Recruitment Trends to Embrace

The pandemic has changed our world. If the word pivot is not a part of your new lexicon, it should be. 2020’s challenges have impacted recruitment for years into the future. Your clients and candidates expect new and different services from you post-pandemic. Your client companies are adapting to virtual recruiting, more accepting of remote candidates, and require diversity, equity and inclusion. You must adjust and embrace these recruitment trends to grow your opportunities, develop your skills, and provide the value the market expects in a post-pandemic world.

Virtual Recruitment

If you are not offering, suggesting and perfecting your online presentation of candidates via Zoom and other web-based conferencing tools, get on it. Many recruiters are using recordings and other video interview tools to speed feedback and decision-making. Many candidates may need coaching and practice to perform up to client expectations with these methodologies. You will need to step up and accommodate this trend shift. It is not going to leave us quickly due to speed and ease of use for candidates and clients alike. No more days off to do an interview, just record something early morning, lunchtime or in the evening. A recruitment trend that is likely to become a best practice.

Remote Candidates

Many candidates have become accustomed to working from home. A percentage of the best talent available will expect this “benefit/opportunity” moving forward. Are you challenging clients to consider listing the job opening as remote-possible? Failure to work this important trend will knock out some significant part of the talent you and your client demand. The good news is that many studies have found remote workers to be as effective as those working from traditional office settings. There are also background and referencing issues associated with documenting past performance for someone you will allow a work-from-home option. There are legal issues to navigate as these arrangements are formalized. Time to embrace this recruitment trend as things will likely never return to pre-pandemic levels of workers present at a white-collar company office.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Hoping this one does not require adoption of new practices or skills. Certainly every recruitment company and every recruiter is at a different level of proficiency on this topic. No doubt this is a recruitment trend that requires action and attention. Is your firm actively seeking diverse candidates? Are you pushing back on employers that are directing searches for defined types, ages and characteristics of candidates that are not a legitimate job requirement? You need to push back or walk away from questionable and potentially illegal practices. Diversity, equity and inclusion need to be built into your thinking for every search.

New recruitment trends can often become the baseline for recruitment done in the near future. Lou Holtz once said, “You are either growing or you are dying.” It’s time to embrace and grow your skills around these recruitment trends that very soon may be the best practice in the profession.