Future Track: Insights into Hiring in 2024
Technology Drives More in 2024 TA
Imagine the world of work 10 years from now:
- Millennials make up nearly half of the workforce.
- Baby Boomers who fretted over Y2K are now retired and playing with their grandkids.
- Tenured employees who now have 25 years of experience were college graduates in 2000 (when Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo had yet to become household names).
Gen Y was the first generation to come of age with constant, real-time digital connectivity, so it’s not a stretch to think that virtual interaction will be the norm in 2024. With Millennials in charge, companies will morph into networked, decentralized organizations. The future workforce for many sectors is likely to be thousands of people working in different locations. With virtual interaction as the new normal, employees may very well be hired without ever sharing air with the recruiter or hiring manager. Video interviewing will evolve to support this new environment.
How Smarter Evaluation Could Happen with Video Interviewing 5.0
Let’s assume the costs of hiring and of making a bad hire are still chief concerns for TA professionals in 2024. Envisioning the future capabilities of video interviewing technology, why not give recruiters and candidates even more ability to evaluate each other? They’ll still benefit from that personal interaction and dialog, but let’s imagine there’s another layer of underlying technology that interprets the interaction beyond what a human can do. This readout pops up on the screen at the conclusion of the interview, providing the recruiter with a comprehensive, real-time evaluation. This added, sophisticated software layer could interpret personality traits, physical cues and body language down to the micro level, enthusiasm and energy. It could even measure credibility. In essence, a data layer wrapped around the interview could take the guesswork out about fit, exaggeration or outright lying as well as overall comfort with the job responsibilities and performance expectations.
Far-fetched? Not really when you consider companies have been measuring people’s emotional reactions when testing advertising for years. The NBA just launched technology that tracks star players’ every move on the court, and the MLB is not far behind. All of these technologies are designed to contribute to business performance, so why wouldn’t we see similar systems in play when talent acquisition equates to such a large percentage of overall corporate spend?
Upside for Both Sides
Video interviewing already provides many huge benefits to users today. These benefits are both operational, like cost and time savings, and strategic, like brand elevation and reach. But it’s fun to envision how technology advancements will change how hiring is done in the future. Adding this layer of intelligence into video interviewing software would address so much: No more guessing, and risk-free hiring decisions would save billions each year. And with that certainty comes speed. When a TA team finds that right person, they can act quickly because they know they’re building productivity almost immediately. The future of hiring is not all about the recruiter, though. Candidates have a lot to gain too – but that’s a story for another time. Watch for Part II of this series!
- Research conducted by a third party panel of HR directors and above in November, 2013.