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UPDATE: 2016 may be over, but the recruiting industry is still constantly changing. To keep up with these trends we've compiled a new list of 10 dos and don'ts you'll need while going into the new year of 2017. Curious to see these updates? Check out the article here:
We’re just a few days away from the end of 2015! Recruiting experts have made their 2016 predictions, and it’s becoming clear that companies will be (or already have been) revamping their digital recruitment marketing efforts.The recruitment marketing landscape is changing so fast it’s going to be hard for companies to catch up if they haven’t already become adept to the trends of 2015. This is the perfect time to start preparing for the near future by examining your current strategies and planning for the big, inevitable changes that are coming.
Recruiting Trends: DON’TS
With such heavy reliance on technology and social media in recruitment marketing, it’s impossible to execute each and every strategy with perfect finesse. It IS possible, however, to be aware of what things you should plan to change. If any of the below apply to you, it’s time to re-evaluate your strategy. Please, don’t:
Use social media to send out job blasts
Social media is about connecting with people, not pushing every job opening at anyone and everyone.Today’s job seeker wants personalization and authenticity. Start by making small adjustments. Send out one or two job posts a day and invest in more resources that promote your employer brand through influential content. Connect first. Then, recruit.
Connect first. Then, recruit. #2016RecruitingTrends
Rely on job ads to bring in desirable candidates
While job ads are an important part of recruiting, relying solely on them will rarely provide employers with top-notch candidates. Consider your spend both in cash resources (job boards can be pretty spendy!) and in terms of your recruitment team’s time. If most of your recruiters’ days are spent wading through an endless maze of unqualified applicants, perhaps you could target your board spend, or at least supplement it. If this is how you’re playing the field, you can begin to expand your horizons by implementing a social media campaign and investing more to build your employee referral program.
Overestimate the importance of cultural fit
In a recent study, over 80% of employers named cultural fit as a top hiring priority, but at what point does it more closely resemble a popularity contest than a measurable way to recruit new hires? When too much emphasis is placed on cultural fit, we risk our unconscious bias taking over. What’s more is that it can breed a homogenous workforce and consequently push out diversity. Lauren Rivera, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, suggests four ways to safeguard against the cultural fit dilemma:
- Clearly describe the organization’s culture to potential hires
- Align cultural fit with business goals and take into account data-driven analysis of performance predictors
- Develop formal procedures for assessing cultural fit, rather than relying on someone else’s subjective chemistry
- Place reasonable emphasis on how much cultural fit factors into hiring
Overlook candidates that don’t have the right experience
In a time where employers are placing significant emphasis on cultural fit, it’s surprising that candidates are still overlooked because their experience doesn’t exactly match the job requirements. Skills can be taught, but work ethic and values, once developed, typically stay with a person for life. Instead of limiting your talent base, broaden your scope, keep an open mind, and start scouting for attitude. Consider creating a skills university right within your own organization. Not only will you have people working on your company’s exact processes, but you can contribute toward filling the skills gap, instead of making it worse.
Label candidates with diverse backgrounds as job hoppers
What a diverse resume tells you is that people who are considered job hoppers are likely to be high performers who value career development and diversity. Ninety-one percent of Millennials expect to stay at a job for less than three years indicating a trend in more diverse work experiences. Research continues to show that the benefits of hiring these kind of candidates outweigh the negatives. Be creative in your recruiting methods by considering candidates with a variety of work experiences.
As Amy Chua (@amychua) once said, “The Romans thought of themselves as the chosen people, yet they built the greatest army on earth by recruiting warriors from any background.”
So many talented people leave their positions because they don’t see a succession plan or any future opportunities for them. Give them opportunity and watch them settle in for the long haul (see point 4).
Take a look at your current methods to see if you’re making these mistakes. You know the saying, “It’s never too late to change?” That’s not true in this industry. Don’t get left in the dust when the solutions to these problems are right in front of you. Start re-evaluating now.
The saying, “It’s never too late to change,” is not true in this industry:
Recruiting Trends: DOs
Recruiting methods are going through a large-scale transformation as digital recruitment marketing efforts are yielding faster, measurable results. Fierce competition in the recruiting and HR industry isn’t changing anytime soon. Get a head start on emerging trends by thinking seriously about the below:
Get mobile apply solutions
We knew the day of mobile apply capabilities would come eventually and the time is now. Over 50% of today’s internet usage is done through a mobile device and 89% of job seekers believe their mobile device is an important tool for their job search. Companies are already developing their own mobile apply solutions and unlike the early phases of most new trends, this won’t last a luxury. It will quickly be considered a necessity. Say goodbye to mobile-friendly and hello to mobile-first.
Enhance your content strategy
Seventy-eight percent of consumers believe organizations with custom content are interested in building good relationships with them. The value of great content strategy is undeniable and has direct effects on areas like SEO and social media strategy. As more companies realize this, they are making concerted efforts to push out high quality content and beat out their competitors. Some companies have already integrated their content strategy across every department of the company. Quality over quantity will win. Make it personal and intelligent, tell your story and set the tone for your target audience by revamping your content strategy now.
Get onboard with Marketing Automation
Save yourself time and money by investing in recruitment marketing automation. Failing to do so is going to make it very difficult to have consistent processes and keep up with the demands of quickly changing trends. By treating your candidates in the same way you’d treat clients, you can create a better candidate experience, retain more passive candidates and start building a talent pool from applicants who weren’t right...at the time.
Overhaul your SEO strategy
While targeted keywords still remain a significant part of SEO strategy, Google now places more importance on high quality content over keyword optimization. This means that there’s more need for the content and SEO strategies to be seamlessly connected. Pictures, infographics, and video enhance the user experience and readability and as a result “dwell” time grows. What’s more is that users are replacing short keyword search queries with longer, complex ones, making it imperative that content ranks high on relevancy and quality.
Invest in a stellar website
Companies with outdated websites risk being perceived as uncredible. In 2007, the Standford Persuasive Technology Lab conducted a study about web user perception and found that 46.1% of respondents said that website design was their number one criterion for judging credibility. And that was 8 years ago! Earlier this year Google started using mobile-friendly as a ranking signal, meaning if your website is not mobile-responsive say goodbye to any chance you thought you had ranking high on search results. If you want to be taken seriously amongst a sea of competitors, one of the first steps you should take is invest in a visually appealing, easy-to-use, mobile-friendly website. Doing so not only keeps you relevant, but enhances the user experience, helps shape your employer brand, and makes you stand out.
Don’t wait for your competitors to thrive on these trends. Be a trailblazer. Start making plans now. Recruiting is increasingly about how well we can market ourselves. As we get closer to the new year, groundbreaking strategies will emerge. Will your company make it out on top or steadily drop towards the bottom of the food chain? Do your homework and figure out what your company can do not only to survive the changing landscape, but to dominate it.
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