Continuing Recruitment Trends in 2019

As with many jobs & industries, continuous learning in Recruitment is essential to success and career progression. It has had to adapt to changing societies, educations, skills & technologies. However, it does seem that this year is showing some significant trends that look like they’re here to stay. Those working in Recruitment will certainly need to adopt these new methodologies & ideas to remain effective & relevant.

There are many trends in the Recruitment industry now, but we have found that there are 5 that seem to be the most prevalent for this year. We will briefly discuss these 5 trends and their importance not just to recruiters but to job seekers as well.

1. Social Recruitment

In the past, job opening were posted in the classifieds section of newspapers or spread by word of mouth. That evolved to posting jobs on job sites. Today, besides job sites & company websites, employers need to be more engaged on other platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter and engage in other platforms.

A few of the benefits of Social Recruitment are:

• Wider reach
• Easier referrals
• More interaction with potential employees
• Build your brand as an employer
• Cost efficiency

2. Recruitment Marketing

Keeping in mind Social Recruitment, it makes perfect sense for companies to alter their Recruitment Strategies to be more in line with their Marketing Strategies. Employers need to treat Recruitment like they would any of their other products or services and Market themselves the same way to potential employees.

The same way the purpose of marketing your goods or services to consumers is to get them to buy/use them, the aim of Recruitment Marketing is to get job seekers to apply to the job openings you have.

The main benefits of Recruitment Marketing are:

• Higher Engagement with job seekers.
• Improved experience for job seekers with your company.
• Increased awareness of your brand as an employer

3. Artificial Intelligence

The potentials & possibilities of Artificial Intelligence have been discussed and in some cases applied, to virtually all industries across the world. And Recruitment is certainly no exception.

There was a study that said AI was expected to replace 16% of HR jobs. This is not to say that 16% of HR professionals will be out of a job, but AI will remove much of the more mundane & repetitive tasks of Recruitment & HR. As such, you would have more time to focus on actually finding & hiring the right candidates as opposed to spending a large amount of time completing the admin work that is required to narrow down applications.

Some of the main benefits of applying AI to the Recruitment process are:

• It will improve online application systems which could lead to a faster first step of selection
• More data available for analysis
• Can provide a more complete picture of character of job seekers
• Smarter approach to finding the right candidate by scanning through an existing talent pool
• Provides opportunities for integration into on boarding & training systems through smarter personalized programs

4. Flexible & Diverse Workforce

Keeping the above changes in mind, it is absolutely logical that they (especially when utilized together) would result in a more diverse workforce. Greater reach and more engagement with potential employees opens the doors to candidates that would possible have not heard of at all. A more diverse workforce is also in line with changes around the world in terms of anti-discrimination & equality policies.

Another change in the work force that recruiters and employers need to take special note of is Flexibility. Flexibility in terms of work time, work place and work methods. The technologies we have available to us now allow for much more leeway in terms of where, when & how we work. This has become a significant factor in the decision job seekers make when choosing a job and employer. And make no mistake, job seekers are choosing their employers – it is after all a job seekers market.

Some of the benefits of Diversity & Flexibility are:

• Greater appeal to job seekers.
• Wider range of employees fosters more innovation & better decision making (many different perspectives).
• An improvement in work-life balance which makes for happier & more productive employees.
• It offers both employees (in terms of freelancers) and employers the opportunity to decide if they would like to be a more permanent fixture within the organization.

5. General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR

The GDPR is a regulation that was passed in May 2018 that addresses data protection & privacy for all individuals withing the EU & the EEA. This is not so much a trend as the beginning of how privacy & data access issues will be regulated in the future.

This affects recruiters as they collect, store, process & use the data of individuals as part of their daily tasks. A few things for recruiters to note with regards to the GDPR are:

• Data Subject Consent
• The Right to be Forgotten
• The Right to Object
• Data Security Standards

What does the future in Recruitment look like?

The Recruiters that stand out aren’t just the one who post jobs and get candidates interviews. They’re the one that build relationships, go above and beyond and advocate for both their clients and their candidates. Employers & Recruiters alike need to recognize the need to engage, personalize & empathize with their employees and potential employees. Your reputation as an Employer matters and can be assessed by anyone anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. While there are those who would say that technological & societal shifts are disastrous, there are others that see the opportunity to use them to their and others advantages. Which one are you?

If you’re a recruiter or HR professional looking to partner with a reputable, progressive attestation partner contact us here or call us on +971 (0)4 556 7338.