4 Priorities to Boost your Recruitment Process in 2021
With the events of last year, hiring saw many major transformations. These changes will seep into the way we carry out and continue to recruit job-seekers this year. In this article, dig deeper into the trends towards the recruitment process we will likely see in 2021.
With the physical limitations of the global pandemic, companies around the world who were still open to hire had to search for effective and legitimate ways to recruit for qualified candidates online. This has created ripple effects, well into the years ahead.
Hence, it is important for businesses and organisations to look carefully into their digital hiring process, particularly at the technology involved. Optimizing the candidate experience should be a priority while capitalizing in the lightning speed and efficiency which virtual recruiting offers.
Consider leveraging AI to improve your online hiring process. AI can streamline your recruiting workflow as well as high-volume tasks, using computer-driven technology and speed.
Take this situation: when a candidate applies to your company, it generates many keywords and data points. Relevant AI can organize and categorize the thousands of applications you may receive. This saves you half the time it takes to do it manually.
Chatbots can also be powered by AI. Its aim is to provide real-time interactions by asking targeted questions. Moreover, you’ll be providing your applicant with an enhanced hiring experience. This elevates your company reputation and branding.
However, the lack of physical interactions does not mean you have to forgo a meaningful conversation with a potential employee. Video interviews are an obvious alternative, but you can also look for ways to improve on communication. Two-way video calls are good for recruiters to get to know the candidate personally and actively assess their qualities.
Meanwhile, one-way video interviews speed up the hiring time by making it easier to schedule, simultaeneously reducing the risk for bias if it is a standardized process.
Candidates are no longer searching for jobs on desktops and computers- they are looking at their phones, too. Mobile recruiting is the process of finding active and passive candidates through mobile career pages, job ads, and apps. Smartrecruiters reports how almost 90% of job seekers use a mobile device to search for job opportunities. Moreover, with millennials increasing their presence in the workforce in the coming years, bet on optimising mobile apps to hire the brightest and best.
For inspiration, look to apps like Kudoz, a French job-search app where candidates use their LinkedIn to apply with a single click. Switch meanwhile, is based on machine learning algorithms. Users have a ‘drag to apply’ function that lets them apply for relevant opportunities and even lets them directly contact employees.
The jump from mobile recruitment to game-like recruitment isn’t that big either. In 2004, Google created a billboard math riddle that made waves internationally. It asked people to solve a series of equations thinking, with the chance of being hired by Google itself if you managed to get it right.
Some benefits of spicing up your recruitment process with a fun challenge include:
Look at HackerRank or Codility, whose coding tests and online programming exercises are examples of gamified recruitment that hold candidates attention and leave them (hopefully) wanting more.
While technical skills are important to get the job done, soft skills are just as important to facilitate crucial parts of the work process. Think skills like communication, adapting to unforeseen problems, persuasion, and creativity.
Notably, not only job-seekers are banking on their soft skills. Recruiters should also make sure they don’t stagnate come 2021. LinkedIn’s report indicates that personal development is the fastest growing skill for recruiters, which demonstrates the ability to add new skills into your repertoire.
The year of 2020 saw not only the onset of Covid-19, but also large-scale social movements that reverberated across the world. For instance, Black Lives Matter in the United States became an international talking point.
Businesses took to social media to publicly express their support for those in the community- thus establishing the direction for cultural diversity not only in living spaces, but in the market and industry too.
To prevent greater diversity and inclusion in your organisation from becoming merely buzzwords and a ‘feel-good’ initiative, businesses can look into expanding their available talent pool to allow candidates greater access from underrepresented communities.
As recruiters, you can also look at restructuring the recruitment process currently maintained to reduce inherent bias.
Are you looking to implement any of these in your recruitment process? Let us know in the comments!
