• 4 min. read

Trends that will shape your recruitment strategy in 2018

2017 has been the year of people engagement and people analytics. But now that 2017 has passed, it’s time to think about the recruitment trends that are going to shape 2018.

Written by Daniela Costa

You may have already noticed the subtle changes in your company, like your boss giving you a little bit more space so you can focus better and be more productive, him asking about your wellbeing and wanting to know more about you as a person instead of seeing you as an employee.

2017 has been the year of people engagement and people analytics. But now that 2017 has passed, it’s time to think about the recruitment trends that are going to shape 2018. As a matter of fact, LinkedIn recently published their ‘Global Recruiting Trends 2018 Report' with the focus on 4 main game-changers: diversity, new interviewing techniques, data, and (not to forget) AI.

All these trends will form the coming era, an era that will allow HR teams to focus more on the human side of the processes, instead of spending a tremendous amount of time on repetitive admin tasks, screening CV’s, scheduling interviews, sending e-mails to colleagues and so on. Cutting the amount of time you spend on these transactions allows your HR department to make time to win the right talent.

Now let’s discuss each of these topics in more detail:

Topic 1: Diversity

More than 50% of the companies are already embracing the fact that diversity will drive their revenues to new heights. However, this means that the other half of the companies doesn’t. In their Global recruitment trends 2018 report, LinkedIn clearly explains why the concept of diversity is evolving lately. “Belonging” is a buzz word to which the meaning of diversity has expanded. It means that your employees should feel well and safe at the workspace: they feel that they belong there.

Now what is the advantage for your company? Apparently, 78% of the interrogated companies recognise that diversity boosts culture and over 60% believe it contributes to a better overall performance. But keep in mind that before you can benefit from these positive effects, your company culture should embrace diversity.

Topic 2: New Interviewing Techniques

Are old-fashioned interviewing techniques where candidates come to present themselves at the office a thing of the past? In contrast to what you might think, it’s still THE most popular way for getting to know future employees. Despite its popularity, traditional interviewing techniques are falling short on several aspects. Some of the 'Global recruitment trends 2018' report's findings were that these have a limited use when it comes to assessing soft skills and avoiding biases.

Complementary techniques will establish a new way of hiring. These could be for example assessments, casual meetings and video interviews. Individual techniques won’t provide a silver bullet to hire the right candidate, but a combination will definitely have less bias and will create more realistic profiles of the candidates.

Screen-Shot-2018-02-22-at-17.25.00 Source: ” Global recruitment trends 2018”- LinkedIn

Topic 3: Data

Times are long gone when talent acquisition was only a matter of meeting people. In addition to soft HR, data and analytics are more and more becoming a hot source for hiring the right people. The latest trends show on one hand an increase in the amount of data and, on the other hand the different ways of how we can use it for boosting the overall performance and efficiency.

The increasing amount of information is used to make better and more accurate hiring decisions, to better understand the skills someone needs in order to be a top performer in a specific position and so on. Because of these new methods, companies are able to better anticipate problems such as attrition and the skills gap that exists between future employees and the position. Solid recommendations can be made and your company will be sure to take the right decisions.

Topic 4: AI

Many of you might already have heard of Artificial Intelligence, but not all of you know that this fourth trend might become the one that will have the biggest impact on your way of recruiting. In fact, it is predicted that AI will result in more efficient HR teams by automatising most of the administrative work and by predicting meaningful insights that human beings cannot think of by themselves.

Artificial intelligence is the ability of a machine to “think like humans” and is mostly known as the technology behind self-driving cars or social media platforms that recognise faces.

Besides its use in these industries, AI is also finding its way in the HR industry. For example by performing a first screening of the 300 CVs you receive for each position. You can already guess what will be the effect: a huge amount of time will be saved. More precisely, it can reduce the time to hire by more than 50%. LindedIn finds that other advantages will be the fact that money can be saved, there will be less bias when hiring a new employee and the best matches between company culture and the candidates can be made.

A final important remark that should be made is that most talent acquisition professionals embrace AI and are seeing the advantages, instead of fearing that it will replace their job.

All these trends conclude the same thing: HR changes rapidly, but the human touch will be irreplaceable. It’s up to you to change the way you think and adapt your processes to the new and continuously evolving trends.

Screen-Shot-2018-02-22-at-17.27.48 Source: ” Global recruitment trends 2018”- LinkedIn

Skeeled offers you the perfect opportunity to bring innovation and digitalisation to your hiring. Check our website or our LinkedIn and Facebook pages for further information.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Your team here at skeeled

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