Perhaps the most glaring challenge is the talent shortage. In fact, the survey found that 95% of recruiters and HR professionals anticipate the job market to remain or become more competitive over the next year.
As a result, they are focusing on improving their quality of hire, growing their talent pipeline, improving their time to hire, increasing their retention rate, growing their employer brand, and increasing their focus on passive talent.
Today, we’ll focus on the first three recruitment priorities, and will return to cover the following three next week.
Improve your Quality of Hire
28% of recruiters and HR professionals said that improving their quality of hire was a top recruiting priority for the next year. However, 56% cite a lack of qualified talent as a key challenge, and 67% of professionals expect recruiting to get more competitive in the next year. With more competition for the few qualified candidates on the market, improving quality of hire will not be an easy task.
The 5 remaining recruitment opportunities will certainly help organizations improve their quality of hire, but a key focus area is missing – and that’s data. 72% of recruiters say data analytics is somewhat or very important in the hiring process, but we were surprised to see that it’s not one of the top opportunities for the next year.
Data should be used at all stages of the recruitment process – beginning with the job description, and ending with the offer. When creating your job description, use data to create a list of must-have skills and qualifications based on those of your top performers.
Crunch the data for each stage of your recruitment process to understand which parts of your process are more likely to predict a quality hire. Finally, utilize data to determine how to structure your job offers so you can win quality talent for your team.
Grow your Talent Pipeline
24% of recruiters and HR professionals said that growing their talent pipeline was their top recruiting priority. As the competition for talent becomes more fierce, and as time to hire continues to increase, organizations are adopting an “always on” hiring mentality to build a talent pipeline for future hiring needs.
Creating a talent pipeline consists of building up a database of talent, and nurturing them so they’re ready to speak with you when you have an open opportunity. This includes attracting active candidates through employer branding efforts, proactively sourcing top-tier talent, and – most importantly – building relationships with each candidate that comes through the metaphorical and actual, physical door.
Applicants may not be a great fit for a position that’s open right now, but may be perfect for something in the future, and passive talent may not be ready to leave their current job. By building relationships with each group, you can keep your organization top of mind and have great candidates ready to go when you have the right opportunity for them.
Improve your Time to Hire
15% of recruiters and HR professionals said that improving their time to hire was their top recruiting priority. The survey showed that only 5% of organizations make a hire within 10 days, while 30% take 11-30 days, 41% take 1-2 months, and 24% take over 2 months to make a hire.
Not only does a vacant position impact productivity, it can also cause your candidates to drop out of your recruitment process. High quality candidates, in particular, have plenty of choices about where to work – so it’s the best ones you’ll lose. In the end, a long recruitment process will prolong your search even further as you lose your top choice candidates.
To shorten your time to hire, focus on improving hiring efficiency. The survey cited hiring managers moving candidates through the hiring stages, and hiring managers reviewing resumes, as the two biggest internal bottlenecks. However, salary negotiations, recruiters scheduling interviews and recruiters performing phone screens also made the list.
