We recently released the 2021 Recruiter Nation Report with responses from over 800 recruiters discussing their priorities, challenges, and trends for the upcoming year. This year’s data painted a picture many talent acquisition (TA) leaders know all too well – a candidate-driven market that’s driving recruiters to burnout as they’re tasked with increasing pressure to fill positions as fast as possible.
As we move into 2022, it’s clear that recruiting teams need help and are looking to their leadership to invest in their recruiting processes. As a TA leader, here’s where you can help improve the efficiency of your team and reduce stress.
Candidate and employee experience are key
The labor market today is centered around candidate and recruiter experience through the entire hiring process. In a time of high turnover and increased hiring, recruiters are more stressed than ever before trying to fill roles with qualified candidates. In fact, 65% of recruiters reported that their stress had increased at least some over the last year. And these short-staffed companies need happy recruiters to carry out an effective recruiting strategy.
TA leaders should focus on both the candidate and recruiter experience by simplifying the application process, adding automation and AI tools for recruiters, expanding DEI hiring efforts, and improving onboarding practices. These strategies can be used to improve valuable recruiting metrics:
• Quality of hire
• Hiring manager satisfaction
• Retention-of-hire rate
• Time-to-hire
There’s (still) a shortage of qualified talent
Even though The Great Resignation is leading to a record number of employees leaving their current jobs for more competitive offers, there’s still a shortage of qualified talent in the market. Candidate expectations for employers are at an all-time high, and they are waiting to find a company to meet their needs rather than taking the first offer that comes in. TA leaders need to get agile and adjust their screening process in order to find suitable candidates.
Companies are competing for top talent – and those that don’t adapt to this ever-evolving workforce will continue to have trouble attracting the right candidates. One of the biggest concerns for recruiters in hiring top candidates over the next year is the ability to provide remote work flexibility. 60% of recruiters believed that their organizations will lose their high-quality employees if they don’t transition to a remote-first work model.
Recruiters also reported that candidates are attracted to employers with things like remote work flexibility (44%), ability to negotiate salary (73%), organization DEI programs (49%), and benefits like medical and dental coverage (51%). It will be crucial to push for these perks in order to snag top candidates from competitors.
Agility will save your team time and effort
The best TA teams have adapted to this new labor market by adopting an agile recruiting strategy. Agility in recruiting allows teams to remain flexible and adapt as the market changes. 78% of recruiters reported that their priorities shifted over the last year – and agility helps teams quickly adjust. But agility isn’t just about being flexible and shifting priorities.
TA teams are combining technology and strategies to improve their recruiting process and hire top talent. Automation and AI are available to help teams source and match candidates, write inclusive job descriptions, make job recommendations, and more.
Here are just a few tools you can use to easily communicate with candidates and meet their expectations:
Text messaging – 60% of recruiters believe that texting is an effective way to engage and communicate with applicants during the recruiting process. By incorporating automated texting into your strategy, you can easily reduce frustrating delays in sourcing, screening, and even scheduling interviews.
Chatbots – Chatbots can also take care of stressful, manual processes and help recruiting teams automatically engage with talent on their career sites. In fact, many modern recruiters use chatbots to screen applicants (50%), schedule interviews (53%), and even take employee referrals (44%).
Social media – TA teams are seeing success with sourcing and engaging candidates on social media. Recruiters use social sites to post job openings (66%), reach passive talent (47%), build an employer brand (57%), and learn about candidates (30%).
Step up budgets to support agile recruiting strategies
The past year brought all types of changes to recruiting teams everywhere, and budgets were cut to as hiring halted. Now, companies have ramped up hiring and are looking to compete for the best candidates with a strong employer brand and value proposition. And that means an increased budget for recruiting activities.
An impressive 64% of recruiters reported that they expect budgets to increase over the next 6-12 months. Here are the top sources they plan to invest in for 2022.
• Social media (51%)
• LinkedIn (39%)
• Employee referrals (37%)
• Job boards (34%)
• Virtual hiring and recruiting (34%)
Final thoughts
Looking for more insights on the 2021 Recruiter Nation report? Be sure to read 4 Recruiting Trends to Watch for 2022 and watch the Recruiter Nation Report Webinar to hear how recruiters are getting agile to drive success. And don’t forget to subscribe to our blog and resource library to get the latest trends and priorities in recruiting.