There’s little doubt that new challenges will arise for recruiters in 2014. Dynamics in the recruiting space are susceptible to market fluctuations, education/technology trends, and occasionally paradigm-like shifts.
Inspired by Dr. John Sullivan’s post on ERE, “The Top 25 Recruiting Trends, Problems and Opportunities for 2014”, I wanted to outline some significant challenges recruiters can expect to confront and overcome in 2014.
1. Aggregating and Analyzing Social Media
Sourcing social media, regardless of an organization’s size or prioritized strategies, is a universal movement that’s accelerating; targeting audiences on social media will continue to have a remarkable influence on recruiting. One thing recruiters need to keep in mind is that their strategies will inevitably be dictated by the nature of the sites they source. Facebook will only get you so far. Twitter will only tell you so much. Even LinkedIn, the Holy Grail for penetrating views of candidates, has limitations. The most arresting fact is there are far more sources for digital footprints outside of these three examples depending on the type of candidates you’re after. Thankfully, this abundance of data sources has lead to rise of technology that aggregates all of these sources at once, while also providing predictive power with respect to identifying quality passive candidates.
2. Startups vs. Large Firms
Larger firms may have hiring tactics and strategies that served them well through generations of business leaders, but they now find themselves competing with startups that unwittingly (and intentionally) remove talent from the market. The wild success of startups, with enticing cultures of creativity and innovation, adds a new element to the so-called “talent wars.” If an organization still hasn’t settled on the simple notion that hiring talent should be their top priority, they can’t compete. Moreover, they’ll need to develop tools and impactful strategies to capture some of the alluring startup zeitgeist.
3. The Unemployed Deluge
The latest labor market news is shrouded in optimism with over 200,000 jobs added in November, yet there are still daunting problems that need to be solved despite a five year unemployment low. Complaints concerning “resume spamming” are numerous. The influx of resumes and applications for positions—from applicants that are not remotely qualified—continue to stress out recruiters and hiring managers who are in desperate need of strong candidates. Getting through this high volume of applicants, regardless of their skills or qualifications, is going to take some ingenuity.
4. Skilled Recruiter Shortages
The skill-sets required to be an ace recruiter will continue to evolve and diversify. Being tech savvy is only the beginning. Recruiters need to keep themselves informed about technological and conceptual changes. With respect to larger firms, when they get ready to unfurl a new year of hiring strategies, many of them will realize they lack a strong pool of recruiters—and training resources for them. Once again, larger companies will need to be flexible and adaptive to compete.
5. Retention Hazards
Blame it on the Millennials (and late Generation Xers): workers feel comfortable taking movement risks nowadays. The old norms of carving out a niche within a company, wrapping yourself in a security blanket, is shifting toward a new benchmark of seeking out provocative job opportunities. So what’s the outcome? Some projections say there will be a 25 percent increase in turnover rates. This may be the most difficult problem to overcome. Here are two clear outcomes: recruitment strategies will have to quantitatively factor in this dynamic, and hiring managers will have to keep this high potential for turnovers at the forefront of their minds before making their final decisions.
Dr. Sullivan provides some stern advice for troubleshooting these challenges:
In order to stay ahead and also to build a competitive talent advantage, don’t wait for your new year’s budget to kick in before you start developing your plan for addressing the upcoming problems and for taking advantage of imminent talent opportunities. Professionals can honestly disagree about which trends will be the most prominent over the next year, but there can be little disagreement over the fact that dramatic changes are unavoidably right on the horizon.
