The Talent Equation: Big Data Lessons for Navigating the Skills Gap and Building a Competitive Workforce

CHAPTER 6

Recruiting in the Digital Era

The history of human resources can be described simply as a constant evolution. A century ago, HR wasn’t even called HR, and a short time before then, such a function didn’t even exist. Pre-twentieth century, business owners controlled all decisions affecting workers. However, the emergence of organized labor movements created a business need for professionals to sit at the intersection of the organizations’ interests and those of human capital. By the 1950s and 1960s, labor-relations departments had uniformly transformed into organized personnel functions—masters of compliance and transactional tasks. And by the 1980s and 1990s, as globalization and information technologies changed business reality, HR ...