Recruiting jobs as we know them today will cease to exist in less than ten years. Maybe five. Possibly three. Some jobs will simply change. Others will disappear. That debate is over. And RecOps will be at the center of the transition.

The sooner we accept that, the sooner we can prepare ourselves and our functions for this transition and start an action plan to get out ahead of it.

The reason some roles will change dramatically is because of technology. The reason some roles will disappear is because the people who occupy them will fail to evolve their skills to account for a more technology-facilitated recruiting environment. A good example of this is happening in another industry right now: your local grocery store.

About two years ago, I started to notice my supermarket piloting self-checkout stations. You’ve probably noticed them too. Back then, there were one or two stations. Last week, I counted ten.

There are almost as many self-checkout lanes as there are human-operated ones now. And since the automated stations tend to be glitchy, grocery stores need someone who can fix them in real time to keep the lines moving. This need makes the self-checkout cashier different than your run-of-the-mill cashier. They have a more modern skillset.

I spoke to the general manager of my local grocery store, who filled me in on how technology is impacting their talent strategy. She told me that, at first, they tried to move traditional cashiers over to the self-checkout area. That strategy failed miserably. The traditional cashier lacked the ability to multitask in a more complex, faster-moving environment. They didn’t have the troubleshooting skills to fix the computers when they broke down, and they struggled to maintain a friendly demeanor during peak checkout volume.

To combat this challenge, the store invested in upskilling their high-potential staff. In partnership with their kiosk vendor, they developed a training program that helped tremendously. Moving forward, I was told the type of cashier they hire today is completely different.

Today, instead of hiring someone who can count money and scan grocery items, they’re hiring people who can solve problems, troubleshoot issues, interact with customers socially, and stay friendly under fire. They also look for people who take an active interest in learning new technology inside and outside of work.

The results have been amazing.

Now, a single “modern” cashier can handle ten lanes of customers or more. While this certainly has a labor cost savings attached to it, an added value is that stores can handle traffic spikes much better, which leads to a more efficient experience for customers.

In addition to cost savings and faster checkout options, kiosks have had an impact on employee engagement. The store is able to move modern cashiers back and forth from manual to automated checkout lanes to break up the monotony of a shift. They can also move them to a completely different task somewhere else in the store. This has shown initial gains in staff retention, which is a big win in the retail and grocery industry.

If these positive results continue to scale without a dip in customer satisfaction, the store manager estimates that within three years, approximately 80 percent of the checkout lanes will be self-service.

In the recruiting industry, most of our professionals are like the traditional cashier. We have recruiters, coordinators, and managers who are friendly and can follow a defined process. But there aren’t very many who know how to manage a technology integration, set up a chatbot sequence, or analyze recruitment marketing data to uncover wasted advertising spend. As we enter a more technology-enabled work environment, these are the skills of the future. And these are the skills that form the bedrock necessary to transform your recruiting function from traditional to a more modern practice leveraging the principles of RecOps.

Who is the Tony Stark within Your Recruiting Function?

The evolution of the grocery store cashier follows a trend that I like to call the Tony Stark Model. Tony Stark is the main character in a Marvel franchise movie called Iron Man. By day, Tony is the CEO of a weapons defense company. By night, he plays the role of a superhero who wears a technology-enabled, armored suit that turns him into Iron Man. When aided by technology, he has superhuman strength, augmented reality vision, and advanced weapons capabilities. His suit is also connected to a network so he can access the data that he needs to find bad guys and exploit their weaknesses.

When we apply this concept to the recruiting industry, many leaders and influencers are predicting a future in which recruiters are tech-enabled like Tony Stark. They will take on a more evolved role similar to the modern grocery store cashier. They will maintain a much-needed human presence throughout the hiring process but will supercharge their ability to find, engage, and convert talent using technology. Perhaps they’ll be able to do the work of four or five recruiters or sourcers. While we’re still a few years away from mass adoption, I don’t think the concept is unrealistic. However, to make this a reality, you have to ask yourself the following question:

Who on my recruiting team is going to select, implement, integrate, and optimize game-changing processes, programs, and technologies that enable a Tony Stark–like future?

Do you have someone on your team who can do this? Or are you cobbling resources together from other departments or via consultants?

Not to geek out too much over the movie, but it’s important to note that Tony is the one who builds the suit, programs it, and fixes it when it breaks. He doesn’t just buy one from the Iron Man store, put it on, and become a superhero. He has a different skillset that allows him to customize and enable this technology to be put into practice. This is a unique attribute of a RecOps practitioner. They are the missing link to operationalizing the processes, programs, and technologies that will change our industry.

If we want to change the face of our function and improve our industry, we can no longer continue to dream about what “could be.” It’s time for us to start tinkering in the lab and playing with the tools that could eventually lead us to a Tony Stark–like future. To do that, we have to develop an industry of RecOps practitioners who are skilled at doing this and unleash them on projects that will optimize everything we do. I strongly advocate that most recruiting departments build these capabilities in-house. In the next chapter, I’ll discuss why most companies are missing the mark today and what to do about it.