The New Rules for the 2015 Recruiter

2015 is almost upon us, and with it will come challenges to test the skills of even the most experienced recruiters. Nearly 80 percent of companies say their biggest talent acquisition challenge is a critical shortage of the skills they need to achieve corporate objectives, according to a new Aberdeen Group report.  The new year calls for fresh thinking and an innovative approach to solving this issue. Your hiring outcomes will depend on your ability to learn and adapt to these new rules for progressive talent acquisition:

Break Out of the Rut

• Look further: Indeed.com’s Hiring Lab found that places with the greatest number of job postings attract the most people from outside. In the U.S., 27.8 percent of people are actively searching for a job in another state; globally, 9.1 percent of people are searching for jobs in another country. Take this opportunity to extend your reach geographically to find the skilled candidates you need. With video interviewing technology, you can access that larger pool of talent without expanding your travel budget.
• Work differently: Recruiting is no longer a 9-to-5 job. People who are currently employed need flexibility for job hunting after hours, on weekends, and whenever they can fit it into their schedules. As passive candidates become a larger recruitment focus, you’ll need to expand your accessibility to meet their needs. Mobile technology, including video interviewing by mobile phone, can help you make your schedule more responsive and still help you achieve work-life balance.

Embrace Technology to Create Transparency and Open Communication
One of the key findings revealed by the Talent Board’s 2014 CandE Award research on more than 95,000 job candidates is that open communication and transparency during the hiring process are critical. Candidates want the high level of communication and frequent touch points that CandE Award-winning companies have built into their hiring processes. Seek out technology that enhances communication. The winning combination is when you can both automate and personalize the outreach. Transparency and communication does not have to mean slow and manual. Many HR-technology platforms purpose-built for hiring were designed for these types of interactions, offering speed, engagement, and ease of use.

Enhance Your Mobile Hiring Experience

Though mobile recruiting has generated plentiful media attention, the latest Corporate Mobile Readiness Report by iMomentous indicates most Fortune 500 companies still don’t have a cohesive mobile recruiting strategy. With so many candidates using mobile phones for job hunting, this gap leads to a fragmented candidate experience.  It’s essential that all aspects of your hiring process — from attracting seekers on your responsive-design career website to your interviews — are mobile-enabled. Secret-shop your hiring experience using mobile to identify the gaps in your process and areas for improvement.

Look Inside to Look Outside

Companies with engaged workers have significantly higher productivity, profitability, and customer ratings, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report. These are the employees with the skills and initiative to raise the performance bar, so look to this workforce segment when hiring from within. There’s also another way to leverage this segment: use the “Like Attracts Like” rule. Ask them to refer their friends and associates to your organization. Use them as part of the hiring team on virtual or on-premise interviews. They’re well-positioned to identify and engage potential top performers just like themselves.

As these trends overlap and progress, they will continue to shape a new recruiting environment. What will you do differently in 2015 to succeed?