While  65 percent of employers globally believe HR tech will free up workers to focus on more knowledge-intensive tasks, talent leaders still value human interactions because they say a personal touch at certain points in the recruitment process keeps candidates engaged. 

The Q3 2018 Talent Trends Report by Randstad reveals that the top three functions employers believe benefit from a personal touch include shortlisting candidates by video interviews (28 percent), scheduling interviews with candidates (27 percent), and managing talent communities and engagement (26 percent).

“Our global snapshot reveals that employers around the world are navigating which steps of the recruitment process favor the human touch and which can be automated to allow workers to focus on more strategic and value-added services,” said Michel Stokvis, Managing Director of the Randstad Sourceright’s Global Talent Innovation Center.

He further added, “Technology alone won’t give you an edge. How you use it to accelerate hiring outcomes and support the productivity of people will.”

Here are a few more highlights from the report:

Positive talent and business impact of technologies

51 percent of employers feel that automation is useful for tracking HR data/metrics and for the creation and management of HR analytics. And 73 percent of human capital leaders say smart technologies will have an equal or greater impact on their organizations this year.

This sentiment is particularly high in the U.S. In fact, for 86 percent of the U.S. employers a robust talent technology strategy has already made a positive impact on their business.

Automation of some key hiring processes is critical

More than of the employers (51 percent) believe initial screening should be mostly or completely automated. Further, 65 percent feel that the candidate experience will be positively enhanced by the continued advancement of HR technologies. Specifically, in the U.S, 60 percent of U.S. employers believe the task of searching databases for candidates should be mostly or completely automated.

HR Tech adoption and readiness index

The Talent Trends research, which surveyed leaders in 17 countries, also found that while the U.S. is adopting talent technology at a rapid rate, second only to Sweden in Randstad Sourceright’s HR tech adoption index when it comes to tech readiness, the U.S. has slid in global rankings. It now ranks below Sweden, the U.K, China, France and Singapore, and just above Brazil.