6 Recruitment Trends Every Business Needs to Know About
By: Wagepoint
Earlier this year, we conducted a survey that asked:
What is your top 2016 HR priority?
Although the sample size was small, there was a clear winner, and we continue to see this trend throughout the HR industry, startups, and small businesses.
Of the six options provided—Recruitment, Workplace Safety, Employee Relations, Compensation & Benefits, Compliance and Training & Development—the top choice was Recruitment at 32%.
Recruitment has always been a top priority for businesses. Now, more than ever, startups and small businesses are prioritizing recruitment, so they can find the best talent to grow their businesses. There’s little to no room for error, especially when a bad hire can cost a new business anywhere from $25-$50K.
If you’re already thinking $50,000 is a lot to cough up, keep in mind that won’t be your only cost. A poor hiring choice can also cost you indirectly in company morale, training time, and your prized customer experience.
The Fast Company infographic: how much a bad hire will actually cost you breaks these numbers down even further.
Your company can only be as great as the people behind it.
In this post, we’ll dig a little deeper into six of the biggest recruitment trends that will affect your hiring in the months and years to come.
- More and more and more technology
- Increased competition for recruiters
- Your employment as a brand
- One-part recruiter, one-part marketer
- Remote offices and recruiting
- The search for innovators continues
With such an essential role to play, it’s no wonder that 2016 is buzzing with trends, data, and predictions for the recruitment industry.
1. More and more and more technology
Recruitment has followed many other industries in the shift from paper to cloud.
When online job applications and professional networks began gaining traction, they were seen as a supplement to the all-powerful resume. The most notable of these sites is, undoubtedly, LinkedIn with an impressive 414 million users and over 3 million active job listings at the end of 2015.
But the times have changed, and now it’s the resume that is supplemental.
The Society of Human Resource Managers found that 78% of resumes are misleading, and over 50% of resumes contain falsification. So, it’s no surprise that, 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates.
Finding the right fit becomes easier when you use objective data.
– Sonia Varkey, Plum
Recruiters have turned to technology and so have leading businesses.
The company Plum, an HR hiring assessment software, says that to “find out who someone really is, you’ll need to use psychometric testing. A good test will assess someone for fit—culturally and related to the actual demands of the job.”
Flashy buzzwords and questionable degrees are no match for hiring data and that’s just one of the reasons why SaaS HR continues to grow.
HR technology is a business reality for nearly every industry, and you don’t want to be left behind. In 2016, You’ll need to invest in technology and believe in hiring data because the consequence of a $50,000+ bad hire isn’t worth it.
2. Increased competition for recruiters
Recruiter and author of 5 Powerful Talent Acquisition & Recruiting Trends for 2016 Jessica Miller-Merrell says the market is booming—it’s a great time to be in the recruitment business.
Click here to read more about recruiting agencies like Day Webster.
Driven by the rise of consumer spending, Profit Confidential’s U.S. Economic Outlook claims economic growth for 2015-16. After growing 2.1% in 2014, The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), estimates that the U.S. economy will expand at 2.9% in 2015 and 2016.
The CBO also predicts increased hiring for the years to come, reducing the unemployment rate from 5.5% to 5.3% by the end of 2017.
When the economy is doing well, the recruitment industry floods with employment requests. This growth is great for businesses, but with increased job opportunities, candidates have the power of choice.
The drop in unemployment rate and the creation of more jobs means more choices and competing offers. In order to be successful, recruiters will have to develop much stronger selling skills.
– Dr. John Sullivan, internationally known HR thought-leader
To find the best, your business must find a way to stand out from the crowd.
- What do you have to offer potential employees?
- How are your opportunities different from your competitors’?
It’s the same as pricing a product or service: the key is identifying a differentiator that goes beyond price. What do you have to offer your employees that goes beyond their salary?
3. Your employment as a brand
Your brand means something when it comes to recruitment.
When candidates have options, your brand plays a role in their decision-making. This includes your brand’s public perception, what your brand stands for, and what the candidate already knows about your brand.
Savvy candidates will evaluate company brands before applying to or accepting a job, much in the same way they evaluate consumer brands when shopping.
– Amber Hyatt, Director of Product Marketing at SilkRoad in a Business News Daily interview
Every person in your company is part of your employment brand. Your brand is your office culture, your company partners, and your customer service. Each hire and business choice you make will affect future recruitment.
2016 is all about pre-candidate engagement. Recruitment doesn’t just happen when you need to fill a position; it’s an ongoing process. Ideally, the first touch point with a potential hire will occur before the actual hiring process. The connection could begin before the position even exists.
Larger brands have splurged for commercials that target talent in advance. The end goal is to maintain or expand the company’s employment brand.
Take a look at this Walmart employment commercial or this internship ad by Google.
Hiring commercials? Now that sounds a lot like marketing.
4. One-part recruiter, one-part marketer
More and more the recruitment industry is drawing inspiration from marketing.
The recruiters of today require many of the same skills as marketers. Because of increased competition and the need to brand your employment, as discussed above, the skills of a marketer have become a necessity.
Many of the same tactics are seen across both fields. Ads, social campaigns, newsletters, retention and analytics now fall within the job description of a recruiter. A marketing savvy recruiter will establish different target groups, recruitment funnels, marketing campaigns, analytics and lead generation.
Connexys conducted an extensive survey among HR directors and HR decision makers. They found that 69% of participants agreed that the role of the recruiter is shifting to the role of the online marketer.
Hiring the right talent is one of the challenges I’m always aware of. This is what keeps me up at night.
– Leena Thampan, CMO of Wagepoint
A company’s content marketing can play a role in recruiting too. Many companies are planning ahead with content that specifically targets potential hires. Topics around the future of work, office culture and employee happiness can be used to attract candidates while also expanding your content pool.
As hiring analytics and forward-thinking recruitment continues to expand, HR professionals will need to look to the trends and technologies used in the marketing industry to stay ahead.
5. Remote offices and recruiting
When considering the future of work, there’s no denying the potential of a growing remote workforce.
The 2008 recession and the financial hardship of that time accelerated remote working as an asset for both employees and employers.
Global Workplace Analytics said that “Fortune 1000 companies around the globe are entirely revamping their space around the fact that employees are already mobile. Studies repeatedly show they are not at their desk 50-60% of the time.”
The rise of remote jobs opened up additional opportunities for workers because they could search for jobs beyond their current location.
Employees benefit from the flexibility of remote opportunities. Instead of centering work around traditional office hours, it gives employees the option to work during the hours they are most productive.
For many workers, spending every day in an office is no longer a necessity. Working in a four by six cubicle from 9 to 5 is not a dream job for today’s workforce.
– Jordan Nottrodt, Content Manager at Wagepoint
Some employees prefer to work from 11AM to 7PM over 8AM to 4PM, for example, or to break up their day into chunks. Being able to work two hours at a time can be productive for employees that work best in bursts of energy. Remote employees also save time that would normally be spent on the commute back and forth from work.
Employers reap the benefits of a remote team too.
Global Workplace Analytics identified a list of employer benefits that included:
- Increased employee satisfaction
- Reduced attrition
- Fewer unscheduled absences
- Increased productivity
- Reduced discrimination potential
- Increased employee empowerment
- Expanded talent pool
The expanded talent pool may be the biggest sell for a quickly growing business. An employer that limits potential hires to one specific location risks settling when it comes to building their team. If you find the perfect hire in a different city, they may find it difficult, or flat out refuse, to uproot their life with a move.
When you expand your recruitment to a global search, your pool of options and talent grows exponentially. And thanks to tools like Slack, Asana and Trello, communication, team management and office culture are all possible for location independent teams.
Recruiting for a remote team requires an increased level of screening to ensure the perfect fit with your company’s culture. Candidates also need to be vetted to make sure they can be trusted to work independently and do their job without constant supervision.
Bringing together the right team for your business culture has become more important than ever before.
6. The search for innovators continues
Your company is only going to be as good as the people behind it.
Talent can make or break a company. A bad hire can cost a company in much more than revenue; startups and small businesses just don’t have the extra resources to support a dysfunctional team.
The biggest, most successful companies, the Apples and the Googles of the world, strive for high productivity so that they can bring in more revenue per employee. Dr. John Sullivan says “This is because they focus on hiring innovators, who produce at least 10 times more than the average worker in the same job.”
Smart recruiters know that attracting and retaining innovators increases a company’s overall success… Companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon enjoy higher overall productivity because of their ability to attract, hire, and retain innovators.
– Adrian Wright, Wahoo Recruitment
Productivity is important for new businesses, so these are the types of hires you should be looking for.
But finding them can be a challenge for recruiters because innovators look for jobs that are customized to them—they too are looking for the perfect fit. Referrals are often the best way to make these connections because great innovators innovate together.
Let’s review these 6 recruitment trends one more time.
- More and more and more technology
- Increased competition for recruiters
- Your employment as a brand
- One-part recruiter, one-part marketer
- Remote offices and recruiting
- The search for innovators continues
Recruitment is a business topic that will never die. Without people, the right people, a company is just a name.
What is your business doing to keep up with recruitment trends?
