‘Talent Acquisition Edition’

In 2012, a then-little-known geosocial networking application, Tinder, was released. It quickly became the most popular dating app on the market. In fact, Tinder has since proved so successful that its name is often used as a sub in for dating itself, at least with the Millennial generation. (‘What you doing tonight, then? Thought I might do a bit of Tindering to pass the time!’)

In many ways, the US-founded firm changed dating so much its conception sparked a retinue of competitors into being. Bumble (aimed at giving more dating power back to women), Hinge (which states it forges better long-term connections between people) and XO (where matches play a game before chatting) all came to get a slice of the virtual dating pie that Tinder had made all that more tasty. And, if more evidence was needed for how much Tinder had turned dating into a virtual-first dance, even before the pandemic, how many recent tales of lovelorn singletons meeting in bars did any of us hear of anyway?

So, what does this have to do with talent acquisition (TA)? Well, there’s the obvious comparison – that tired old joke, perhaps used by too-flash recruiters – about meeting candidates for the first time being like going on a date. But it’s not that. I believe a stronger comparison is how certain moments, like the creation of a successful dating app, force everything around it to change. It is my belief that 2020 has been for talent acquisition what Tinder was for dating.

To evidence this bold claim: since the coronavirus pandemic gripped the world, TA has had to change how it came at getting the best talent . Yes, video recruitment and digital onboarding existed before – online dating existed before Tinder came onto the scene, too – but external conditions have forced the hand of recruiters who were, perhaps, a bit too used to the old ways of doing things. Now, Zoom interviews, digital onboarding and tailored offerings are par for the course, if not completely new inventions. The function has been changed and its hard to see it going back.

Partly, this is why this issue of the digital magazine attempts to shed some light on those evolutions:looking at the best new ways of hiring, whether candidates or employers have more power in the jobs market and how coronavirus changed the employee offering. (The other reason, of course, is that talent is what drives business through difficult times).

As ever, stay safe and enjoy.

Daniel Cave - Head of Content