As London sat between grey skies and grey stone, the HR world convened in the altogether more charming and warm settings of Barcelona for this year’s HRcoreLAB3 event. Topics ranged from an ominous seminar that rattled my fellow practitioners entitled “Do we need HR?” to a variety of speakers from across the industry discussing the current state of play and what the future may hold. One point that was raised again and again was that of the rising power of the employee; or ‘The Year of the Candidate’ as I like to call it.

Much has been said about the rise of Generation Y, and although there are number of factors contributing towards this shift in power to candidates, the hot topic of debate at the event was how they are utilising technology in the initial recruitment process. The approach businesses take connecting with prospective employees has changed considerably over the last 10 years: from visiting physical job centres, to the rise of online job sites, to the ubiquitous nature of today’s social media, which allows for the potential of a much more pervasive and shared experience.

There is no longer one job board, one site – candidates are scattered across a variety of outlets, and knowing which ones your ideal candidates use is essential. Emerson recently adopted a system by which they could analyse and track candidate profiles and the demographics that came from a variety of social media, letting them spot trends and patterns which informed their outreach.

This increased knowledge of candidate’s online footprints will become even more essential as businesses look to actively reach out to prospective employees and begin to interact with them. Prospective employees are demanding more and more in terms of the digital culture of a business. It is no good simply hoping to find a candidate quickly. Companies must use analytics to identify the platforms popular with the candidates they wish to pursue. They can then begin to interact early, driving engagement and awareness with their brand, and start the process of building a relationship with candidates.

So as the sun sets on the gaudy streets, so too has it set on the conventional job centre. Employees will not come to you, they expect you to come to them.