A two-part series that was previewed at TAtech North America earlier this month and will be developed further at TAtech Europe on September 8-9 in Amsterdam. See TAtech.org/Events for details
In 1997, I started writing a column about the recruitment technology industry for The Wall Street Journal. In the 30 years since then, I watched the industry not just survive but prosper through three near-death crises: the bursting of the dot.com bubble, the Great Recession and the Covid pandemic. Despite wild swings in corporate hiring, despite layoffs and rehiring and layoffs again, despite “doing more with less” and other business bromides, recruitment technology companies both multiplied and prospered.
It is an extraordinary track record, and yet, there is now a rising chorus of voices opining that yet another crisis has arrived, one that at least a segment of the industry will not survive. This claim isn’t new, of course, but the size of the chorus espousing it has grown significantly. Their incessant forecast of extinction may focus on one segment – job boards – but its cumulative effect is to cast a shadow of uncertainty over the entire industry.
Inciting gloom and doom is a popular pastime these days, but in this case, the charge won’t stick. Why? Because recruitment technology companies – next generation employment sites (NGEs, the future in job boards) as well as talent technology companies and AI-powered TA solutions – are on the cusp of a Golden Age.
In my last column, I pushed back on the gloom-and-doom sayers and argued that job boards, talent technology companies and AI-powered TA solutions are on the cusp of a Golden Age in Recruitment Technology. I also said, however, that getting from cusp to consolidation – from the potential to the full promise and power of that age – would require solution providers to grapple with and successfully overcome a number of challenges.
What are those challenges?
They are structural, technological and market-based. Read my post on the TAtech Blog to get my take on all three.
