The hiring landscape constantly evolves to meet the demands of today’s job seekers – and throughout the next year, hiring and talent management will experience continued change. With U.S. unemployment at a 16-year low and job seekers having countless job opportunities at the tips of their fingers, it’s critical for businesses across industries to adapt to the latest trends in order to secure top candidates.
Is your business prepare to continue building your best team in 2018? We’ve pulled together a list of key hiring and talent management trends to be aware of as the New Year kicks off.
Content-Driven Hiring
Since the shift from paper to online job applications, job description and career site content has been key to attracting quality candidates. And content will be an even bigger focus for hiring in 2018, as both Facebook and Google became key players in the jobs market in 2017. In February, Facebook launched a job search feature, enabling users to search and apply for jobs in the U.S. and Canada directly in the platform. And in May, Google rolled out a jobs search engine, Google for Jobs, which not only includes job descriptions and enables users to apply through the search engine, but also includes important data such as salary information.
Since job seekers are increasingly looking for new roles on Facebook, Google and other search engines, the content of job descriptions and titles will have a significant impact on your company’s likelihood of attracting quality candidates. Job descriptions should focus on what your company has to offer – such as your overall benefits, company culture and company awards – as the job description provides an opportunity to sell applicants on the role and business. If possible, industry-specific job titles should be avoided, so your jobs show up in more search results and you can reach a broader pool of applicants. For example, “Sales Consultant” is likely to show up in more search results than “Used Vehicle Sales Rep.”
In addition to job descriptions and titles, you should be strategic about the content on your company career site, and include details on the workplace culture, career progression, and overall benefits to help top candidates see the opportunity your team offers. Also, when posting in other channels, link back to your career site, so applicants can get a better feel for the role and your company as a whole.
Increased Focus on Employment Brand
Over the next year, there will be a continued shortage of skilled talent in the job market, making it a tough, competitive market for employers. Because of this, employers need to have a strong employment brand to stand out from the competition and attract top candidates. A strong employment brand should include a dedicated career site featuring a comprehensive list of benefits, compelling job descriptions, a defined career path and employee success stories. The primary goal of your employment brand is to get potential applicants excited about the possibility of joining your team.
To showcase your employment brand, it’s also important to be continuously hiring. Even if you don’t have an immediate opening, you should always have a few jobs posted on your career site. Continuous job openings show your business is successful and growing, and can help you capture strong, passive candidates when you least expect it.
Embracing Talent Management Analytics
Given the competitive job market, businesses across industries need to follow a standardized hiring process and continuously identify new ways to improve hiring and talent management. To do so, many businesses are increasingly leveraging actionable data to improve the people side of the business. In fact, according to a 2017 study from Deloitte, 69% of companies are now tapping into data to build a “People Analytics” database, whereas in previous years, only 10-15% of companies tapped into people analytics. This number will likely continue to increase in the coming years.
To address the need for hiring and talent management analytics, businesses in the HR technology space are always identifying new ways to make such data accessible to customers. Hireology’s integrated hiring and talent management system includes easily accessible robust analytics so decision makers at your company can see such insights as hiring velocity and hiring process adherence across locations and managers – and in comparison to industry benchmarks. And you can further improve your hiring process by measuring which applicant sources – such as your career site and various job boards – are delivering the most qualified candidates and eventual hires. Using this data, you can optimize your recruitment budget to eliminate sources that aren’t working for you. A talent management system also highlights critical business metrics that can help you spot red flags in your HR processes – including high overtime costs, paid time off usage, turnover rates, and employee profitability.
Focusing on content-driven hiring, your employment brand and people-related analytics are just a few of the hiring trends expected in 2018. To learn more about how to build your best team and set your business up for success in the coming year – and beyond – download our eBook, “The 9 Elements of a Well-Oiled Hiring Process.”
