Recruitment Strategies and Trends in 2018
The digital information age is playing host to a rapid shift in employment and economic opportunity. According to a Linkedin workforce report in June 2018, the supply of tech-driven employment opportunities in industries like engineering, financial services, software development, and oil and energy is rising in various U.S. cities. Demand for skilled employees in these boom-or-bust markets (for example, San Francisco, Houston, and Seattle) is creating a competitive recruiting market as companies battle it out for qualified people. Being aware of the recruiting trends created by this shift is the first step for businesses competing for talented people that need effective recruiting strategies.
The following list is a summary of topics and trends from conversations with recruiting professionals, including ideas for how you can apply recruitment strategies to find and attract different types of skilled employees in competitive markets.
Trend #1: Mobile Marketing Recruiting
In general, millennials and Gen Z workers are more comfortable using their mobile phones to search for, apply, and communicate about job opportunities in the passing moments between their current job or other activities. This generation of workers is expected to make up the majority of the global workforce by 2025. Account for this candidate pool, and their preferences for a mobile recruiting experience, with inbound mobile marketing activities. Consider implementing a mobile campaign localized using social advertising with Google, Facebook, and text messaging. SMS messaging software like Trumpia provides a platform and support to engage candidates at all phases of the recruitment process via mobile communication.
Example: Volunteer Recruitment Strategy: According to a recent survey, people in the U.S., on average, check their phones 47 times and spend three to four hours on mobile devices each day. Volunteer candidates, especially millennials (active and passive), do more than shop and seek entertainment via mobile browsers. Develop an employer brand with mobile marketing campaigns that resonate with the communication style of your target candidate market. Highlight the candidate experience, as well as your workplace culture, via content designed for mobile-friendly engagement. Aligning mobile marketing and recruiting creates a passive talent pool of engaged candidates that, with the right effort and recruitment process, enter your talent pipeline at the same stages of your customer funnel.
Trend #2: Social Recruiting
Social media platforms are evolving into relationship management tools for recruiters and employers, and are becoming a preferred communication tool to find and attract target candidates. Access to a candidate’s Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook profile means recruiters and employers don’t have to overvalue the resume. Now, insight into culture fit and access to conversational topics open doors to engage with candidates online proactively, before posting a job description or receiving an application. Sophisticated advertising tools and search algorithms designed to target specific demographics, personal and professional interests, and more means employers can buy keywords specific to their jobs and the candidates they want to attract.
Example: Nurse Recruitment Strategy: Nursing recruiting is an active, thriving practice due to unpredictable fluctuations in the supply of qualified nurses and the demand for their services. One strategy for addressing supply and demand is to build a robust pipeline of potential candidates for employment (active and passive) that you can access immediately. Use social platforms like Linkedin and Facebook to engage with candidates and build relationships as the recruiter or employer. Start a Facebook group and invite current and former recruits and employees to participate in topics relevant to nurses and their families, share information about jobs and healthcare employers, and network. Analyze and track social data — for example, use geolocation engagement on Facebook ads and group member locations for candidate searches. Use the information to guide your messaging and create candidate profiles for future keyword searches to find new passive recruits.
Trend #3: Recruiting AI and Automation
Technology is an integral part of the modern recruitment process. By introducing data science, machine learning, and technologies such as predictive analytics (or people analytics), you can cast a broader, more accurate net to find the right people. Software designed with AI and automation tools benefit the entire hiring process. These tools streamline the resume review process with automation functions that create a more efficient candidate search and lead to a more diverse candidate pool by removing inherent confirmation bias.
Example: Diversity Recruitment Strategy: Software designed with AI, automation, and predictive data science is revolutionizing modern HR and diverse workplace initiatives. These tools change every aspect of the recruitment process by aiding the human effort involved in finding, attracting, and interacting with people. Using tools like predictive analytics to measure, recognize, and reward diversity in the workplace promotes a workforce full of differing experiences, educational background, age, ethnicity, culture, and more. Using HR metrics provided by this technology, as well as data-driven analysis, you can determine top performer traits with more accuracy, remove confirmation bias, and discover the diverse backgrounds of potential recruits before your competition finds them. Use the information to develop precise keyword searches to find candidates online. This data will help you develop competitive compensation and incentive plans as well, and help you attract a diverse range of candidates.
Trend #4: Live Recruiting Events
Open your workplace to candidates using live recruiting events. Events are any meetings with potential candidates via live, face-to-face interactions – not just the booth you set up every year at the college job fair. Software (like that available from HireVue or video conferencing platforms like Zoom) allows you to host frequent live events with candidates using live screening interviews. The interview is a significant first impression for candidates and employers, and as a live, face-to-face event, it provides the opportunity to remove the ambiguity of a phone interview.
Example: College Recruitment Strategy: Colleges host a variety of career-building and networking events, including college job fairs where employers are asked to participate and actively recruit students. Use your presence at these events to answer questions about the problems you’re solving. Ask co-workers, not just recruiters and HR, to show up and participate so candidates can interact with different teams. Host live recruiting events onsite at your business and join meetups hosted around local college campuses focused on your industry and your business interests (for example, tech meetups).
