Recruitment is an important aspect of any business and LinkedIn have compiled their 5th annual report in order to uncover the top worldwide recruiting trends.
In order to be an effective business having an awareness of global recruiting trends is vital. Trends can have an enormous impact on strategy regarding frequent business concerns such as acquiring the best talent that is on offer and making sure your business accomplishes its goals for the year. The report surveyed almost 3900 global talent acquisition decision makers in order to discover what impact 2015 has had on recruitment and the trends that will be prevalent in 2016.
One specific thing that the survey attempted to identify was what significant challenges businesses face when they are attempting to recruit. A trend that became very clear was that there is an ongoing issue businesses face as a result of the gap between hiring volume and budget. The imbalance appears to be a trend that is very established and will remain present throughout 2016. It is an issue that prevents businesses from overcoming obstacles and developing their talent strategies. Three of the biggest obstacles businesses said they faced related to attracting the top talent available. 64 per cent stated that it was difficult to find candidates in high demand talent pools, while 44 per cent said competition for getting these candidates was an obstacle. Equally, offering a compensation package that attracted potential candidates was an issue for 36 per cent of those asked. The trend of businesses lacking funds to successfully hire the best employees is one that is undoubtedly worrying but also indicates the importance of including an accurate budget in any strategy.
Quality of candidates
Another trend that the report identified was that businesses consider quality of hire to be the most valuable key performance indicator. While a quarter of those asked said that time to fill was an important KPI, and 19 per cent said that hiring manager satisfaction was an effective KPI, the use of quality of hire shows that businesses fundamentally care about the standard of their employees above everything else. The study showed that 54 per cent of businesses measure quality of hire through turnover or retention statistics while 43 per cent use the satisfaction of the hiring manager to measure quality of hire. Performance evaluations were also important for 37 per cent of those asked in determining quality of hire. This trend shows that regardless of whether quality is measured through a long-term or short-term methodology, it is still more important to acquire the best candidates than to fill a position quickly. However, with that being said only 33 per cent of businesses globally felt that they measure quality of hire effectively showing there is significant space for improvement.
The study showed that a trend has emerged regarding staffing agencies. The age of agencies appears to be in decline as social professional networks are used to almost the same degree as agencies to fill positions. The trend has emerged because 56 per cent of professionals turn to social professional networks when looking for new opportunities, while social networks are being used maintain relationships with both active and passive talent. Recruitment agencies have been used significantly less over the last two years and moving into 2016 this is likely to continue as professional networks continue to improve, diversify, and grow.
The brand
Employer brand has emerged as a top priority for businesses meaning that organisations are investing more resources into this area. The importance of employer brand is a significant trend that is likely to continue growing as tools such as online professional networks such as LinkedIn get more users. Digital resources for improving employer brand have become more important than ever as word of mouth has fallen significantly in the past few years. Equally, businesses are increasingly implementing a proactive employer brand strategy indicating the importance of developing a brand. As the investment into employer brand has increased so has the involvement of talent acquisition teams. 40 per cent of talent acquisition teams share or contribute to managing employer brand while 28 per cent of talent acquisition teams own employer brand at their business. The trend indicates that a strong relationship between talent acquisition and marketing teams will be key to employer brand excellence.
Employee retention
Employee retention has emerged as another central trend among businesses. 33 per cent of businesses have said that employee retention is a recruitment priority while 41 per cent have said that recruiting highly skilled talent is a top priority. However, only 11 per cent of businesses asked have made internal hiring and transfers a priority even though this would closely align with retention. There is clearly space for businesses to improve retention by increasing the priority of internal hiring and transfers, especially as this would lead to retention of highly skilled talent as well. 19 per cent of businesses said there was not much internal candidate recruiting or none at all. 49 per cent of those asked said it occurred to some extent but only 31 per cent said it happened to a greater extent. This trend indicates that finding talent and not losing the talent that already exists is of paramount importance, and that 2016 could lead to beneficial internal strategy changes such as introducing an internal hiring program, and the addition of a formalised retention process.
The key recruiting trends that the report suggests are most important to integrate with future strategy are ones that are likely to remain dominant such as social professional networks and the ability to source passive candidates. By creating strategy for 2016 that includes employee referral programs, internal hiring, and employer branding any business will be prepared for the coming year and beyond. The report indicates that the focus for any strategy should be upon the power of relationships as this is exactly what is driving the change in global recruitment. Understanding where potential candidates are, whether that be in the business already or online, and then facilitating their interest in the business by overcoming obstacles other businesses face will make any business infinitely more successful in the coming year.
Kevin Buller is the chief executive at Lucas Blake. Lucas Blake specialises in the recruitment of sales professionals within the IT and telecommunications sectors throughout the UK and Europe.
