This is a guest post from our partners Wave.
With the mounting competition for talent, recruiting is becoming more difficult. Despite the adoption of the latest technology, social media hiring and data-driven decision making, recruiters are still grappling with winning top-tier talent. As we gear up to welcome 2019, let’s take time to consider what are the leading recruitment challenges recruiters will be facing in 2019 and what they can do to address them before they wreak havoc on the hiring strategies.
Here are the top five challenges recruiters will be facing in 2019.
Increase in complexity of recruitment environment
One of the defining characteristics of the recruitment environment in 2019 will be the medley of factors driving the recruitment landscape – changing demographics, particularly increasing the number of older workers; differences in candidates’ attitude towards the use of technology & social media channels; further strengthening of freelancing and gig economy and internationalisation of talent pool. The interplay of all these factors will create challenges regarding the extent of flexibility demanded from recruiters to be successful. Recruiters will have to accommodate all these fragmented expectations, attitudes and talent pools to attract the right talent.
The shift in power balance
Like in consumer marketing, the power in the recruiting relationship will shift over from employers to job seekers. It will be a robust candidate-driven market. This will be visible in the candidate’s concerns about the work environment, work culture, employer brand and like/dislike of your recruitment processes. While some recruiters may complain of “candidate’s attitude”, those who want to stay ahead of their game will find means to nurture and attract talented individuals to their organisation using marketing methods and tactics. You can complain all you want about the shift in power, but you can’t change it. The only thing you can do is to radically alter your recruiting strategies and tools to fit better the new level of power that candidate will hold. There will be a rise in recruitment marketing trends in 2019.
Reactive hiring will not cut it anymore
The approach of hunting for job-fit candidates, reading CV’s and scheduling interviews when the need presents will not be practical. If you still adopt this approach in 2019, you will have a tiny talent pool. Recruiters will have to be on their toes all the time, not just when they have an open position. In 2019, the focus will be on building and maintaining an active and live network that can serve as a talent pipeline for current and future needs. This will help in reducing time-to-hire as well as shaping the employer brand.
Increasing percentage of passive candidates
Every recruiter will tell you that finding the right talent is difficult. An estimated 75% of global job candidates are inactive in their job search, that is to say, they are not actively looking for jobs, but would be willing to accept a better offer. The traditional approach of posting job ads and then waiting for job applications will become ineffective. You will have to tailor your employer brand to appeal to this crucial source of hidden talent.
Coming to terms with limitations of technology
While AI and machine learning will revolutionise the recruitment processes, organisations will realise that technology cannot replace the human element in the recruitment process but can only complement it. There will be a rise in the human component of recruitment. Candidates’ will place a higher value on outstanding experiences. Meaning despite the increasing pervasiveness of technology; recruiters will still need to focus on their interactions with potential candidates and build positive relationships over some time.
Final Thoughts
In 2019, recruiters will face serious challenges. Forward-thinking recruiters will appreciate their complex landscape and build a talent acquisition strategy that is fully integrated with their business strategy. They will carefully select technology to automate the transactional aspects of the recruitment process and enhance their decision making without compromising the focus on delivering exceptional candidate experiences. The underlying idea will be to be “out there” building active talent communities that fall in love with your employer brand.
Wave help consultancies attract better quality candidates and have been working within the recruitment marketing and media buying industry for nearly 20 years. Our aim is and always has been to support recruiters through the entire candidate attraction lifecycle. Our core offering comprises of recruitment website builds, media buying on all job boards and multi-posting and advertising analytics.
If you want to find out more about how Wave can help you, get in touch or have a read of our blog posts.
