Recruiting Trends to Learn, Embrace, Activate and Lead in 2020

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Recruiting trends are evolving rapidly for everyone involved. Candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters are already experiencing these changes, primarily because they are the product of new technologies. As a result of new technologies required in all industries, both recruits and recruiters must be knowledgeable enough about the skills required in the role to be able to discuss them.

Now lets step into the recruiter’s world. There is a level of knowledge and technical complexity for every role. In addition, there is a wide array of technical tools now required by recruiters to manage job descriptions, openings, classifications, candidate networks, client networks, regulatory requirements, and so much more. It is no wonder that recruiters are more strategic and savvy than ever before. Adding to these recruiting superpowers, recruiters get a supercharge from technologies when it comes to matching candidates to roles.

Without a doubt, measuring up to the rapidly advancing role of the recruiter is a challenge in itself. Ideally, recruiting and the continuing education that goes along with this field are a full-time job that often leads the client to outsourcing options such as retained recruiters. So what are some of the trends that recruiters are tackling for 2020 and beyond?

Recruiting Trends
Recruiting trends are influenced by a growing skills gap and increased competition among employers to hire and retain top talent.

Improving and Managing the Candidate Experience

As of Nov. 2019, the U.S. unemployment rate was at a pre-recession level of 3.5%. This means there are currently more job openings left vacant longer than the volume of job seekers required to fill them. As demand exceeds supply by about 4.4 million job openings, this creates increased competition among employers to hire and retain top talent.

Candidate experience is the best way to broaden your pool of talent. Candidate experience covers every touchpoint and engagement applicants will encounter throughout all stages of your company’s recruitment campaign — otherwise known as the candidate journey. Candidates who have a good experience during the candidate journey are 38 percent more likely to say yes to a job offer, according to a survey from the Talent Board.

The Impact of a Great Candidate Journey

It turns out that applicants who are satisfied with their experience are more than twice as likely to recommend the hiring organization to others, compared with those who are not satisfied (62% vs. 28%). In addition, 87% of candidates say a great recruitment experience can change their mind about a company they previously had no confidence in. On the other hand, 83% of candidates say a negative experience can change their mind about a company they had interest in.

One of the easiest ways to improve your candidate experience is to begin to look at your approach to recruiting the same way you might look at your approach to customers, consumers or clients. Show your company at its best to ensure that your candidates experience first-hand your organization’s culture, values, mission, vision, and goals. Also, if you plan to group candidates together at any point, be sure they are on similar journeys because they will talk and mixed messages would only create confusion.

Recruiting Trends
Soft skills are an essential consideration in recruiting trends.

Soft Skills are Essential in Recruiting Trends

According to a survey conducted by LinkedIn, 92% of responding employers said that they value soft skills as much or more than hard skills in new hires. But most agree soft skills difficult to assess. Only 41 percent of the 5,000 respondents report having a formal process to measure soft skills. Meanwhile, 68% of respondents judge soft skills through observation during interviews.

Former business management guru Peter Drucker often said skills are the currency of the future. Today, we are in the midst of a national skills shortage. According to the Deloitte report, “The Path to Prosperity: Why the Future of Work is Human,” that’s predicted to grow to 29 million skills in deficit by 2030. The bulk of these missing skills are soft skills such as communication and empathy.

From 2020-2030, the McKinsey Global Institute report also suggests the demand for social and emotional skills will grow across all industries by 26% in the United States and by 22% in Europe. While some of these skills, such as empathy, are innate, others, such as advanced communication, can be developed and improved.

The Human Touch Enhances Recruiting Trends

AI and automation are re-shaping traditional roles. McKinsey estimates that 23% of current work activities in the U.S. could be automated by 2030, and hard skills are most susceptible to automation. Meanwhile, 39 million workers could be displaced, while 13% of the workforce may need to switch occupational groups as automation takes over their current one.

The good news is there are many innate soft skills that give people a competitive edge over AI and machine learning in the future. These are inherently human skills like communication, relationship building and empathy – skills that machines have not yet mastered. As Duncan Wardle, former vice president of innovation and creativity at Disney observes, “The foremost employable skill sets we should be looking for are the ones we are born with: creativity, imagination, intuition, and curiosity.”

Recruiting Trends
Analytics is an emerging tool for recruiting but it is critical that HR representatives learn to use the data properly.

Using Analytics to Influence Strategy

The use of data-driven metrics is one of today’s hottest recruiting trends. These powerful tools are new types of recruiting strategies where HR makes hiring plans and decisions based on data.

Today analytics are used to measure and assess skills and gaps, workforce planning, performance, engagement, and retention. These HR analytics are further optimized with talent management software solutions to develop better strategies.

As companies become more advanced in the way they apply analytics, HR plays a more influential role in shaping corporate strategy. According to Deloitte, 71% of companies see people analytics as a high priority, but only 9% believe they have a good understanding of which aspect of talent management drives performance in their organizations.

Analytics isn’t a core skill set that recruiters have had in the past, so proper training is required to build confidence in their ability to surface analytics and present them at a strategic level. Even so, HR professionals are getting better at identifying the metrics that matter. Organizations are holistically looking at analytics across the entire talent lifecycle – from performance to retention, engagement, assessment, workforce planning, and skill gap analysis to inform their recruitment strategy. But there are roadblocks – many organizations still lack the technology and skills required to surface meaningful people analytics.

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Recruiters must closely follow technology to stay ahead of trends.

Embrace the Changing Role of Recruiters

With a growing list of responsibilities and a dynamic hiring environment, the role of recruiters is one of the fastest-changing roles in the world of business. More tech-enabled than ever, recruiters are supercharged in their ability to engage with stakeholders including hiring managers, candidates, and employees. They are able to move rapidly from reactive recruitment to proactive sourcing from internal and external talent pools. The benefit is a great experience for everyone involved in the recruitment process, thanks to easy to the use of technology that facilitates accelerated workflows.

Technology helps hiring managers and recruiters maintain a closer relationship. Hiring managers can flag risks and recruiters can help build bench strength in a transparent, streamlined workflow. This visibility removes barriers to great talent pool management and internal mobility. In addition, a strategic recruiter can look outside and within the organization to strategically move those identified for leadership and refill roles for career paths.

Recruiting Trends
Employer brand is crucial to attracting the best candidates.

Develop your Brand to Lead Recruiting Trends

In today’s competitive talent market, a compelling employer brand attracts the best candidates. Companies with great employer brands receive 50% more qualified applicants and see a 50% reduction in cost-per-hire, according to LinkedIn research. With 75% of job seekers considering an employer’s brand before even applying, an attractive brand may be the difference between finding the perfect person for the role – or losing them to a competitor.

So what goes into a great employer brand? Perceptions about what makes a top employer are changing. Candidates aren’t just focusing on monetary incentives, perks or corporate prestige: they also want culture, values and ethics alignment. A study of workers in the UK found 42% of the workforce wanted to work for an organization that has a positive impact on the world.

Share a Consistent and Realistic Brand Story

Employer brand encompasses every touchpoint a person has with your organization. What is the perception of your organization online? Do you have a positive social media presence? The endorsements of employees? The challenge is not just projecting a great employer brand, but maintaining authenticity across certain touchpoints.

Identify what your candidates see and feel when they experience your candidate journey. What are the specific advantages of working for your company? Think about the role and how it fits within your company culture, mission, vision, values, and goals. What is the candidate’s perception of value when it comes to your company’s attributes? What is the most compelling thing they will take away from their introduction to your business?

Talented Scientists
The joint work of talented scientist keeps research and development moving.

Develop an Internal Talent Pool

A talent pool is critical to meet the growing needs of your organization. Your organization’s talent pool should include high potential and high performing employees. These individuals are runway ready for senior roles. Manhattan Resources can help you plan your talent pool and resources, adapting them to the appropriate windows for succession.

In addition, talent pools provide a database of people who effectively fill the boots of any of the current employees that decide to move on. This talent pool can source from both internal and external networks. This is your contingency plan and is an essential way to reduce the cost and time to hire. As a result, it helps ensure that your business productivity is not heavily impacted by resource and skill shortages. Also, having adaptive talent resources available allows organizations to react to change with greater reach and flexibility.

Many essential and soft skills may be unique to humans and not duplicated in AI.

The Strengths and Limitations of AI

Among recruiting trends, artificial intelligence is both the answer to recruiter’s problems and their biggest competition. The truth lies somewhere between these two extremes. Recruiters learn more as AI matures and early adopters gain perspective on its strengths and limitations. AI is currently at work in HR to automate repetitive, low-value tasks and increase the focus on strategic work. AI tools automate common HR tasks like benefits management or handling common questions or requests.

Therefore, AI also serves to enhance the role of the recruiter – but not replace them. Unlike humans, artificial intelligence does not bring biases to the candidate screening and selection process. This does not mean that AI makes wholly unbiased decisions. The machine learning algorithms are subject to programming choices of people building them and existing biases in datasets.

Despite the great promise of AI, 23% of HR professionals surveyed in recent IBM research were concerned that AI in HR could perpetuate or even increase biases in hiring and talent development. Given recent headlines about bias in AI tools, their concern is understandable. It is essential to continuously test datasets and model outcomes for bias and make adjustments as necessary.

Recruiting Trends
The future of recruiting will be radically different over the next decade as we adjust, accommodate and optimize new technologies.

The Journey Forward in Recruiting Trends

It’s easy to be anxious about technology and the role it plays in an uncertain future. But, you can be proactive and avoid the worries. Let technology playing a supporting role behind the scenes. Unless you are selling technology, there is no need to let it take center stage in your business. Technology is a tool we all use to keep our edge. It does not change the end goal. In the end, we all want to attract the right people by creating a positive, memorable candidate experience.

Just keep in mind, technology is here to enhance all stages of the recruitment journey. It does so by eliminating manual processes and freeing up the recruiter to focus on the human aspects.

Manhattan Resources
Manhattan Resources helps you take your business to the next level of retained recruiting excellence.

About Manhattan Resources

Manhattan Resources is a retained executive search and advisory services firm with deep experience assisting our clients in building high-performance teams. We specialize in oil & gas, retail energy, power & utilities, petrochemicals, manufacturing, distribution, and engineering. For this reason, Manhattan Resources invites you to experience an executive search and business solutions partner like no other. As always, we’re there to help you fill mission-critical leadership roles, build high-performance teams, and tackle your most significant challenges. We measure our success the same way you do. Making sure your team is exceeding corporate objectives and measuring how much our people move the needle for your company. Manhattan Resources has the agility, innovation and business acumen to assume a bold approach. As a result, we will help you take your business to the next level. Find out how the experts can help. Contact Us >>.

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