Welcome back! What better way to kick off our blog for 2018 than to reflect on some predictions that I made way back in 2015 about recruitment and talent. In the early days of starting our blog I shared my thoughts on what 2015 would hold for job seekers, businesses attracting top talent and the recruitment industry in general. So did I get it right or did I miss the mark?
I quite enjoyed reading back over my blog from January 2015, Ange’s Recruitment and Talent Predictions for 2015. I love looking at and reflecting on what’s happened in the industry over time and what may lay ahead. In many ways there has been many significant changes in the industry and on the other hand some things haven’t changed at all.
To recap, my predictions for 2015 were:
- 2015 is the year of the candidate
- The Rise of Video Interviewing
- The increase in Engaging and Networking with Potential Employees
- The trend towards the creative application and resume
- The significant link between Employer Branding and Recruitment
In my opinion, 2015 was the year of the candidate and every year since has also been the year of the candidate. Unemployment is low and there are skills shortages across many industries and professions, not just in Ballarat but Australia wide. Top talent is becoming harder and harder to find so if you are job seeker that can offer something different or something more to the next person doing the same job you are in demand. While typically we are receiving huge volumes of applications for most jobs the skills and expertise aren’t there to support those applications. This increase in volume has also been driven by technology – never has it been easier to hit the apply now button and shoot off an application – even if you haven’t even read the job advert. If you are a job seeker who is prepared to go the extra mile and make an effort with your research, your application and interview preparation you will be standing out from the crowd. 2018 will continue to be the year of the candidate.
Video Interviewing. I think I got this one wrong. While Video Interviewing seems to have taken off a little more in capital cities and metro areas I’m yet to see much happening in this space at a regional level. The big national and international companies seem to be the ones making the most of this technology. There is plenty of opportunity I believe for video interviews, particularly for companies who are volume recruiting for the one position. Where video has made the biggest impact on the recruitment scene is through video adverts for jobs. The stats on video are scary; by 2020 video will account for over ¾ of mobile usage – Socialnomics. Adverts are where the recruitment industry has jumped on board and it seems to be paying off; video is resulting in more views of job adverts and increased quality of applications. Maybe video adverts will result in the demise of the text job advert that sells that exciting opportunity, that dynamic team and all those other cliché job advert over used terms.
The businesses that really get talent attraction and understand the challenges of recruiting in a skills short market are moving ahead in leaps and bounds in their engagement and networking with potential employees. Then there are other businesses who simply don’t appreciate the engaging and networking value. If you use a recruiter, this is where I think they now give you the biggest advantage. If your recruiter is simply doing what you could do; posting adverts on online job boards and waiting for the applications to come, you need to have a serious conversation with them about the value they add to your business. This one links very closely to the year of the candidate. The harder the skills to find the more important the engaging and networking. It’s about building relationships now so you have a ready made talent pool when you are ready to recruit.
This one is probably where we have seen the most advancement. The trend towards the creative resume and application. While we still get plenty of the traditional resume templates, those candidates that are willing to make the extra effort (see the year of the candidate paragraph) are the ones that are leading the way. From flipping the traditional resume on it’s head to video applications that are about telling your story, the future of the job application isn’t just about your skills and experience it’s about you and what you stand for, your why and why this job that you are applying for. In 2017 Inspire HQ offered for the first time the option to submit a video application. It takes courage to do a video application but be bold and put yourself out there – you’ll reap the reward.
The link between Employer Branding and Recruitment – more and more businesses are starting to get this concept. Of course it ties in closely with engaging and networking. It’s a very different approach to recruitment and I’m surprised at how many meetings I attend now to take a job brief or to provide advice about how to recruit for a particular role and someone from the marketing department is in attendance. While we haven’t recruited for a Recruitment Brand Manager just yet I predict it won’t be far away. Maybe I was a little forward thinking in my 2015 prediction for this theme but I promise you, Recruitment Brand Managers will eventually make their way to Ballarat.
If you are interested in hearing my predications for 2018 look out for next week’s blog and if you have any of your own observations on the changes you are seeing in this space, please feel free to share, this die-hard recruiter would love to hear about them.
