Recruiters’ Top Hiring Priorities for 2020 (and how to reach them)

What are your hiring goals for the year ahead? Whether you’ve thought about them or not, it’s always a good idea to take stock of where you’re currently at with your recruitment plans and think about how you can improve this in the year ahead.  Our partner, CV-Library, did some research of 300 UK recruitment professionals revealing that hiring levels are only set to increase in 2020, while budgets will remain the same.  So what are recruiters’ top hiring priorities for 2020? CV-Library reveal all below, while also offering practical advice on how you can reach these goals.

Attracting higher quality candidates

According to our research, three quarters (74.2%) of recruiters say that attracting higher quality candidates to their jobs is their top hiring priority for 2020. At the same time, 91.3% believe that quality will be more important than quantity in 2020.

This is because good quality candidates should stay in the role for longer; they’re the people who fit well with the company culture from the get-go, have all the right skills for the job and have the potential to develop in the future. But how can you actually improve quality of hire? A few ideas:

• Work on your job descriptions: Work with your marketing teams to make your job adverts as exciting as possible; they should tell a story about the role and company
• Talk to your suppliers: What are they doing to drive more quality applicants to your jobs? For example, it might include making improvements to their own job matching technology
• Work collaboratively: Hiring managers should have a good idea of the kind of person who will fit well in their teams; so work with them on a list of ‘must-haves’ and ‘nice-to-haves’
• Consider employee referrals: These aren’t anything new, but they’re really valuable if you’re an in-house recruiter. After all, good employees should recommend good candidates

Targeting passive candidates

The next priority that recruiters are focussing on in 2020 is targeting passive candidates (36.4%). We know that employment is at an all time high and this is putting pressure on recruitment teams to take a more proactive approach to hiring.

However, 21.5% admit that a lack of time to be proactive is impacting their recruitment efforts the most right now. So how can you target passive candidates, without it taking up too much of your time?

• Tailor your approach: Good candidates have a choice and won’t be interested in your job if you go in all guns blazing or don’t take a tailored approach. Try to pick out a few points that interest you about them and mention these when making your initial contact
• Sell the role and company: Similarly, you need to make the role and company sound as appealing as possible. Understand its USPs and how you’re going to sell it to potential candidates
• Maximise new technologies: Last year, CV-Library introduced a CV Search Builder which helps to build Boolean search strings for users; this takes away some of the complications around using CV Search and building a search string that yields the best results

Building talent pools for the future

Similar to the above, we also found that 33.8% of recruiters plan to focus on building talent pools for the future in 2020; and this can certainly help with targeting passive candidates.

The problem is, recruitment tends to be a reactive game. You have a role, you fill it and you move on to the next one. Rarely do we take the time to nurture our talent pipelines (and this is completely understandable). Here are some ideas on how to do it right:

• Use social media: If you’re an in-house recruiter there’s loads you can be doing on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to showcase your company culture and what it’s like to work for your company. Your careers page is also useful for this
• Use relevant software: If you use an ATS, this is a great tool for building a talent pool; plus you can integrate these platforms with your job board, making it easier to add new candidates on a regular basis
• Stay in touch: Whether it’s via email, phone or LinkedIn; keeping on top of what great candidates are doing is always a good idea – you never know when they might be keen to look for a new job!

Reducing time to hire

Next up, 25.8% of recruiters say they want to reduce their time to hire in 2020. A number of elements can contribute to this: from how effective your job advert is, how easy the application process is to complete and how many interview stages there are.

There are a number of benefits to focusing on your time to hire, including:

• To understand how efficient your recruitment process is
• To understand how cost-effective your recruitment process is
• To ensure you’re hiring the right person for the role and/or company
• …but mainly because good candidates won’t wait around!

Reducing cost per hire

Finally, we found that 21.2% of recruitment professionals want to reduce their cost per hire this year; and this isn’t surprising given that many recruiters’ budgets are staying the same in 2020.

But how can you reduce your cost per hire, while also improving your time to hire AND ensuring that you don’t sacrifice the quality of your candidates?! Consider the following:

• Analyse your sources: Which suppliers and/or sites are driving the best candidates to your vacancies? Are you investing in the right tools?
• Don’t settle for someone who isn’t right: Making the wrong hire can actually cost you more in the long run, so it’s important to focus on hiring the right person for the job
• Use other free tools: From social media and your wider network, to employee referral schemes, these can all help to reduce cost per hire

 

Meet your hiring priorities in 2020

Hopefully, this article should give you some food for thought for your hiring priorities in 2020. If you want to know more about the trends that are shaping the recruitment industry this year, download CV-Library’s brand new whitepaper ‘Recruitment trends for 2020’.