Insight

2020 happens to be extra unique as the COVID-19 pandemic had governments enforce strict community quarantine guidelines. These lockdowns had many businesses temporarily halt operations or adopt modern techniques to remain functional. In more ways than one, the global health crisis has been affecting the HR and recruiting industry. Aside from this pressing issue, there are also those other inevitable predictions that resulted from last year’s hiring trends. Modern hiring tech is also expected to affect the industry. In this post, we’ll take a look at the top recruiting trends for 2020-2021. Recruitment has undoubtedly undergone significant changes and improvements over the last decade. For one, experts have wholly embraced the gift of technology, which expanded their candidate and hire sources. As recruitment slowly veers away from traditional talent acquisition methods–think phone screenings and paper resumes–modern methods have taken the spotlight. Recruiters have started to explore social recruiting, in addition to sourcing candidates through online job boards. Below are the top recruiting trends that we will likely see more of in 2021. 1. More Remote Work As 2020 welcomed us with a pandemic that’s yet to be contained, remote work became the “new normal” for many organizations and teams. Employers are taking measures to ensure the safety of their people. Even major Nigerian companies in the Oil and gas, Banking, and Telecoms sectors have asked their employees to work remotely. As for recruiters, they will have to adjust to this new normal. And as more organizations and employees will now have a taste of how it’s like to go remote, most are likely to retain the setup or continue to offer work flexibility. As a result, recruiters who are working for organizations that will adopt the remote work setup need to apply recruitment strategies specifically geared toward telecommuting. 2. Increased Use of Online Communication Tools Meanwhile, for companies that choose to continue hiring, online communication tools will prove most vital. Companies can halt in-person interviews and instead take them online through video conferencing apps as a precaution against the pandemic. Facebook and Amazon are just some of the huge companies that are known to start conducting most of their upcoming interviews through video conferencing. With this in mind, both recruiters and job seekers should prepare for the new measures by learning more about online communication tools and proper video conferencing etiquette. These preparations will also come handy should companies continue to adopt remote work where online communication is of prime importance. 3. A Shift from Traditional Requirements From this year onward more companies are bound to withdraw from rigid hiring requirements. We are more will likely see more organizations overlook college degrees and embrace skills. This way, they will have a bigger candidate pool and reduce biases caused by degrees, honors, and university names. As many of today’s tech professionals don’t have a formal degree, with over 65% of developers claiming to be self-taught, recruiters can open up their candidate funnel if they are not restrained by traditional educational attainment-related requirements. 4. Increased Focus on Specialization Recruiting is slowly but surely moving toward the direction of becoming an exact science. Recruiters are now expected to perform the technical role of facilitating the entire hiring funnel. More prominent companies with multiple departments and moving parts are now taking this direction, allowing them to find and hire the perfect candidate for specific technical positions. Some companies, particularly smaller ones, still have centralized recruitment operations. However, this generalized approach often results in poor outcomes in various areas, from sourcing to hiring. 5. AI and Predictive Analysis Over 80% of companies in advance societies today already use artificial intelligence (AI) in HR in one form or another. This year and for the rest of the 2020s, more companies are expected to leverage AI in various HR processes. With the help of AI, the traditional hiring process will get upgraded through the application of smart recruiting practices. Companies and job listings will become more discoverable to potential candidates. Meanwhile, on the recruiter’s end, the recruiting process will be more efficient as tasks such as applicant tracking and email communication can already be automated using applicant tracking systems. AI-powered chatbots will also become commonplace as companies begin to use them for the first phases of applicant screening before scheduling candidates for person-to-person interviews.  6. Company Culture Takes the Spotlight With various challenges facing recruitment today, recruiters need to look beyond the usual factors that attract candidates. According to a survey of 1,000 employees and more than 5,500 senior managers conducted by Robert Half International, 35% of workers would refuse a job offer if the company culture does not meet their expectations even if the role is a perfect match. More than 90% of the managers surveyed also believe that a candidate’s fit with their company culture is as important as skills and experience. With this in mind, recruiters are challenged to strike the perfect balance to ensure that company culture will fit the Baby Boomers, GenXers, Millennials, and GenZers alike. 7. Mobile and Social Media Continue to Play a Vital Role With mobile beating desktop in terms of market share by about 10%, it’s not difficult to see that most of today’s top candidates will come from mobile traffic. One might hastily assume that the majority of these mobile job seekers will come from the Millennial and Gen Z demographic. But, what’s surprising is that according to a Glassdoor research, 55% of jobs searched through mobile devices came from GenXers. This goes without saying that it’s not just entry-level jobs that are being searched through mobile. This trend also dictates that recruiters need to adjust the way they create job listings and ads to ensure that they are mobile-friendly. Furthermore, the interest in social recruiting grows by the day, and recruiters can maximize its potential by building a presence and becoming accessible on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 8. Focus on Retention Turnover is costly. When an employee resigns, the employer needs to pay exit