2017 is a big year for technology. Cloud Computing, AI, Big Data…The technology revolution has quickly influenced other industries, too. I have read some articles discussing HR and recruitment trends in 2018 —employee wellbeing, candidate experience, hiring process automation, etc.
While forming our resolutions, adjusting our recruiting strategies to new technology and industry changes is also essential. Like we do in our personal lives, we should make a 2018 resolution list for recruitment.
The Cloud and Big Data
As we have seen, the recruitment sector evolved rapidly over the past few years. Employers in enterprise organizations and startups have gradually outsourced their recruitment to independent recruiting agencies that are resourceful in the talent market.
Working in recruiting agencies, we are proud of having information about top talents. We create profiles for every candidate, such as phone number, email, work history, and other side notes. We should focus on how to store and organize our data better, however. This is where Cloud and Big Data come in; They make talent management systems (TMS) popular.
Using a traditional spreadsheet will not help a small company survive in the market for long, and mid to large recruiting agencies need to choose what type of TMS fits their agency’s needs. Alternately, you might invest in developing an in-house customized database that runs on a local server. This choice may be something we should think about in 2018.
AI and Automation
This is another technology achievement that can inspire us this year. We use AI to create search strings, get recommendations for top candidates, and generate proper email responses. What else could we utilize AI to optimize and automate within the recruiting process?
Perhaps we could distribute the most suitable roles to available candidates and simplify the candidate application and screening process. Soon AI will be everywhere, so this is one of the recruitment resolutions we should carefully consider.
It Is Not All About Metrics
Recruitment is a results-driven business. Hiring companies use time-to-respond to measure vendor efficiency, HR departments use time-to-fill to measure specialist efficiency, and recruiting agencies use the number of placements to evaluate recruiters.
However, it is not all about metrics. Organizations need to ensure their employees follow operation standards, but that isn’t the same as micro-management. One submission a week does not mean that you are a bad performer.
Heavily metrics-driven standards seem to be a problem in most recruiting companies. How we create a proper performance evaluation strategy that suits the team’s needs and encourages employees—other than forcing them to meet the target—might be something management wants to add into its 2018 agenda.
Recruiting vs. Marketing
I have seen many recruiters making posters for specific positions. They post them on LinkedIn and other social media to attract candidates to apply. It is creative but also time-consuming. They are working in an industry where multiple competitors are competing on a single role.
Marketing your job to the candidate, your candidate to the client, and yourself to both of them – be prepared for a war of branding in 2018!
Relationship Building
Unlike the traditional recruiting business, many people now see the recruiter’s role as having a high turnover rate. Recruiters pay no attention to the farm and nurture the leads. That is why I call it a “fast-food style industry” and work hard on making an exception of this culture.
Same as dealing with clients, recruiters need to build and maintain a relationship with candidates. This includes properly reaching out, following up and touching base. It could be something every recruiter wants to think about to develop a better recruiting strategy in 2018.
We are about to step into the new year. Make your recruitment resolutions for 2018 and embrace the latest changes to catch up with technology and market trends. It will surely be another productive year!
