What recruiters can learn from Homeland Security

October 2nd, 2019 | Industry News

It’s not every day that we get an insight into the hiring algorithms used by government organisations, but just this week, the US Homeland Security Department’s Chief Information Officer John Zangardi gave away some of their recent system designs. As all SAAS recruitment agencies know, the algorithms that shape decisions are a vital component of web-based recruitment software, so when Homeland Security say they are adopting ‘creative new hiring practices’ people pay attention.

What it boils down to is that they are accepting people without computer science backgrounds for their cyber workforces. It doesn’t sound that radical, does it? However, there’s an interesting lesson for online recruitment software – for example the new system prioritises adjacent disciplines such as psychology at the same level as the core disciplines, and then allows human recruiters to evaluate the skills and experience a candidate has to see if they back up the applicant’s ability to contribute. Similarly, the deputy CIO for cybersecurity at the US Energy Department is as interested in people who have ‘invigorating potential’ as in those who are best qualified for specific roles. They’ve also introduced new ‘gamified’ recruitment programmes to find new recruits while they are still in college.

It’s also not that often that we get to hear about the global recruitment software market, but a new report is showing an increasing movement from ‘manual’ recruitment to automated systems. It also says that while the global market was valued at $1753 million in 2017, it’s expected to achieve $3096 million by 2025.

This doesn’t surprise the Recruit So Simple team. We’ve been increasingly aware of the spread of recruitment software, AI led recruitment and recruitment management software through algorithms, and we’ve also seen the rapid geographic movement of recruitment solutions. The report says that the largest sector in the forecast period will be the USA, closely followed by Asia Pacific. Interestingly, the drive to spread recruiting software is driven primarily by competition, but the second major driver is the fact that most start-ups in the USA are mobile phone led, meaning that online recruiting is a natural development path of their growth.