Key hiring trends for 2020
17th Jan 2020
As technology continues to advance, we have to continue to adapt. We can all agree that AI is here and not necessarily an emerging trend anymore. What is emerging is how businesses use AI and technology to maximise hiring processes and employee retention long-term. So, if AI is no longer a trend for 2020, what should hiring managers be focusing on for the year to come?
New-collar rush?
In recent years, employers have been challenged with a skills gap. As the number of available jobs continues to increase at a rapid pace, the educational system is not able to keep up with the demands of today’s workplace. This is unfortunately costing the UK business £4.4bn each year. The solution? 2020 is the year for the ongoing recruiting trend for new-collar hires.
New-collar employees are individuals who have a blended background and possess both the technical and soft skills needed to succeed, especially in the digital industry. Those skills are usually developed through non-traditional education paths such as job apprentices, internships, community college partnerships, software boot camps, etc. and not necessarily a university degree. Such skill development programs will help employers fill the jobs and minimise the skills gap.
Companies like Google, Apple or Netflix have already made the shift and have dropped degree requirements in their hiring processes. Now, just because they’re dropped degree requirements, doesn’t mean they’ve lowered their standards. Kelli Jordan, director of IBM career and skills, explains in an interview that IBM has turned to utilising skills tests to assess whether candidates have the right skills to succeed in a given role. In order to fully take advantage of the skills testing, IBM customises these tests to ensure the candidate measurements are accurate and ready to be used on the job. These skill tests also assist in objective hiring and minimising bias in hiring decisions.
Pivotal Recommendations:
- Shift your strategy and hire for new-collar jobs - look beyond the CV and seek potential over experience - this is now more valuable than ever!
- Focus on the skills. Create a list of skills necessary for successful execution of the role and look for those traits in the future candidate.
- Build close relationships with your recruitment partners. Maximise accuracy in measuring candidate skillsets and minimise bias in hiring.
Say no to bias
Along the lines of a topic more frequently talked about in 2019 - diversity and inclusion - 2020 is all about modernising the interview process and placing increasing emphasis and strategic efforts towards incorporating employee diversity and inclusion at your workplace.
Research from Yale University shows that interviewees are judged based on their social status just seconds after they begin speaking. Even during the briefest interactions, a person’s speech pattern can shape a hiring manager’s perception of them, from gender bias to racial bias. Such interactions in traditional interviews can unfortunately lead to flawed measures of candidates’ potential. Thankfully, hiring managers are taking action in 2020 and shifting their focus towards building a more diverse and inclusive workforce through objective interviewing processes.
Pivotal Recommendations:
- Team-based hiring. Involve more people in the hiring process to help limit the impact of one interviewer’s potential bias.
- Consider having a diverse interview panel, this way multiple perspectives can be analysed.
- Ensure your recruitment partners have strong diversity and inclusion practices and policies.
The future relies on mobile and social media
Treading the digital footprint, we will see a growing interest in social media recruiting in 2020. Non-traditional sources like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and other social media platforms are increasingly attracting and inviting candidates to search and apply for jobs. In fact, 79% of job-seekers are actively using social media to do their job searching. Not only does social media recruiting offer extensive and easy access, but also offers the opportunity for one-on-one engagement - making potential candidates feel valued and cared for.
Companies have realised that candidates most commonly arrive to their job portals via their mobile device. This means that effective marketing techniques will need to be adapted to upkeep with the modern day trends and getting potential candidates to actually apply will be pivotal to remain competitive. This works both ways. Hiring managers can also effectively use social media networks to proactively search for potential candidates themselves and easily engage with them. Social media recruiting is especially successful in helping hiring managers attract and recruit passive candidates or individuals not actively job searching. As the world becomes more reliant on mobile devices, we predict employers to be investing more resources in mobile-friendly candidate experiences.
Pivotal Recommendations:
- Social media recruitment is today’s most powerful hiring strategy. Hiring managers need to ensure their jobs ads are easily accessible on various platforms and devices and in various formats.
- How to get candidates to apply? Engaging with candidates on the go - streamlining mobile job application flow, making use of mobile apps, and texting with potential candidates will take you a long way.
- Taking advantage of tools like Glassdoor or LinkedIn “Easy Apply” buttons to make it easier for mobile users to apply.
Choosing where to work is one of the most significant decisions in a person’s life. The recruitment tech today is doing a good job at assisting people with finding their best possible career opportunity but there is always room for improvement!
We’re here to help find the best career opportunities out there. View all of our available roles here. Or get in touch here, we’d love to help!