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Three Big Trends from the 2019 HR Technology Conference & Exposition

October 18, 2019
 
iCIMS Staff
3 min read

It’s been quite a year for employers and job candidates alike. Record-low unemployment rates made it exceptionally difficult for companies to find, engage with, and hire people to fill open roles. In that same vein, job candidates often found themselves overwhelmed by the job openings and decisions that faced them – which is a good problem to have, right? In theory, yes. But in reality, confusion on both ends of the spectrum leads to missed opportunities for both parties.

This dichotomy between a thriving economy and employers’ ability to hire and maintain workers is one of the key reasons why this year’s HR Tech Conference was attended by thousands of industry leaders who gathered to network, innovate, and learn.

Here are the biggest takeaways our team walked away with from this year’s event:

Chatbots are having a bigger impact than expected

While this technology has been on companies’ radars, many business leaders are surprised to see just how impactful it’s been in helping organizations streamline efforts across their HR departments. Forward-thinking companies have leveraged this technology to handle the initial point of contact with their end-users, giving their employees time back to address other pressing aspects of their job.

Prominent and fast-growing organizations like RPM Pizza, Domino’s Pizza’s largest franchisee, are using chatbots to facilitate an improved application experience. Its branded automated recruiter, which they’ve named Dottie, can complete quick tasks like instantly answering candidate questions, screening applicants, scheduling interviews, sending reminders, and more so that when the candidate is passed over to a human recruiter or comes in for an interview, they can have a fruitful conversation that ultimately leads to a faster hire. The result? The company has seen an 85% increase in application response rates and has shortened their time-to-hire by 66%.

The industry is still figuring out how to best work with AI

The above mention is a great example of how one organization has successfully empowered its employees to work with AI – although, as an industry, we’re still learning how to use this technology in an effective way.

Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic at HR Tech over the past few years, but as recent headlines dictate, many are worried that it is poised to take jobs away from hundreds of thousands of workers. This simply isn’t true. HR leaders have to implement a human-led approach for artificial intelligence to effectively impact their recruiting practices – because while HR Tech showcased dozens of ways that this technology has been helpful, it is almost always as a result of a strong team that has worked alongside it.

Thankfully, there are several ways that employers can prepare their employees for the ongoing evolution of AI in the workplace – and there will be more to come.

Agility is key for companies across all industries

Due to today’s competitive labor market, employers need to effectively market to and engage with candidates in order to hire top talent. To facilitate this experience, many are realizing the importance of having a unified recruitment platform – yet crave expanded capabilities from new technologies that do not easily integrate with their existing tech ecosystems, presenting challenges of scalability and cost. In short, companies need flexibility to keep up with their hiring demands.

To acknowledge and address this widening concern and need, we announced our new talent acquisition platform at this year’s HR Tech conference. Our portfolio is designed to meet employers’ unique needs — whether through iCIMS’ entire talent acquisition platform or through individual products — so they can exceed candidate expectations, develop operational efficiencies, and pave the way for business growth.

As always, this year’s HR Tech conference brought with it a wave of inspiring innovation. One of the most exciting parts of the conference is the Awesome New Technologies for HR session, where leaders in the industry showcase how their new solutions are moving the needle. Presenters highlighted the impact of a personalized user experience, AI and texting, employer branding and real-time data analytics. It was an honor for iCIMS to have been recognized for a second year in a row. A big congratulations to our fellow presenters!

We look forward to what next year’s event brings.

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