2019 has already shown that digital transformation is bringing about many changes and innovations in HR. What are the most important recruiting trends you will face in 2020? What do new recruiting methods bring? And how can you implement them so that your HR department can fully reap the benefits of digital opportunities?

“Candidate Experience” Places the Applicant in the Spotlight

You may remember the times when the HR department had freedom of choice in the search for talent. The “war for talent” has well and truly ended that era. Today, applicants have far more power when looking for a job. As a result, attracting potential candidates is increasingly difficult, time-consuming and costly.

While in the past the company’s requirements were the determining factor in the application process, today it is the expectations that potential employees may have. Given this shift, recruiters are beginning to treat job seekers like customers. It is only the companies that respond to individual candidates and their needs that will be able to recruit and retain the best talent.

 

The majority of business leaders surveyed stated that they wanted to focus more on the candidate as an individual in the future. Adopting a people-centric approach and having a positive candidate experience are clear trends that are expected to gain more traction in 2020.

1.Advertising Job-Opening through digital media:

The trend towards individualization is also bringing a breath of fresh air into classic job advertisements. HR departments have long been unable to reach the majority of candidates in a paper-based manner, yet “the first contact” is now an integral part of the candidate experience. Recruiters want to make sure that the candidate really feels like they are being treated in a personal way. For the recruiting of the future, individuality is the key to success.

But how does an individual approach work if you don’t even know the applicant yet? In the best case, the recruiter has an exact picture of the ideal candidate in their head and describes them in the job advertisement. It is important to speak the candidate’s language and describe precisely which skills are important to qualify for the position. In addition, the ad should be authentic and reflect the image of your company.

2.Multiposting in all Social media networks to reach maximum Candidates:

It’s not only the ‘what’ and ‘how’ that plays an important role in your job advertisement; the ‘where’ also plays a crucial role. After all, what use is it to have the perfect job description if no one actually sees it? You want to reach the best candidates, no matter where they are situated.

For this reason, place your job advertisements on every job portal you can find! Multiposting makes this possible with just a few clicks. By the way, you don’t have to achieve maximum reach everywhere. Try searching locally, especially in the region where your company operates. If you can reach a large number of candidates who don’t need to move location for the job, the likelihood of a successful match increases automatically.

3. Google for Jobs Promotes Search Engine Optimization for Recruiting:

Google for Jobs was launched in several European countries in 2018/2019, jobs from job portals and career websites of German companies were indexed for months before the launch. Job Search on Google is an optimized job search within the normal Google search. Google changes what the user sees in the search results depending on the information they enter regarding the type of job and location.

To do this, Google uses data from job advertisements that are already available in digital formats in job portals or career websites and displays the three most relevant search results together with the source. Find out what companies need to do to have job advertisements appear in Google for Jobs. Included is a checklist for your own job advertisements!

4.Best Candidate with Active Sourcing :

Active sourcing means proactively approaching candidates and engaging them in a direct and personalized way. This recruiting trend requires HR employees to contact high-potential candidates themselves and to forge professional relationships through a variety of channels. Even if there is no current interest, you can keep in touch with strong candidates in this manner.

The big advantage of active sourcing is that recruiters can get in touch with candidates that other companies don’t even know about. Unless a potential employee applies for a vacancy, they will go unnoticed by most companies. As a result, HR departments often forego great opportunities because candidates with high potential are less active in their job search and are thus excluded from the recruitment process.

5.Use of Social Media networks with Social Sourcing:

The internet has radically changed the recruitment process in recent years. Who would have thought that one day Facebook or Twitter would help connect recruiters and jobseekers?

It is not only social recruitment and placing jobs on your company’s social media channels that play a role; companies now use their social networks to proactively search for potential candidates. This is known as “social sourcing”.

How does it work? For example, you could post job ads in industry-specific Facebook groups. Or you could use Twitter hashtags to narrow the search and make it easier for candidates to find what they’re looking for. What’s more, you could place your ads on LinkedIn so that candidates can apply using their profile, or, alternatively, you could send direct messages to promising candidates on the LinkedIn platform.

This way, recruiters can also actively forge relationships with interested applicants and encourage them to apply. This is particularly effective if you want to appeal to the younger generation of employees.

6.Skill Matching for the Right Candidate:

Skill matching allows you to narrow down applicants in a quick and efficient manner. Instead of viewing and comparing CVs manually and weighing up how plausible they are, you can use an applicant management software to help you with your skill matching.

Define criteria for the ideal candidate that precisely match the requirements for the job. The recruiting software automatically retrieves data and uses matching algorithms to match the skills required for a job with the candidate’s credentials.

The result is an immediate, high-quality forecast as to whether the applicant is suitable for the job. After pre-selection, the applicant data is automatically shared with the specialist department. This enables all relevant stakeholders in the recruiting process to get a first-hand impression of the candidates.

7. Understanding of Human Nature Meets Technology :

Future-oriented recruiting is digitally supported but is still dependent on human beings. Without capable recruiters, there can be no successful recruiting. After all, data and modern technologies are only a means to an end. The recruiting process continues to be characterized primarily by interpersonal relationships. In order to use the data and new technology to optimize the recruiting process, people and their judgment are also very much required.

Nevertheless, digitalization has fundamentally changed the skills profile of HR employees. Recruiters still need an understanding of human nature in order to act as a successful mediator between a candidate and the company. In addition, recruiters today need to have a digital mindset, possess analytical skills and feel comfortable using HR software and new tools. As a matter of fact, successful HR managers are already using software-based HR solutions for applicant management.

The training and development of the HR department is, therefore, a foundational element for successful recruiting in a company. Accordingly, the HR team should be supported by management and specialist departments and receive ongoing training. Training on how to use digital HR solutions and new technologies should take place on a regular basis. This is why successful HR managers use personnel development software to screen the qualification status of their employees.

The more companies use data analysis, the more the HR department can influence the company-wide strategy. The recruiting of the future requires measurability and data-based decisions to be made in HR departments. According to an IT Study, 71% of the companies surveyed gave priority to employee analysis. However, only 29% know which aspect of talent management actually affects performance in their organization.

Perhaps you’ve already heard of Recruiting Analytics and Big Data? Thanks to Recruiting Analytics, recruiters can now use their own data to find out which recruiting steps affect performance.

In addition, Recruiting Analytics help to narrow down the selection of candidates and enable you to find the best candidate more quickly within the framework of talent analysis. Big Data is generated from existing company data and is transformed into insights about your company using machine learning algorithms.