Did you know that the recruitment we know today was originated as a product of World War II? During such a period a lot can change, and recruitment is no exception. Whether it is the recruitment processes, tools, or employees themselves. With the modernized and advancing world digitalization. And a new Generation X which currently forms a large part of the people who constantly seek new job opportunities, change within hiring is gaining momentum. And we are here to help you bring your recruitment process into the 21st century.
The history of the recruitment
As we mentioned before, recruitment we know nowadays was first established during World War II. There were a lot of free vacancies left behind by the departed soldiers, that needed to be fulfilled by the new workers. And this situation created a foundation for the “birth” of staffing agencies. But the staffing agencies did not end their operation after the War, they continued to find work for the men and women who were returning from their military service.
The beginning of resumés
The article by Perelson made it clear, the following decade belonged to the resumés. Recruiters were focusing on linking the right candidates with the right jobs. If we compare the process with the one, we have today, we can all imagine there was a huge difference. Before, staffing companies needed to follow job ads in the newspapers, and candidates needed to submit their resumés by hand or mail.
When it comes to recruiters, they needed to keep track of non-digital resumés. But there are several different recruitment methods that were used and popularized during the following decades. We made a blog post based on a meta-analysis by Schmidt & Hunter (1998), that talks about the recruitment methods and their ability to predict future job performance based on the 85 years of research.
The (new) era
As we mentioned at the beginning, the world started to change. The computers and applicant tracking systems (ATS) came into the game, and the hiring process suddenly became faster and easier.
The birth of Worldwide web and Social media
With the web that started to reach all possible corners of the world, recruiters were able to move from local recruitment to hiring employees worldwide. And of course, social media enabled them to widen their reach and target more and more possible employees, again on a worldwide scale.
The recruitment process became faster and easier for everybody, recruiters were using databases to find the right employees, and on the other hand, candidates were able to submit their resumés online from the comfort of their homes.
The change
We can all agree that the development of the recruitment sphere is a good thing. But there are other problems that emerge from this huge change. For instance, talent shortage, bad hires, and a highly competitive environment. Let us take a closer look.
Talent shortage
Korn Ferry conducted a study, that shows that there will be a talent shortage of more than 85 million people by the year 2030. And why is that? It is important for companies to build their own talent pool, and as well as to give all candidates the opportunity to showcase their full potential and talents.
Some of the recruitment methods can limit your diversity and candidate pool. Using biases in recruitment is, unfortunately, a common thing and there is a lot of tools nowadays that will help you and your company to eliminate the usage of bias.
For instance, let’s talk about anonymous recruitment. Innoflow is a software company based on anonymous case-based recruitment. The thing is that candidates will submit nothing else, but their solution and they will be evaluated based on their current skills, abilities, and knowledge.
Some people simply do not have the skills for writing excellent resumés and some of them might include false information. As a result, your company might be losing a talented employee due to the resumés that do not match the requirements of the ATS tools being used.
Avoiding bad hire and keep the good one
Did you know that the approximate cost of one bad hire is around 15,000$? According to the article by Career Builder, the cost of losing one good hire is up to 30,000$. Bringing your recruitment process into the 21st century and using all the perks which this decade has to offer, you can target, reach, and test the right and qualified candidates for your open job position in order to avoid a bad hire.
Organizations which put a solid plan into development are likely not only to attract but also retain competent candidates. Candidates feel comfortable and safe where the organization supports them. (Holbeche, 2004)
Competitive environment
Lack of talent, the different mindsets of employees, etc., contribute to the growing competition in the recruitment market. Therefore, it is important for companies to attract and keep their talents and employees. And how can it be done? By building your employer brand and knowing your target group.
Why should you make your recruitment up to date?
As you can see, we named a few points that are the problems and challenges of the modern world recruitment. Your recruitment is more than a well-written job post. You need to focus on way more things than that.
Attracting the right candidates, avoiding bad hires, and avoiding losing the good ones is a product of continuous progress and work. Keeping your recruitment modern is a way how to do it. You need to consider how to target the candidates you need. For instance, there is a difference between how to approach the older generations and the modern generation X.
Why use what the 21st century has to offer? The answer is simple. There is no quicker, easier, and impactful way to reach and attract many potential employees if you use the right methods and tools.
You need to keep up with the change in order to succeed.
How to bring your recruitment process into the 21st century?
Use what the modern age has to offer. Let’s take a closer look at how to make the most out of it.
Understand and analyse your target group
As the blog post by Business stated, people who were not old enough to work ten years ago, now make up much of the workforce. Generation X are people under the age of 30. They are considered as “the first truly global generation”. What does it mean for recruiters?
This generation was introduced and exposed to a digital sphere from early childhood. The variety of the courses and information that have been accessible to them is incomparable to the generation before. Therefore, it is important for you to analyse the current workforce. Who do I want to target? Where are they active the most? Is it Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.? What wording should you use? How to attract them?
Writing a job post without digital visualizations, emojis or hashtags will not catch the eye of that many people. As well as posting into every possible channel if the right candidates you are looking for are not present on that concrete platform.
That moves us to another section about the usage of social media, and how to choose the right ones for you and your recruitment.
Use Social Media channels
The rise in technology and social media has made it easier and quicker to access a huge number of people. On the other hand, you need to make sure to target the candidates you want. And with this number of various social media sites, it might be harder for you to find and choose the sites you need.
While deciding which social media platforms to use, ask yourself the following questions:
How do you want to present yourself?
Using social media is one of the best ways how to showcase and promote your employer brand to the people. And what has employer brand to do with the recruitment? The answer is everything. Most of the candidates visit social media channels of the companies before applying for the job to find out more about their culture, values, office life, etc.
Using social media and building your employer brand is not a short-term commitment. Look at your long-term goals when it comes to building your employer brand. That will help you answer this question as well as the ones below.
Where can you find your target audience?
While looking at the variety of available social media sites, do not only pay attention to the number of active users. Why? For instance, According to the article by Hiring Workopolis, Facebook has more than 1.7 billion active users. But how many users come from your target group? As mentioned before, you need to know your target audience to be successful in your strategy.
What platforms are used by your competitors?
Learning about your competitors can bring a new perspective to your recruiting strategy. Knowing where and how they recruit may help you to find out more about your target audience. You will be able to see how they engage, react, respond, etc.
Which sites are best suited for the posts you want to make?
Firstly, every social media page has a different format when it comes to the “perfect” content. Secondly, you need to look into your content calendar. What kind of content are you planning to share? Is it links to webinars, podcasts? Photos from your everyday office life? Based on this you will be able to determine which direction to go.
And do not forget to be efficient. There are many available tools that will help you save your precious time. For instance, Buffer. Buffer allows you to connect your other social media sites to the platform, and it enables you to schedule and publishes your content automatically from one place.
Make your process mobile-friendly
Did you know that, according to the article by Jobcast, 72% of active candidates say they have viewed a company career site on their mobile phone? And that, 30% of mobile users abandon sites after 6-10 seconds if they are not mobile friendly?
Imagine somebody who is seeing your job ad online. Ask yourself, what would they like to do with it?
Maybe they want to share the open job position with a friend or complete the application process, and they expect all of this to be done on their mobile device.
Make it visually appealing
As we mentioned at the beginning, a simple post without any visuals, emojis or other addons will hardly catch the eye of a browsing user. Use what the 21st century has to offer, go with videos, photos, gifs, animated content, and other posts that will represent your company and your employer brand, and at the same time, catch the attention and create engagement.
There are many available tools that will help you create amazing content. For instance, Canva, where you can create everything from images, animated posts to videos, and much more.
Make it accessible to everyone
We all know that diversity of your workplace is one of the key factors of success. And to make it work, you need to make sure your recruitment is accessible to everyone. Think about screen reader compatibility, use video captions, include alt-text attributes to your content, think about colour contrast, etc.
By making your website and product accessible, you are widening your talent pool, and making sure that everybody will have a decent user experience. You can team up with third-party providers such as Equalweb, which is a world accessibility solution, that will help you implement Al solutions powering accessibility.
The world is changing, and so is recruitment. Keeping up with those changes and bringing your recruitment into the 21st century brings many benefits to not only your recruitment but to your company in general. Finding the right candidates, building your talent pool, keeping the talent, building your employer brand, spreading awareness, all of those and much more are the perks modernization can bring to your business.
Everything starts with research and planning. Detailed mapping of your own strategy, target audience, competitors, etc., will help you set the foundation and determine the best direction for your 21st centurial recruitment. Appreciate the offerings that the 21st century has brought to us, and do not be afraid to make the most out of it.
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