Recruitment trends to look out for in 2018 - Bowen Eldridge Recruitment

By Alan J. McDonald

Easy access to the internet makes information readily available at any time and therefore there is more competition than ever when it comes to recruiters attracting the right employees to their business.

McDonald Murholme Senior Associate Bianca Mazzarella, comments on the up and coming recruitment trends that are predicted to boom in 2018.

Recruitment trends to look out for in 2018 – Bowen Eldridge Recruitment

From how we make purchases, to how we watch TV, and even how we apply for jobs; the world as we know it is constantly evolving, and this is something that is being reflected in the emerging recruitment trends for 2018 and beyond.

Due to the internet making information readily available at our fingertips, people now expect different things from the job ads they apply for, as well as how they undertake the general recruitment process. Additionally, with the level of unemployment in the UK currently at an all-time low, there’s now more competition than ever when it comes to attracting the right employees to your business.

However, data protection and security will also be considerable concerns when hiring new employees in 2018, and this is due to the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that will be introduced in May. However, it isn’t enough to simply be aware of the new guidelines; you’ll also be prepared for the impact they could have on recruitment and Human Resources.

Warwick Peel Chief Executive Officer at New Economy Directors (NED), adds: “As a recruiter of two decades, I am now recruiting C-level and Non-Executives for boards.

“Recruitment trends in the board director market are rapidly changing. In 2017, across the US, 50% of director appointments onto S&P500 company boards have never been in the boardroom. With major emerging risks including cybersecurity and climate risk, as well as artificial intelligence and technology, boards are recruiting tech savvy and digital mindsets as well as expert advisors to their boards.

“While recruitment trends might be shifting in regards to DevOps, scrum masters and agile, A.I, and VR/AR, and emerging technologies across employment markets, the same applies in regards to the significant changes in the boardroom recruitment trends. If the biggest companies in the world is any indicator, 2018 will see the emergence of the changing of the guard in the boardrooms across Australia too.”

From knowing the importance of selling your company and being aware of the new security guidelines, to utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI), here are the top recruitment trends to look out for in 2018…

Advertise your company, not just the job

When applying for a role, after the salary and location, the first thing a candidate will read is your job advert and specification. This means that it should provide a clear image of your company’s culture from the get-go, and contain as much detail about the job role and its responsibilities to ensure you attract the right type of applicants.

However, although candidates need to be fully aware of what the role entails, the hiring process is no longer just about them selling themselves to you in the hope of being invited to an interview; you also need to sell the role and your wider company to them. With there being so much competition between businesses to secure the right talent for their workforce, you need to be competitive to stand out from the crowd and ensure they choose you.

The solution? Shout about what makes your business great in the job ad. For example, if you can offer flexibility in working hours, the ability to work from home, or your workplace focuses heavily on your workers’ personal and professional development, make this very clear, as these are all highly valuable in today’s workforce. In fact, 85% of young workers admit that they’d rather work from home than a traditional office environment, while 70% feel that a job would be more attractive to them if it offered flexible working as a perk.

Not only that, but with it now being the norm for workers to hold between 10 – 15 jobs in their lifetime, with 12 being the average, opportunities for development will be a driving factor in attracting new staff and retaining them.

Additionally, a great way to determine what will attract job seekers to your company is by asking for internal feedback from your employees, and this practice is also becoming more prevalent to enhance staff engagement. Although this can be used for job adverts, internal feedback can also be an effective tool for staff retention, provided you have taken steps to implement their suggestions. Remember, a happy workforce speaks volumes to new employees!

Be ready for the impact of GDPR

The new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will come into effect in May 2018, replacing the existing Data Protection Laws and standardising rules across the UK and EU. As this will give applicants better control over how their personal data is used, hiring managers and human resources managers will need to be aware of the effect this will have on the recruitment process.

Linda Simonsen  CEO & Founder at FuturePeople , a leading Australian company in the talent acquisition space, based in Sydney, Australisa. “With Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and smarter technologies continuing to disrupt HR and recruitment as we know it, data protection is key to ensuring an international framework. Where GDPR is concerned, recruiters need to be proactive and up their data protection game to not be overtaken by the rest of the world, or slapped with a million-dollar fine. For recruiters, this will mean becoming agile and learning how to become savvy with compliance and storing client data before regulation comes into effect in May 2018.”

As an example, GDPR will soon require you to provide information on how personal will be processed (or used), how long it will be retained by your company for, and if the data will be transferred overseas. As CVs contain personal information, this will directly affect how recruiters use these documents, and we wouldn’t be surprised if over time, CVs have less and less personal data included on them.

However, it’s not all bad news; a positive impact of GDPR will be job creation for Data Protection Officers (or a similar role within organisations). As this person will be ultimately responsible for the collection, retention, use and third-party distribution of personal data on employees and other contacts the business works with, the Data Protection Officer will be accountable for the organisations handling of personal data, so it’s vital that the right candidates are chosen for these roles, if they were to arise. Although the employment market will has not yet be fully tested, these should be skilled and well-paid jobs.

Additionally, depending on the impact of GDPR when it comes into effect next year, hiring managers may no longer be able to vet applicants’ social media profiles as part of the hiring process. Earlier this year, EU data protection agencies published guidelines that employers should have a legal justification to view personal social media profiles, and this is something that could be included in the new GDPR.

Utilise social media and Artificial Intelligence

Although employers and recruiters may no longer be able to review candidates’ personal social media profiles when GDPR comes into effect in May, we predict that social media will still be heavily utilised in the hiring process.

According to statistics from 2015, 40% of LinkedIn members use the mobile app to find job vacancies, and in 2017, it was reported that there are approximately 3 million active job listings on the platform. These statistics, combined with the fact that fellow social media network, Facebook, introduced their own “Jobs” section to their platform earlier this year, suggest that this is one of the recruitment trends we can expect to become more prevalent in 2018.

LinkedIn, already the dominant social domain for recruitment and professionals will be still be utilised, albeit in a less formal way.  Senior Associate –  Bianca Mazzarella of Mcdonald Murholme, Employment Law Solicitors predicts an increase in “HR / recruitment staff members advertising job openings on their personal LinkedIn pages. This would allow jobs to be promoted to those who either have an interest in that organisation or that particular staff members career. This form of recruiting would then allow connections to share the job post to those interested in their circle. This allows the job to have more exposure to those particularly interested.”

In terms of technology, another trend will be the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the hiring process. This is already being utilised by brands like Unilever, who have tested screening candidates for entry-level positions. This involves playing neuroscience-based games, and answering questions. As Business Insider UK explains, the technology analyses candidates’ keywords, intonation, and body language to assess their suitability for the role.

According to Unilever, this technology has enabled them to hire its “most diverse class to date”. Thus, with AI removing unconscious bias by filtering candidates based solely on their skills and performance, we predict that AI use in the hiring process is only going to become more prevalent next year.

Linda Simonsen, adds further comments advising “Future-ready businesses will harness technology to tap into the talent pool and recruit for Emotionally Intelligent staff. Sophisticated recruitment technology may include candidate journey mapping, and leveraging Big Data, which can determine high performer profiles. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics can also be used to ascertain an employee’s future tenure and performance. ”

Ujwal from InterviewBuddy.in says: “More and more companies, businesses, staffing agencies, and even universities and colleges are shifting to intelligent video-based hiring. This is because one common caveat faced by companies and staffing agencies during recruitment is the impersonation. The person completing the written assessment or attending the telephonic or video interview via conventional video communications platform (like Skype) is different from that of the actual hire.

James Jennings, Co-Founder & Director of Sourcr, a recruitment technology platform, backs this up stating “There will be a greater use of automated screening tools, such as gamified tests or video interviews, to deal with the ever-increasing number of applications. In the future I think you’ll be unlikely to speak to a human until the later rounds of interviews.”

“To overcome this pitfall, platforms like InterviewBuddy.in have developed an intelligent video analytics based simple cloud video platform where every assessment and interview is auto-recorded and stored to let the stakeholders know who the actual hire is going to be across all the departments. Moreover, the platform offers an AI-based sentiment, emotion & facial analytics features which are highly sort after for crucial and senior level hires and comes handy to complement human judgment.”

 Reference: Recruitment trends to look out for in 2018, Bowen Eldridge Recruitment, 15.12.17