Pt. 1: Top 10 ‘Bleeding Edge’ Recruiting Trends to Watch in 2015

The Top 10 ‘Bleeding Edge’ Recruiting Trends to Watch in 2015

by Dr. John Sullivan

Most articles that cover recruiting trends highlight what I consider to be obvious approaches that many firms have already adopted. But my perspective on trends is unique because I am focused on what I call the “bleeding-edge trends.” These trends are unique and rare because they have been adopted by less than 5 percent of the major firms. However, they are still important for all recruiting leaders to know and watch because they signal the path that all progressive firms will eventually have to follow. The top bleeding-edge trends are listed below in an easy to scan format. 

The Top 10 Most Impactful Trends That May Surprise You

1. The shift in power to the candidate means current approaches will stop working – 83 percent of recruiters report that the power has shifted away from where it has been for years, the employer, and toward the candidate. In a candidate-driven marketplace, “active-recruiting approaches” simply stop working. Now that top candidates are in the driver’s seat, the best have multiple options, recruiting must dramatically increase hiring speed, offer a great candidate experience, and shift to an emphasis away from assessment and toward excellence in “selling candidates.” Once candidates realize that the power has shifted to them, many will develop an arrogant “why-should-I-work-for-you?” attitude, which you must adjust to if you expect to land the best.
2. The mobile platform begins to dominate every aspect of recruiting – most firms have finally figured out that individuals should be able to apply for a job directly from their mobile phones. However the best firms are now realizing that the mobile platform should dominate every area of recruiting, because of its versatility and its incredibly high response rate (compared to other communications platforms). The mobile platform should be the primary mechanism for communicating with prospects/candidates, spreading your employer brand messages, to view recruiting and job description videos, and to push relevant open jobs to applicant communities. Eventually it will be used by most to offer live Hangouts/Meetups, for candidate skill assessment, for most candidate interviews, to find referrals, and finally to allow individuals to accept job offers directly on their phone. Recruiters and hiring managers must be able to approve reqs, post jobs, post videos, review resumes, schedule interviews, and other administrative tasks from their mobile phone. Employees must be able to do all referral administration and apply for internal openings on their phone.
3. Shifting to compelling offers becomes essential – during the down economy, almost any offer was accepted. However, in today’s marketplace where top candidates get multiple offers, the offer generation process must be radically updated. That means that sign-on bonuses, exploding offers, and identifying and meeting an individual candidate’s job acceptance criteria will become essential once again. In addition, hiring managers, compensation specialists, and recruiters will need to update their skills and approaches for creating compelling offers and selling in-demand prospects and candidates. Relearning how to successfully combat counteroffers from a candidate’s current manager will also become essential.
4. Perhaps the biggest surprise will be the shortage of top recruiters – as recruiting volume and difficulty both ramp up, firms will begin to realize that there is a significant shortage of talented and currently up-to-date recruiters. Expect a bidding war over the few available top corporate recruiters. A lack of quality, leading-edge recruiter training will unfortunately also make the experienced recruiter shortage even worse.
5. Videos begin dominating recruiting messaging – Online video now accounts for 50% percent of all mobile traffic. So now that viewing videos (rather than static pictures or reading text) has become widely accepted, they must be used in every aspect of recruiting. If you’re not already using video job descriptions, videos for employer branding, video employee profiles, video job postings and video job offers, you need to realize that authentic videos are an essential supplement to all traditionally print messaging. Videos make it easier to see and feel the excitement at your firm.

The above is part 1 of 3. Part 2 of 3 will be published next time.
Thanks John for these great insights!
Ev