7 Recruitment Tips From Hiring Leaders You’ll Want to Listen to

A lot has changed in the recruitment process since the onset of COVID-19. It has evolved, and it must continue to in order to keep up with the tech advances the world is making. 7 experts shared with us, at different points in time, the recruitment tips that will help you ace your game.

Recruitment has moved online, redeployment of internal talent has become a mainstream function, and skills-based hiring is gaining further momentum as the gig economy becomes prominent. While the human aspect of the recruitment function must remain intact – in fact, it should be more empathetic – the tech aspect of it needs further attention.

Let’s say this once again – not investing or keeping up with recruitment tech is no longer a choice. If you want to dodge the curveballs this crisis will throw at you every day, and you want to stay in the race [not even ahead], you will need to pay attention to these recruitment tips hiring experts have shared with us.

7 Critical Recruitment Tips That Demand Your Attention

In exclusive interviews with us, the following leaders shared from their experience and foresight what they think is vital to the recruiting process now and how it will evolve in the future. Let’s take a look.

1. Preemployment assessments are critical for your hiring decisions

Currently there are more layoffs than hires. But hiring has not stopped altogether. “As the pandemic winds down and eventually passes, however, countless companies will begin rebuilding their teams – and millions of candidates will apply for these open positions,” says Brad Chambers, global head of talent acquisition solutions at BTS.

The pandemic has also created several roles that didn’t exist earlier, and hiring for these roles is a challenge. Why? Because they require a combination of skills rather than a specific type of education. Using pre-employment assessments can help identify these skills.

 

“In such a congested climate, it’s unrealistic to rely on interviews as your first line of defense. Instead, a preemployment assessment can help your business ensure that only the best, most qualified candidates make it to the interview stage.”

Learn More: Facial Analysis Technology: Do Recruiters Really Need It?

2. Learn how to hire remote talent, or someone else will scoop up the best

We went remote overnight, and we’re going to stay remote. It’s working for most of us, and businesses finally realize that not only can they be successful with their workforce, but they can also now access talent all over the world and successfully work with them.

“With all the potential opportunities that accompany remote work, the battle for talent will soon be hitting hyperdrive,” says Dustin Burgess, SVP, strategy, analytics, & metrics, PRO Unlimited, contingent workforce management provider.

“Global companies will now be competing with local ‘Mom and Pop’ suppliers that once had the market cornered for specific skills in certain geographies. Even if a company decides to keep its workforce on-site, it will be competing with other companies willing to hire remote workers,” he adds. “Given this new all-inclusive playing field, it’s imperative that organizations deploy effective strategies to communicate their position on remote talent and how they’ll attract this talent (if applicable).”

“To this end, strongly consider partnering with an experienced MSP [managed services provider] to better navigate the changing situation and implement a proactive strategy that ensures successful use of the remote workforce.”

3. Digital hiring will be a make or break trend, so embrace it now

No surprises here. But what does digital hiring do for recruiters and candidates?

“Digital hiring will be a make or break trend in 2020, allowing companies to reinvent their hiring practices, and adjust to the changes that COVID-19 has brought to the forefront,” says Greg Moran, CEO of OutMatch, a SaaS-based talent intelligence platform. One of the crucial reasons it will go big is not just because COVID-19 has enforced it with a vengeance, but also because it has the potential to reduce recruitment bias.

 

“Every candidate applying for a position is given the same questions, the same time to think, and the same time to answer. This makes apples-to-apples comparison easy and provides much-needed structure in place of unguided conversations that often veer off course.”

Digital or virtual hiring also presents the possibility to reduce the time-to-hire. Citing an example that demonstrates this, Moran says, “BPO company, MSX International, saw a 20% improvement in time-to-hire by using virtual hiring, enabling recruiters to fill time-sensitive job roles 2 days faster than they could before.”

Learn More: Recruitment, Virtually: How Going Fully Digital Has Changed the Way Corporations Hire Forever

4. Treat the use of AI in sourcing as more than an experiment

 

“The promise of using AI in sourcing has existed for 23 years now, but we are only just seeing the emergence of viable products that could be considered as more than an experiment,” says Tim Streeter, global head of talent acquisition, Whirlpool. If you haven’t already, there is no better time to invest in what artificial intelligence has to offer for recruitment. And this is something you will find more talent acquisition leaders saying.

 

“Automated Behavioral Assessment holds the promise of improving Speed, Quality, Experience, and Diversity all at the same time while democratizing opportunities.”

 

5. Prioritize recruiter experience as much as candidate experience

This one is for organizations still reluctant to invest in recruitment software for their talent acquisition teams.

“As talent practitioners, we are reminded often to think of the candidate or hiring manager experience. I challenge you to think differently,” says Lehua Stonebraker, director of talent attraction and acquisition at CeridianOpens a new window .

“How can you maximize the recruiter experience which will in turn have a positive impact for your candidates and hiring managers? Examples include leveraging artificial intelligence in your screening & sourcing practices, integrating chatbots as the first point of contact in the recruitment funnel, automating & streamlining repetitive communications where possible.

 

“The goal is to inverse the time relationship. Instead of spending 80% of your time doing manual work trying to identify qualified people, focus on using these strategies to spend 80% of your time with only the most qualified.”

6. Take voice search seriously or be left out of the running

If you were to believe that voice search benefited only marketers and salespeople, you might be mistaken. Recruiters, too, can benefit from it by optimizing their job descriptions with keywords that respond to voice search so that they become easier to find. But not only that, recruiters can use it to find their candidates as well.

Though there is much more potential for voice search to deliver high-quality results, Ron Mitchell, CEO and founder at VirgilOpens a new window , believes that it can be a gamechanger for the recruiting market.

“Search is core to every aspect of the recruiting market for both candidates and employers. … Voice will make it critical to have the capability to show only the most highly relevant results. If you can do that, you will be a winner. If you can’t, you will quickly be driven from this industry.”

Mitchell also foresees blockchain to be a mainstream technology in recruitment. “Going a step further, I’m also interested in the potential of using it to create skill graphs for individuals that can be easily updated throughout their career.”

Recruiters will benefit from keeping an eye on developments in this space and leveraging this technology as soon as it is available.

7. Focus on recruitment marketing channels and review how you “go to market”

Recruitment processes are often riddled with antiquated processes that no one wants to question. But it’s time to “Ask why a step or action is in the recruiting process and then ask what value it provides,” says Lawrel Aufmuth, former vice president of talent acquisition at Advantage SolutionsOpens a new window .

“Talent acquisition should be viewed as a two-way process. Gone are the days when the employer held all the cards. Candidates are more engaged in finding the right fit, not only the right job. Two items come to mind as important,”

 

“First, how are you educating candidates about your company and the position? Legal job descriptions do not always capture these, and talent acquisition professionals should review the way they ‘go to market’ for recruiting. Be realistic and eliminate potential bias. Second, there are thousands of different avenues to get your positions in front of candidates. Be sure to diversify the marketing channels you use; this will help with D&I efforts as well.”

Learn More: Diversity Recruiting Strategies: 3 Long-Term Ideas to Power Your Workplace

A Fast-Evolving HR Function

Recruitment – like most other HR processes – has been forced to undergo a digital transformation since the pandemic struck. But as these recruitment tips from hiring leaders show, the technology available offers much more potential than just putting out fires by interviewing candidates on video. It’s time to be mindful of the options available and strategize on how best they can be used to fulfill the one and only goal of the talent acquisition process – finding high-quality, diverse talent.

Do you have anything to add to these tips? Share them with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .