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What rock star recruitment looks like in 2018

A lot happened in the world of talent acquisition in 2017. The war for talent came back in full swing and companies around the world have been rewriting their (traditional) hiring practices in order to stay ahead. It’s safe to say that 2017 was another year of recruitment transformation – and 2018 is expected to be no exception. So, what are the trends that will dominate recruitment this year and how will they help you to deliver best-in-class results?

2017 was the year where topics like job automation, candidate engagement, and diversity hiring became impossible to ignore – and these trends look set to further define recruitment in the years to come. Last week, LinkedIn released their annual Global Recruiting Trends report, including insights from nearly 9000 hiring professionals (from 39 countries) about the 4 trends that will shape the way we hire in 2018 and beyond: Diversity, Interviewing, Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence.

Here’s what rock star recruitment looks like in 2018!

rock star recruitment

Diversity Hiring

Workplace diversity received a lot of attention in recent times, and this trends will continue to be at the forefront in 2018. Almost 80% of hiring professionals indicated ‘diversity hiring’ as a very or extremely important trend. The value of having a diverse workforce is well-known for quite some time. Not only does it foster innovation and improve business performance, it also increases employee motivation and strengthens a company’s reputation. The two top reasons for employers to focus on diversity are to improve company culture (78%) and to boost financial performance (62%). At the same time, only few companies feel they have cracked the code on diversity and are already tackling it head-on. According to the respondents, the main barrier to enhance diversity is that they struggle with finding enough diverse candidates. Showcasing diversity can help to attract and recruit more talent. No less than 67% of job seekers take diversity into account when considering a job. Diversity truly is a sign of rock star recruitment.

diversity rock star recruitment

New Interviewing techniques for rock star recruitment

While the overall hiring process has changed a lot over the last 10 years, the basic structure of the interview hasn’t changed much. Traditional interviews have been the industry standard for decades and are still widely used. According to LinkedIn’s report, structured interviews, behavioural interviews and phone screening are the most frequently used techniques. While these first two are also considered as the most effective techniques, phone interviews are paradoxically rated as the least effective of all techniques. Despite their popularity, an increasing number of recruitment professionals feel traditional interviews are falling short. Over 60% of respondents indicate the limited ability to assess soft skills as the number one reason of why traditional interviews fail. Looking to mend a broken process, more modern interviewing techniques are gaining momentum. While adoption is still early, 56% of hiring professionals indicate finding new interviewing tools very or extremely important for 2018. Tools listed as most useful interviewing innovations include soft skills assessments and video interviews.

Take a tour to discover how video recruitment can help you recruit greater talent faster.

Big Data

An increasing number of organisations are realising the potential of taking a data-driven approach to recruitment. According to a report by Dynistics, recruiters who implement big data are twice as likely to improve their recruiting processes and three times as likely to reduce the amount of time and money it takes to fill an open position. Using data analytics, employers can gain valuable insights into their candidates, employees, and processes to optimise their strategies accordingly. The top three uses for data in talent acquisition are to increase retention (56%), evaluate skills gaps (50%), and to build better offers (50%) According to LinkedIn’s report, half of recruiters and hiring managers see data as a critical trend in recruitment, but only 18% of them are already using it today. The two main barriers for using big data are poor quality of the existing data, and not knowing where to find it. However, 79% of respondents are likely to use data in the next two years.
big data rock star recruitment

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next tool in your tool kit that allows rock star recruitment in 2018. While most recruiters already foresee its impact in the future, adoption of this next-generation technology is still slow. At the same time, more and more recruitment software seems to make use of AI in some way or another, so AI is expected to be the biggest disrupter in the coming year. Providing a holistic view with human-like-intelligence (but without prejudice) on our data, AI empowers recruiters to do their job faster and smarter than ever before. Not only does AI enable hiring professionals to save time and money, it also helps them to reduce bias and make better hiring decisions. Respondents indicated sourcing (58%), screening (56%) and nurturing (55%) processes as the three areas where AI is most helpful.

Click here to see how Cammio utilises the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to enable predictive hiring.

As a HR and recruiting professional you probably know too well how important it is to stay ahead of the game and continuously improve your hiring practices. May these 4 trends provide you with guidance to gain a competitive talent advantage and rock your recruitment in 2018.

Happy Hiring!


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