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10 Most Successful Recruitment Trends

Over the past few decades Human Resource Management trends and strategies have changed rapidly. The reason? The growing scope of workforce and businesses. As businesses expand their operations globally, entering international markets and dealing with a vast diverse audience – the requirements to manage this unprecedented economic expansion also become more challenging. One of the most challenging aspects is effective and efficient recruitment practices. 

Recruitment is now an industry on its own even though it stemmed from Human Resource Management. This industry now has its own set of rules, tools and skillsets that are required to be a successful specialist in this domain. The staffing industry only got more challenging as the world entered the social media and instant messaging era. These new sourcing platforms also became an excellent tool for recruiters. But most importantly, the employment models have changed significantly with the advent of freelancing websites such as Fiver, Upwork, Behance and post COVID – it looks like these may become the primary model of employment for many companies around the world. 

I am rounding up the ten most successful and the most eminent recruitment trends that have been adopted by recruitment professionals around the world. These I believe have changed the recruitment landscape completely and are here to stay. 

An increased focus on cultural fit

Companies are hiring employees who exhibit behavior or who have the same value systems as the ones the company’s culture is based on. Most companies will put the cultural fit as a critical item on their recruitment checklist and will not hire a talented resource if they don’t see there is a synergy. Why? Businesses are concerned about retention and long-term employee engagement. They want to decrease their recruitment overhead costs by ensuring they hire someone who will appreciate the work environment they offer. 

As recruitment agents, we now ensure that when we sign on a client, we have an onboarding program through which we understand the client values and their cultural fit.

References and Internal Sourcing:

There is growing emphasis on internal sourcing and recruitment and most companies are now adapting this model if they already did not depend on this resource pool. This strategy ensures that internal talent pool remains engaged, continuously develops their skills and strengthens the succession planning within the company. It also reduces recruitment costs. 

Reference hiring models are practiced in companies to source profiles with incurring zero advertising costs. It also helps them identify talent that may have similar core values as the ones practiced within the organization culture. This assumption is based on the fact that a successfully integrated employee within the organization has a good cultural fit with that of the organization. In all probability he has a support system or network that practices the same ethical and moral values. 

The success of retaining newly hired employees who already have friends within the company is higher. This is because they adjust to the company, its work environment and the team more easily. They feel comfortable and the environment exudes positive vibes. 

Softer Skills, Personality and Hiring

Recruiting and engaging employees for the long term has been of prime importance for most organizations. But this has gained new meaning as organizations try to make cultural fit critical for successful hiring. In addition to the growing scope of internal hiring, HR teams want to hire professionals who do not just have technology/mechanical skills required for the job but also show capability to develop into a future leader within the company. 

Therefore, more HR teams are focusing on evaluating Candidate’s softer skills before making a final hiring decision. Candidates that show high EQ, Problem Solving, Time Management, Leadership, Interpersonal communication skills are valued and given preference over candidates with 4.0 CGPAs. 

Hiring Talent with transferable (softer) skills from outside the industry

Most companies feel that candidates can be trained on technical skills but their personal traits cannot be improved on a similar timescale. Companies are therefore also choosing to hire candidates from outside of their industry who may have transferable skills (softer skills) required for the job. 

As the demand for certain tools and skills becomes higher, it becomes impossible for recruiters to sometimes find the ideal candidate with the required technical and softer skills. This is because it takes time for any particular new skill to be learnt by the talent in the market. In such cases, dynamic companies then don’t waste time waiting for more resources to build up in the market. They hire raw talent with transferable skills from other industries, that can be trained on the technical/mechanical knowledge and create their own unique workforce. 

Embracing the flexible workforce & Diversity Hiring 

Post Covid this seems more critical to most businesses. A lot of jobs that were earlier required to be onsite eventually had to become offsite. With Work from home engagements, freelancing opportunities rising – Employees are now Consultants that are engaged for projects over a period of time by the company. These consultants can work remotely with an onsite team, can work independently and for days/hours that they wish. 

This opens up opportunities for a lot of people who were earlier unemployed because they could not be employed fulltime at an onsite position. This also means that companies may be able to reduce their overhead costs by eliminating physical workspaces and moving onto the online workspaces like slack. 

Additionally, the concept of diversity management has come into play. With employees coming from different cultural, political and social backgrounds, Diversity Hiring becomes instrumental. Companies are hiring consultants and employees from all over the world to work on onsite and offsite roles. This expands the responsibility of the HR team to make policies and processes that are inclusive and without any bias. 

Socially responsible communication and advertising in recruitment

As companies work with employees with different social, cultural backgrounds, it means recruiters need to watch what they communicate to people online about their vacancies. To advertise and attract the right kind of talent, recruiters must now ensure that their posts, their job adverts are without any bias, do not offend anyone and can be understood by a wider audience. 

Recruiters working on Employer Branding & Warm Talent Pool

Recruiters have to not only improve their communication game and be cautious about their wording. They also have to compete against other companies to make their advertisements and their positions look more appealing to the audience. This has led to an increased focus on Employer Branding and the use of Social Media Marketing by recruiters. If the Employers branding is strong, there is more probability for the recruiters to find ideal resources for their vacancies. 

An engaging Employer Branding activation also ensures that the recruiter has access to a talent pool that is engaged and available. This helps them keep a warm talent pool available with them at all times. This also helps them to build the company’s reputation and digital image.  

Social Media, Mobiles and Networking

Recruiters have always had a sales aspect to their role, but they now also have a digital marketing aspect. They have to know how to use social media to extract information about the ideal candidates available in the market. Recruiters have to be more creative in their approach to reach out to the right audience. Use videos, graphical content and aesthetically pleasing illustrations to make their advertisement and employer branding stand out. 

Similarly, the use of mobile phones, texting, whatsapp has increased. With Whatsapp offering solutions for business, recruiters are also using it to interact and network with talent pools. 

Networking has become more critical for successful recruiting. This includes not only finding avenues for networking in physical spaces but also online/digitally. Linkedin is an excellent example of a tool being used by recruiters and businesses around the world to generate leads. 

The Job and Candidate Search has become more personal

With internet and digital profiles, the candidate search and job search; both have become personal. Recruiters and employers check candidates online, they google their profiles and also evaluate social media accounts. Even when they use AI powered tools to background check a candidate online – the summary encompasses reporting from all platforms, personal and professional. 

Similarly, candidates now evaluate the company’s reputation, its turnover, its success, its products & services, the clientele it has and recommendation from existing or ex-employees. All of these available online on Facebook, Glassdoor etc. 

HR Technology: Gamification, Artificial Intelligence, Video Interviewing. 

As Human Resource functions become automated and technology makes the process more efficient. New tools and platforms can now be accessed by employers and recruiters to ensure a successful recruitment process. 

Psychometric tests have been replaced by Gamification and Virtual Reality based simulations. These simulations test the candidates on critical skills such as analysis, problem solving, time management, presence of mind etc. They also reduce workhours spend on evaluation as the process can be conducted for several applicant simultaneously. 

Candidate profiles are shortlisted using AI, without wasting manhours to manually filter profiles. Candidates are screened on telephone calls through AI powered tools such as Vera, which enables team to shortlist 100+ candidates simultaneously which would otherwise be impossible. It also eliminates the element of bias by recruiters. 

Similarly, Video interviewing is considered crucial and a new normal. Job Portals, Freelancing portals are now evaluating profiles and verifying them through online video chats. 

Hi, I am Maheen Noor Soomro, a Headhunter, Career Coach and HR Consultant working with companies around the world to help them achieve their business goals. I am a Director at Mushawar UK Ltd, a HR Consulting agency based in the United Kingdom. You can follow me on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram or visit my company’s website: www.mushawar.co.uk.