Priorities and processes in the recruiting world are constantly changing. If you want to continue to save money in your talent acquisition efforts, recruit the best talent faster and keep up with your competitors, it’s important to be aware of the hottest recruiting trends taking shape. Technology plays a big factor in the changes that have taken place in how we recruit talent today, along with changes in the way people work today. To help prepare recruiters and hiring managers for a successful year, here are four important talent acquisition trends growing in popularity in 2018:
1) Social media is becoming an important recruiting tool
To compete for the best talent in 2018, hiring managers should utilize social media as a recruiting tool if they haven’t already. According to a study done by the Aberdeen Group, 73% of people in the 18-34 age group have found their last position through social media. But research from Capterra found that just under 95% of companies utilize social media in recruiting. Some of the aspects of social media that are useful in recruiting include improving your employer brand by posting more employee-generated content and managing company reviews, building a pool of talent on social media networks such as LinkedIn, and using proper hashtags when posting jobs in Twitter.
2) Rewriting job postings to make them appeal to a wider pool of talent
One of the big talent acquisition trends in 2018 focuses on creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce by paying closer attention to wording in job descriptions. Gender bias is becoming a big issue in certain jobs, and it has been found that some of the language being used in job ads for those positions favor one gender over another. Companies such as SAP are creating tools that use artificial intelligence to help eliminate gender bias in job descriptions by flagging words that reflect gender bias. So make it one of your goals this new year to review your job descriptions and make sure the language is as inclusive as possible.
3) Improving recruiting practices for hiring gig economy workers
Making efforts to accommodate the growing number of freelance and contract workers (otherwise known as “gig economy workers”) in the workforce is another one of the most popular talent acquisition trends in 2018. Recent research from Intuit found that gig economy workers now make up 34% of the workforce. This number is expected to almost double by 2020 thanks to the many benefits the gig economy offers to workers, and the benefits employers gain from hiring gig economy workers. To ensure a smoother hiring process for gig economy workers at your business, start putting more effort into finding the best avenues for building pools of freelance talent as well as carefully screening these workers to avoid freelance hiring pitfalls.
4) Predictive analytics are growing more popular in recruiting
Technological advancements in predicting candidate and employee performance is another one of the talent acquisitions trends taking shape in 2018. To help improve and broaden their talent pools, more and more companies are collecting data from their applicants and new hires that helps create a profile of their ideal employee. Also, talent sourcing systems are able to look at factors in passive talent such as how long an employee has been at their current company and their social media habits to determine when they are most likely to be responsive to a job opening at your company.
Author: Jessica Cody
Jessica Cody, a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, has a background in online marketing and public relations. Currently, she works at VHMNetwork LLC in the role of Marketing Analyst. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she studied Journalism and Political Science. She is also an avid runner with a passion for the outdoors.
