If you started off the new year a bit bored of the same old hiring practices or a bit concerned about your job security given increasing automation in the field, this blog’s for you. Maren Hogan wrote last week about growing trends in staffing, and the future looks bright, my friend.
Testing and sourcing are joining forces.
Hogan writes, “While the past few years have hailed the fusion of recruitment and marketing professionals, sourcers will get smarter and make use of the kind of predictive analytics marketers have been harvesting from social networks and professional websites for a couple of years now.” Leveraging these methods together with a wide array of readily available information on passive candidates can help to quickly pinpoint quality candidates and weed out undesirables.
Hiring is on the rise, but it looks different.
The Great Recession has had a huge and possibly long-lasting impact on the shape of the workforce. With an eye toward minimizing labor costs and evading new health care requirements, employers now use more contingent workers (freelancers, temporary contractors and consultants) than ever. And a recent employment report by Elance called “The Future of Work” indicates that in 2014, 60 percent of companies intend to increase freelance hiring. Hogan asserts that this year will “bring a focus on planning, managing and integrating these workers” with full-time staff.
Video is on the way up.
The use of video for branding and staffing continues to gain traction. In addition to conducting video interviews, employers are using video to communicate job descriptions and even give job seekers a day-in-the-life glimpse into the position. Video interviewing is up 49 percent from 2012 and currently almost two-thirds use the medium to some extent, whether in marketing or hiring efforts. Companies using video to screen candidates have reported a staggering 80 percent improvement over the time associated with the average phone screen.
Degrees won’t mean what they used to.
When degreed professionals are a dime a dozen, but candidates who hold both a degree and the experience or skill set you need are few and far between, something’s got to give. And it’s likely to be policies requiring staff to hold bachelor’s degrees at minimum. The need for specialized skills is on the rise, but the number of STEM graduates is falling. And according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2016, hiring for technical positions will have at least doubled when compared to hiring for all other fields. A changing mindset about the importance of a degree may just open the options wide up for recruiters.
Published by Conselium Executive Search, the global leader in compliance search.
