5 Key Recruiter Action Points Before 2014

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Businesswoman stepping up a stairway LinkedIn has just released their 3rd Annual Recruiting Trends Survey,which surveyed over 3,300 talent acquisition leaders in 19 countries to find out their views, thoughts and fears around hiring and budget trends and how to find quality hires. They analyzed this big data bundle and uncovered five key hiring trends that recruiters and strategic resourcing professionals all over the world should know about, and you can find these below, along with five key resulting action points for recruiters in 2014. These were:

1. Social professional networks soon to be the most important source of quality hires

Their research revealed that social networks are the second most important source-of-hire according to 37 percent of those surveyed, (1 percentage point behind internet job boards in first place). But, it was the trend that was most important here, as there has been an 11 percent rise since 2012 compared to an overall 1 percent rise in importance across the other nine sources of hire.

The message here is that by 2014, social media should be the most important source of quality hiresassuming current trends continueand ideally organizations should be both introducing and or reviewing their social media hiring strategy now, so you have programs ready to fully exploit social media hiring in 2014.

2. Employer branding has become both a competitive threat and advantage

An overwhelming 83 percent of employers believe employer branding has a significant impact on their ability to hire great talent.

So, what’s the action point here? Of course you need to up the stakes on your employer branding initiatives; you don’t need me to tell you that.

But one area of branding where you can innovate is by linking marketing and HR, or in particular, linking consumer brand to employer brand. Consider larger employers, such as Intel and IBM, that have already started using their consumer brand to boost their employer brand by including employees in their TV adverts.

This approach of linking consumer brand to employer brand is an approach that  can and should be followed by smaller employers too. You can do this by featuring your most engaged and brand resonant employees in multimedia advertorial presentations throughout your website and social media outlets, such as LinkedIn, YouTube and Slideshare. Let your own employees advertise the consumer brand (products and services) and at the same time promote the employer brand.

3. Big Data usage is growing

I am guessing that many talent management professionals were hoping that the confusing and arcane world of HR Big Data would wither away and die. There is not much chance of that, as although just 23 percent of companies are using big data to make a hiring decision, that is an 8 percent increase from last year. Interest in big data hiring is a growing and sustained trend and is not going away. My key action point here is to take action, and at the very least, hire a cost effective Big Data intern to come in and start capturing, grinding and reporting on HR data today to start building the momentum to get into the game.

4. Hiring internally

Ninety-two percent of employers are increasing their investment in internal hiring to increase engagement, career advancement and retention. Other studies show that internal applicants outperform external hires, so its win-win.

My key action points here are not only to have transparent career pathways and ensure new roles are advertised internally, but to introduce a new metric relating to internal career mobility to see how effective your organization is at developing careers.

5. Not investing enough in mobile

Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed believe their organizations are not investing enough in mobile friendly ways to find, manage and nurture talent. The action point here is to introduce or actively develop your mobile talent strategy to better engage with the majority of candidates who now use mobile to learn about opportunities and to apply for jobs. It’s a mindset change. It’s not just that candidates use mobile, it’s that they themselves are mobile and out and about when they are learning about and maybe even applying for roles. Devise strategies to engage with the mindset of candidates who are on the move, which is time pressurized, curious and video hungry.

By Kazim Ladimeji