? (select all that apply)

24%
Programmatic advertising
9%

46%
Talent communities (qualified
candidates not actively seeking work) 12%

Job aggregators (sites that pull job 50%

ads from many job boards) 30%

87%
Social media
64%

0 20 40 60 80 100
Recruitment tech leaders Recruitment tech laggards

Recruitment tech leaders are almost three times as likely

as laggards to use programmatic advertising to post jobs

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 HRRI Strategic Recommendation

When it comes to advertising jobs, we have a few suggestions based

on our research.

Employ a variety of means for advertising job

postings. Technology can make it easier to use
more posting methods and provide a competitive
advantage.

Determine the cost effectiveness and efficiency

of various types of job advertising, perhaps
correlating methods with recruitment success
metrics.

Investigate the use of talent communities. They

can be great places to attract star performers who
will stay longer.

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 Finding: Just over half of the respondents
say job boards are among the most
effective means of advertising job postings

Once respondents chose the job advertisement methods, we asked

them a follow-up question about which ones they viewed as most
effective.

In this way, we found that there is no consensus here. Just over

half (53%) say job boards are among the most effective means of
advertising job postings (though this means that nearly half of those
who use boards do not view them as highly effective). The next most
commonly cited effective methods are the company website and social
media but, in each case, slightly under a third felt these were most
effective.

The data on effective methods provides one possible answer as to why

programmatic advertising has not penetrated recruitment marketing
the same way it has penetrated consumer marketing. Only 8% of
those who use programmatic advertising rank it among the most
effective methods. Note that they must feel it is at least somewhat
effective or they wouldn’t use it but their enthusiasm for the method is
underwhelming.

The generally low numbers on which methods are most effective

suggest a degree of frustration with all the advertising methods. In the
current market, finding talent can be difficult. Maybe this helps explain
why recruiters use many methods to get their postings in front of
potential candidates.

25 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Survey Question: Of the following ways that your organization
advertises job postings, which do you believe are most effective?

Job boards (single sites 53%

where jobs are posted)
Company’s website 32%

Social media 32%

Internal posting, emails or 23%

other communications
Job aggregators (sites that pull job 23%
ads from many job boards)
Talent communities (qualified 14%
candidate not actively seeking work)
Programmatic advertising 8%

Alumni associations (collection of 4%

former employees)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Less than one-tenth rate programmatic advertising

as effective

26 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Time to Fill Jobs
Definitions Finding: Typically, it takes much longer to
fill exempt roles than non-exempt positions
Exempt: An individual who
is exempt from the overtime
provisions of the Fair Labor Taking a long time to fill vacancies can be a serious problem for
Standards Act (FLSA) organizations. Not only does it leave work undone, but it also typically
because they are classified leads to an extra burden on the existing employees, and that can lead
as an executive, professional,
to burnout and higher turnover. The worst problems occur in exempt
administrative, or outside
positions where 10% say that, on average, it takes more than 90 days to
sales employee
fill a role and a further 18% say it takes 61 to 90 days.
Non-exempt: An individual
who is not exempt from the It is generally easier to fill non-exempt roles, and most respondents
overtime provisions of the Fair (52%) say on average it takes 30 days or less to fill these vacancies. Of
Labor Standards Act (FLSA) these, 14% have an impressive record of filling non-exempt vacancies in
and may be paid on a salary, 10 days or less. Of course, the question is whether they also prove to be
hourly, or other basis.
quality hires in the long run.

Survey Question: What is the average amount of time it takes for

your organization to fill the following types of positions?
(please provide your best estimate)

Nonexempt 3% 11% 38% 33% 10% 5%

Exempt 3% 3% 19% 47% 18% 10%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Less than 5 days 5 to 10 days 11 to 30 days

31 to 60 days 61 to 90 days More than 90 days

Over half say that on average they can fill

non-exempt roles in 30 days or less.

27 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
Differences based on Finding: The more senior the role, the
organizational size longer it takes to fill
Smaller organizations can
typically fill senior roles faster As we would expect, it takes significantly more time to fill senior roles
than can mid-sized and large than more junior ones. More than half of the respondents (57%) say it
ones. The most common time takes more than 60 days to fill senior roles, but only 16% say it takes
to fill for senior jobs is 31-60 this long to fill mid-level positions, and even fewer (8%) say it takes that
days for small organizations long to fill entry-level positions.
versus 61-90 for mid-sized and
large organizations. Of course,
The most common answer on time-to-fill mid-level positions is 31-60
the larger the organization, the
days (selected by 49% of respondents).
greater the spans of control
those jobs will require.
The most common answer on time-to-fill entry-level positions is 11-30
days (selected by 39% of respondents).

Definitions

Entry-level: An entry-level position refers to a job role that typically requires minimal or no prior work
experience and is suitable for recent graduates or individuals new to the job market

Mid-level: A mid-level position refers to a job role that requires a moderate level of experience, skills, and
responsibilities. Mid-level status generally entails answering to an individual of greater seniority while also
holding administrative authority over less senior staff

Senior-level: A senior-level position refers to a job role that demands extensive experience, advanced skills,
and significant responsibilities, often involving managerial or leadership duties within an organization

28 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Survey Question: What is the average amount of time it takes for
your organization to fill the following types of positions?
(please provide your best estimate)

Senior-level 1% 4% 10% 27% 38% 21%

Mid-level 2% 7% 25% 49% 14% 4%

Entry-level 8% 18% 39% 27% 5% 3%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Less than 5 days 5 to 10 days 11 to 30 days

31 to 60 days 61 to 90 days More than 90 days

More than a third of respondents say that even entry-

level roles take, on average, more than 30 days to fill

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 Optimizing Recruitment for
Mobile Devices
Differences based on Finding: Just over half of respondents
organizational size agree or strongly agree that their job
Small organizations are application process is optimized for mobile
less likely to agree or devices or is device-agnostic
strongly agree that the
job application process is
optimized for mobile. For The idea of mobile-friendly HR applications is not new, but the use of
small organizations, 41% this technology is still far from universal. Just over half of respondents
are optimized whereas agree or strongly agree that their job application process is optimized
57% of mid-sized and large for mobile devices or is device agnostic. This leaves 47% strongly
organizations are optimized disagreeing, disagreeing, or neither agreeing nor disagreeing that their
for mobile.
job application process is optimized for mobile.

This result shows that it can take a long time for new technologies to
be implemented in organizations.

Survey Statement: The job application process in your organization is

optimized for mobile devices or is device agnostic

7% 16% 24% 40% 13%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree nor disagree

Agree Strongly agree

About one-quarter of respondents disagree or strongly

disagree that their job application process is optimized
for mobile devices or is device-agnostic

30 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: Recruitment tech leaders are more
than twice as likely as laggards to agree
or strongly agree that their job application
process is optimized for mobile devices or
is device-agnostic

Recruitment tech leaders are mostly mobile-ready, whereas most

recruitment tech laggards are not. Nearly three-quarters of recruitment
tech leaders agree or strongly agree that their job application process
is optimized for mobile devices or is device agnostic versus just 34% of
laggards.

Survey Question: The job application process in your organization is optimized for
mobile devices or is device agnostic. (percent responding agree or strongly agree)

74%
80
70
60
50
40 32%
30
20
10
0
Recruitment tech laggards Recruitment tech leaders

Only close to a third of laggards have their job

application process optimized for mobile devices

31 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: Less than two-fifths say they have
mobile-accessible career sites

The only mobile-related technology used by more than half of

respondents is phone interviews. However, this application is not
what normally comes to mind when thinking about mobile-friendly
recruitment. Applications that are more normally associated are mobile-
accessible career sites and using text messaging for various purposes.
These applications are used by less than two-fifths of respondents. We
can expect these numbers to increase as organizations upgrade their
recruitment technology to more modern systems.

Survey Question: Which mobile-related technologies does your

organization use for talent acquisition? (select all that apply)

Phone interviews 54%

Mobile-accessible career sites 39%

Texting to schedule and confirm 34%

assessments or interviews
Texting to engage with 33%
applicants/candidates
Social recruiting via mobile device 25%

Job alerts 24%

Mobile advertising 17%

Text to apply 15%
Mobile recruitment apps
15%
Chatbots
7%
We do not use any mobile-related
technologies for TA 15%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Less than one-fifth of respondents are using

mobile advertising to attract candidates

32 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Recruitment Outcomes
Finding: Close to half say that given the
chance, they would rehire 76% or more of
the group hired in the past 12 months

One of the most straightforward measures of the quality of hire is

simply the question of whether, given the chance to re-do it, would you
rehire that person. Anytime the answer is no, it represents a serious
failure in the organization’s quest to hire good employees.

Some organizations do reasonably well on this metric, with close to

half (48%) of respondents saying that given the chance, they would
rehire more than 76% of hires from the past 12 months. However, a
disturbingly large number of respondents (31%) say that, given the
chance, they would rehire only half or fewer of those they hired in the
past 12 months.

While HR and hiring managers may be hesitant to discuss the number

of bad hires, it is such an important factor for the organization that it
behooves the CHRO to raise the issue.

Survey Question: Out of the employees you or your group hired in the
past 12 months, approximately what percentage would you rehire if
you had the chance to do it over again?

60
48%
50

40

30
21%

20 17%
14%
10

0
0-25% 26-50% 51-75% 76-100%

33 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 The Use of AI-Powered Recruitment
Finding: Over a quarter use AI for TA to
some extent

What Is AI?
Before we delve into our findings, we want to briefly explore the
question of what AI actually is. In truth, this is a very broad category
that covers a wide variety of techniques such as:

●● machine learning

●● neural networks and deep learning

●● data mining, knowledge discovery, and advanced analytics

●● rule-based modeling and decision-making

●● expert system modeling

●● case-based reasons

●● natural language process

●● visual analytics and pattern recognition

In some cases, HR professionals may use may be using software that

was developed using one or more of these techniques and not fully
realize it.

AI Promise and Perils

One of the factors hindering the greater usage of AI in talent acquisition
is the peril of bias. Machine learning tools that screen applicants, which
was one of the early potential uses of AI in talent acquisition, risked
being biased and this may have impeded adoption.

Today’s generative AI neural networks, which include Large Language

Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, have some of the same drawbacks,
and they are also prone to prediction errors (sometimes called
hallucinations) and inaccurate data.

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 Still, these generative AIs such as LLMs are compelling and easy to
use, providing at least a simulation of human-level intelligence. As
a result, they are increasingly being used by some talent acquisition
professionals and incorporated (along with other AI techniques) into
new platforms and software.

AI Usage in the TA Function

So, it makes sense that over a quarter of our respondents say that
their organizations use AI for talent acquisition to at least some extent,
though just 5% use it to a large extent. These numbers may be less-
than-impressive. However, as we see below, organizations that already
excel in the area of recruitment technology are far more likely to have
already adopted AI.

Survey Question: To what extent does your organization use artificial

intelligence (AI) for the purposes of enhancing talent acquisition?

80 73%
70
60
50
40
30 21%
20
10 5%
0
Not at all To some extent To a large extent

Just 5% use AI in talent acquisition

to a large extent

35 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: Recruitment tech leaders are
nearly four times as likely as laggards to
use AI in talent acquisition

Recruitment tech leaders are far ahead of laggards in the use of AI.
Over 10% of recruitment tech leader organizations are using AI to a
large extent and a further 33% use it to some extent. The number of
recruitment tech laggards using AI is much lower: only 11% use AI to
some extent and none use it to a large extent.

This could mark the beginnings of radical change in terms of HR

technology. If organizations that excel at recruitment technology are the
early adopters of the latest forms of artificial intelligence, then it’s likely
other firms will be forced to follow over time. In the next several years
AI enhancements could be incorporated into many types of recruitment
technologies.

AI in Today’s Recruitment Environment

In a sign of the times, LinkedIn, the employment-focused social media platform, reported in October 2023,
"To help our customers unlock greater productivity and prioritize the most impactful work, we announced
new AI-powered tools across our recruiting and marketing products today.” The firm is launching AI-related
applications that will reportedly help hirers find qualified candidates more quickly as well as help organizations
to create end-to-end marketing campaigns.

It’s too early to know what the impact of these kinds of applications will be, but it’s clear that providers in this
space will be trying out various new offerings in the coming year in order to discern what’s effective and what
catches the imagination of talent acquisition specialists.

36 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Survey Question: To what extent does your organization use artificial
intelligence (AI) for the purposes of enhancing talent acquisition?
(percentage responding "to some or large extent")

45%

11%

0 10 20 30 40 50

Recruitment tech leaders Recruitment tech laggards

37 HR.com’s HR.com’s Future of Employee Engagement 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: Just over half of respondents see
personalization of the recruitment process
as an important benefit of AI

It is still early days for AI in recruitment and it remains to be seen

which capabilities will be most important. Among respondents whose
organizations use AI for TA, only one capability was chosen by half
or more of the respondents as being an important capability: that is,
personalization of the recruitment process. This shouldn’t be taken to
imply that other capabilities are not important, but there’s no consensus
about which ones are most critical.

Still, we think that the top five most widely chosen capabilities are good
guesses about how AI will help the TA function over the next several
years:

●● personalization

●● analysis

●● automation

●● augmentation

●● organization

38 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Survey Question: From the list below, select the five most important capabilities
of your AI-powered talent acquisition application. (select up to five)

Personalize recruitment process 53%

Analyse 45%

Automate 37%
Augment (e.g., enhance recruiter
37%
skills via recommendations)
Organize 37%
Assess 32%

Predict 18%

Simulate human conversations 18%

Diagnose 18%

Gauge emotions 11%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Almost one in five respondents think AI’s ability to

simulate human conversations will be important in
recruitment

39 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: The most commonly cited benefit
of AI in recruitment is improved candidate
experience

The five most commonly cited benefits of AI in recruitment are:

●● improved candidate experience

●● efficient screening of applicants

●● automated recruitment processes

●● facilitating feedback to all applicants

●● better access to the entire pipeline of candidates

The fourth most commonly cited benefit is an interesting one:

facilitating feedback to all candidates. One of the most common
complaints of candidates is that when they apply for a job, it feels as if
their resume has fallen into a black hole and they never hear back from
the employer. If AI can help address this problem, then it might be a
major improvement to the candidate experience.

40 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Survey Question: Which are the top five benefits of using AI in recruitment
in your organization? (select up to five)

Improved candidate experience 46%

Efficient screening of applicants 43%

Better access to entire pipeline of candidates 41%

Facilitating feedback to all applicants 41%

Automated recruitment processes (such as 41%
redirecting candidates to fitting job postings)
Data-based hiring decisions 38%

Accurate job postings 35%

Efficient and accurate predictions
19%
about candidate’s performance
Game-based assessments 16%
Automated video interviews (AVIs) 16%

0 10 20 30 40 50

Only 16% of respondents cited automated video

interviews as one of the most important benefits of AI

41 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: The most commonly cited concern
about AI is depersonalization of the
recruitment process

The five top concerns cited about the use of AI in recruitment are:

●● depersonalization,

●● low trust in AI-based decisions

●● vulnerability to bias

●● liability due to unintentional discrimination

●● lack of understanding of the decision-making process

We see a paradox here. On one hand, as we saw above, the most widely
cited AI capability among our respondents is the personalization of
the recruitment process. On the other hand, the most widely cited
concern about using AI for recruitment is the depersonalization of the
recruitment process.

Why the apparent contradiction? Because today’s LLMs can do an

amazing job at simulating human language, text, and even speech. They
can potentially at least give the impression of personalization and may,
to the degree that they can accurately answer questions, provide actual
personalization based on the candidate’s needs.

On the other hand, this takes actual people out of the loop for the sake
of greater efficiency. It is personalization without the person. And,
respondents are aware that this could create a true problem if the AI
only frustrates or even offends job candidates.

One concern that is not widely cited is the threat of AI taking recruiter
jobs. Only 15% cite this as among the top five concerns.

42 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Survey Question: What are the top five concerns with regard to the increase
in usage of AI for recruitment in your organization? (select up to five)

Depersonalization of the recruitment process

50%
Low trust in AI-driven decisions
(algorithm aversion) 42%

Vulnerability to bias 40%

Liability due to unintentional
employment discrimination 40%

Lack of understanding about the 38%

decision-making process
Lack of accuracy of AI-based decisions 33%

Lack of control 30%

Erosion of employee privacy
(due to tracking) 27%
Lack of information about
AI among jobseekers 26%

Unethical data handling 22%

Threat to recruiter jobs 15%

0 10 20 30 40 50

Less than one-fifth are concerned that AI is a threat to

recruiter jobs

43 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: A majority cite two strategies for
the successful use of AI in recruitment

There are various strategies intended to ensure the successful use of

AI, but there are only two cited by a slim majority of our respondents:

●● evaluating equity and fairness of AI decisions

●● training recruiters to confidently interpret AI recommendations

In a sense, both of these strategies are focused on quality assurance

in an attempt to circumvent problems and shore up the potential
weakness of AI systems. That is, a talent acquisition professional can
oversee an AI to make sure that its evaluations do not unintentionally
lead to discrimination.

Similarly, if an organization can properly train recruiters to interpret AI

recommendations, it can also help ensure that every recommendation
is vetted by a human being so that poor recommendations are identified
and eliminated.

44 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Survey Question: Which are the top five strategies most important to the
successful use of AI in recruitment in your organization? (select up to five)

Evaluating equity and fairness

of AI decisions 55%

Training recruiters to confidently 53%

interpret AI recommendations
Ensuring privacy and consent in 49%
data collection from candidates
Understanding legal frameworks 47%
for use of AI
Setting standards for transparency 46%
of AI decisions
Conducting regular audits for biases 35%
Designing proactive risk management processes 34%
(such as AI systems with appropriate controls)
Providing candidates with support
tools while using AI in hiring 26%

Setting standards for transparency 23%

for tracking technology
Using diverse teams to design AI systems 21%
Providing candidates comprehensive
information on the use of AI for hiring 20%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

About one in five respondents felt providing

candidates with comprehensive information on the
use of AI for hiring is one of the most important
strategies

45 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 HRRI Strategic Recommendation

In light of the research, we offer the following suggestions to TA practitioners:

TA professionals should keep a close eye on developments in the

world of recruitment technologies over the next year or so. Generative
AI applications—which will often be integrated with other technologies
such as social network analysis, machine learning and more—will be
incorporated into various TA applications. The question is whether
these changes will represent substantial improvements over current
technologies. If they do, then TA professionals should consider
adopting those new tools.

When considering new tools, think about where they are most likely
to reap benefits. Consider both the advantages and areas of concern.
Some possible advantages include greater personalization, better
analytics, improved automation and recruiter skills augmentation.
Some possible areas of concern include depersonalization,
vulnerability to bias, and the concern that some recruiters will “fall
asleep at the wheel” as they over rely on the output of artificial
intelligence.

If more AI-based applications are adopted, consider adopting a variety

of approaches such as:

 regularly evaluate the equity and fairness of AI decisions

train recruiters so that they can confidently interpret AI
recommendations, knowing when and when not to adopt them
learn about the legal frameworks for AI usage
safeguard privacy and ensure consent in data collection from
candidates

46 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Looking Ahead to the Next Two Years
Finding: A majority of organizations are
planning to increase resources/focus on
three broad areas of talent acquisition over
the next two years

Looking two years into the future, most organizations plan to

increase resources/focus on three broad areas of talent acquisition:
technologies, online sources, and methods. All three areas will receive
similar emphasis. In each area, roughly seven in ten organizations are
planning to increase resources or focus to a moderate or great extent.
Of these, nearly a third say they plan to increase resources or focus to a
great extent.

Survey Question: To what extent are you planning on increasing resources

or focus in the following areas over the next two years?

Online sources used for 7% 23% 41% 29%

talent acquisition

Talent acquisition
technologies and tools 7% 21% 42% 29%

Talent acquisition methods

and practices 4% 26% 40% 30%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Not at all To a small extent To a moderate extent To a great extent

Editor’s note: those responding don’t know were removed from the data. They represented 13% of the data for “Online sources used for talent
acquisition”, 14% for “Talent acquisition technologies and tools” and 11% for “Talent acquisition methods and practices”

Close to a third of organizations are planning to

increase resources or focus to a great extent in three
areas of recruitment

47 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: The capability that is most likely
to be important to organizations will be the
candidate's experience

Seven capabilities are cited as being important by more than half of

the respondents when selecting TA technologies or tools. Of these,
the top three are candidate experience, analytics and tracking, and
identification of the best candidate.

For vendors of TA technologies, the message is that there are a lot of

boxes they will need to tick to get the attention of HR leaders. For HR
leaders, the number of factors that are important signals the need for a
thorough vetting process before selecting any new technology.

Survey Question: Which of the following capabilities will be most important

to your organization when selecting TA technologies or tools over the next
two years? (select all that apply)

Candidate experience 67%

Analytics and tracking 63%

Identification of best candidates 62%
Integration with other systems 55%
Speed of recruitment 53%
Skills/capabilities matching 53%
Efficiencies and optimizations
51%
Passive candidate sourcing
38%
Interview assessments
34%
Structured interviewing
28%
Match job titles with searches
22%
Multiple language support
15%
Nothing will be important
1%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Nearly two-thirds of respondents say analytics and

tracking will be among the most important capabilities
when selecting TA technology

48 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Finding: Most respondents believe that
recruitment technologies will become more
useful in the next two years

There are a large number of vendors producing recruitment

technologies, so it is reasonable to be optimistic about the future
of these tools. Most (59%) respondents expect that recruitment
technologies will become more useful in the next two years. Nearly
half of respondents say the use of AI in recruitment will increase. Only
a quarter expect their recruitment technology budget to increase,
allowing them to take advantage of the improved technology that is
expected to arrive.

Survey Question: Which of the following do you expect to be true in your

organization over the next two years? (select all that apply)

Recruitment technologies will

become more useful 59%

Use of AI in recruitment will increase 49%

Hiring will involve more
data-based decisions 39%

Hiring will be more automated 38%

Will place greater emphasis on hiring
underrepresented talent 32%
Recruitment technology
budget will increase 25%

None of the above 8%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Nearly half of respondents say the use of AI in

recruitment will increase

49 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Key Takeaways

1
Use good metrics well. Our research shows a correlation between
Key using metrics and successful usage of recruitment technologies.
Takeaway There are a variety of metrics to use, such as time to fill and/or
time to hire, cost per hire, hiring manager satisfaction, candidate
experience, retention of new employees, and quality of hire. In
every case, metrics need to be well thought out and properly
integrated both with existing processes and current technologies.
Their usage will depend on the organization’s priorities. For
example, an organization that primarily depends on less skilled
employees may emphasize time to hire while one that depends on
primarily on highly skilled employees may focus more on retention
and quality of hire. Whatever metrics are prioritized, they should
provide HR with insights as to which parts of the recruiting process
are effective and which are not. From there, TA professionals can
continuously improve the processes.

Key
Takeaway 2 Pin down what you mean by quality of hire. There are various ways
to assess the quality of hire. Among others, the metrics that can
help HR assess the quality of hire include feedback from hiring
managers, the number of employees who stay a given number
of months, performance ratings, whether the new employee has
the skills listed on the job posting, and an answer to the crucial
question “Given the chance to re-do the process, would you hire
this person again?” Some will depend on subjective elements
and others will be more objective in nature. Look for the right
combination that can shed light on the quality of hire in your
particular organization.

50 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Key
Takeaway 3 Set ambitious time-to-fill targets. While one should not skimp on
the quality of hire, our data shows that some organizations (13%)
can fill their non-exempt roles in 10 days or less. While this may be
too ambitious for other organizations, reducing time-to-fill could
be a big win in terms of cost savings and greater productivity.
Assess current processes to find out what can be effectively
streamlined, and reach out to peers to find out what they do to
achieve a faster time-to-fill.

4
Adopt best practices when it comes to choosing and
Key implementing TA technologies. Before making a purchase,
Takeaway find out from all the relevant stakeholders the problems they’d
like to solve and what they’d most like to get back from a
new TA technology. Also, work with stakeholders during the
implementation process so as to maximize utility and ease of use
while maintaining privacy and security.

Key
Takeaway 5 Explore fast-evolving AI applications. HR and TA professionals
not only need to understand the potential capabilities of new
technologies but their potential risks as well. However, we believe
that risks should be managed well rather than serve as an excuse
for doing nothing. The companies that do a great job of adopting
the latest technologies may well get a leg up on the competition in
terms of talent recruitment, so most organizations should at the
very least stay informed about this fast-changing landscape.

51 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
 Key
Takeaway 6 Make recruitment mobile-friendly. It’s been fifteen years since
the iPhone was launched and since that time many people have
adopted smartphones as their main means of interacting with
the internet. If your job application process does not include
mobile-friendly technology, you may well be missing out on good
talent.

Key
Takeaway 7 Be open to various job advertising methods. One of the findings
of this study is that most organizations need to use several
different means of advertising jobs to find candidates. We
found, for example, that TA technology leaders are considerably
more likely to leverage social media, job aggregators, talent
communities, and programmatic advertising.

8
Consider using a variety of TA technologies rather than relying
Key on just one. We found that TA technology leaders use a greater
Takeaway variety of tools rather than relying solely on one. Although
ATS is indeed most widely cited as an effective recruitment
technology, identify which tools best help your organization
achieve specific goals. Then make strategic decisions based on
those analyses.

Key
Takeaway 9 But don’t rely entirely on technology. Recruitment is a very
people-oriented function. Technologies can help but they can’t
replace skilled recruitment specialists who are capable of
finding and attracting the best job candidates. Organizations
need skilled recruitment professionals in order to make the best
of use TA technologies.

52 HR.com’s Future of AI, Automation and Recruitment Technologies 2023-24 www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2023
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