A recent report on “The Reality of Asia’s Talent Market” by CEB Asia, highlighted a triple threat to realizing the region’s growth potential. “Rising Costs and Competitive Pressures” combined with “Talent Scarcity” and “Leadership Productivity and Retention Risks” were identified as the main challenges facing Asia’s companies and HR Departments.
So, how to combat these threats? One thought is that the emergence of HR technologies in Asia might level the playing field and give organisations the tools they need to fight back. Indeed, the conclusion of a recent whitepaper by Thomson Online Benefits on HR trends in Asia, was that “In 2015 Tech Adoption is a Must for HR”.
Technology – A Double-edged Sword?
One area of the HR Technology ecosystem that has seen slow but steady evolution is Talent Acquisition and Recruitment.
Historically, two of the main problems have been gaining access to the talent pool and then actually tracking applications. Today, advances in Job Boards and Social Networks have revolutionized the recruitment outreach of the modern business. In addition, several ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) options are available to businesses of all sizes and industry verticals. Great right? Not so fast.
The proliferation of “Apply Now” or “Quick Apply” buttons means that the barriers to application are low. In fact, it has never been quicker and easier for a candidate to apply for a job. Having solved one set of problems, technology has presented a new challenge for HR Resourcing departments – how to efficiently and accurately analyse and screen all of these applications.
The Jobable team – left to right: Luke Byrne (Chief Product Officer), Richard Hanson (CEO)
Silver Lining
Whilst global enterprise software companies have stubbornly occupied Asia’s HR Technology space, there are a group of burgeoning HK Startups making their mark in providing companies with the Talent Acquisition and Recruitment technologies of the future.
TalkPush, a platform to automate the phone screening of job candidates and recent winners of the Echelon 100 Hong Kong Qualifier are on a mission to disrupt the recruitment industry by improving the process of pre-screening candidates, validating them and enhancing collaboration between decision-makers in the hiring process.
JobDoh, a fellow Hong Kong startup, is looking to improve efficiency in the casual labour market by providing a location-based, on-demand mobile application that seeks to match employers with the right job applicants and put them in contact directly.
According to LinkedIn Talent Solutions, one of the Top Up and Coming Trends for Recruitment in 2015 will be “using Big Data to predict future talent needs”. One startup looking to help companies leverage Big Data in their recruitment process is Jobable. Using proprietary algorithms and advanced machine learning technology, Jobable enables HR departments to streamline all applications in one place, immediately identifying the most relevant candidates and enabling those responsible for recruitment to spend more time meeting the “high potentials” to find out who is the best personality and cultural fit for the role.
The reality is that Asia’s Talent Market has a few dark shadows moving across it. Ultimately, however, there is light at the end of the tunnel for HR Departments if they can maximize the opportunities that new technology innovation offers them. One things is for sure – Hong Kong Startups are well positioned to play their part in a battle that must be won.
This article is written by Richard Hanson (Jobable Facebook) is a Co-founder of Hiring Screen – see his profile on Startbase.hk
