What are the emerging trends in recruitment? 

There are three major areas where recruitment experts around the world are looking to evolve. Each of these areas is deeply concerned with people, both in and outside of your organisation. Improving your processes to take better care of your team members as well as your applicants is key to productivity and sustainable success in 2022. 

In summary, these global recruitment trends are: 

• Automate your process for success 
• Candidate connection is key 
• Leadership overhaul for longevity 

To help you get a head start in the new year with a new and improved approach to recruitment, let’s unpack what each of these emerging trends in recruitment entails. 

#1: Automate your process for success 

This trend can apply to a wide range of roles across your organisation. Automation used to be a big scary buzzword that made the average person worry about job security. However, automation is primarily a tool to support you in your role. In fact, leveraging the power of automation to streamline mundane tasks and free up time for your teams is the most impactful change you can make in 2022. 

For example, you can use email automation tools to send out automatic emails to select clients (think birthday offer emails, abandoned cart emails, and the like). You might use a social media scheduling tool to automate your social media activity, setting it up so that your posts go out on set days and times for the next few weeks, engaging new audiences as they go out. Another business area that’s frequently automated is payroll and timesheet management.

In recruitment, automation is key to minimise manual tasks and has the added benefit of reducing human error and double handling. The precious time you save for your recruiters (or yourself) allows your organisation to put more time and effort into the recruitment process. That means building unique, personalised connections with candidates. And that’s exactly what candidates want to see from their employers. A human touch. Ironically, you can use automation to get there. 

#2: Candidate connection is key 

That brings us rather neatly to the next trend: candidate connection and candidate experience. What kind of impression of your organisation does the average candidate get when they hit the “apply” button? Do they not hear back from you unless they’re progressing to the interview phase? Do they receive a notification that their application is unsuccessful? What kind of experience do they have with your brand? 

All of these questions are incredibly important when you consider that we’re deep in a worker economy. The bulk of the power is in the candidate’s hands, and it’s you that needs to convince them that your role is worth applying for. Similarly, how the candidate feels you treat them will impact whether they accept or decline your offer. Freeing up time with automation means you’re empowered to create genuine connections with candidates and afford them the respect they deserve. 

#3: Leadership overhaul for longevity 

Classical management styles were already outdated in 2019 and this is doubly true in the current climate. Your leaders must adopt a leadership style that is trusting, flexible, and supportive to keep employees engaged and maintain productivity. More than ever, team members want to feel connected to a purpose in their work lives. What does that look like? Managers aren’t just for driving execution and results anymore – they are teachers, coaches, mentors. Your leaders may have to manage different team dynamics, like a hybrid team, or learn to manage an overlap of personal and professional boundaries. To connect their team to a deeper purpose, managers must be able to weave your organisation’s values and culture into just about any project. 

From a recruitment perspective, this implies hiring team members and leaders with a strong set of people skills and demonstrable resilience, empathy, and adaptability. You might have to change the way you define your selection criteria and widen your scope to find leading candidates with these skills. For example, be open to candidates with adjacent experience or capabilities and a complement of impeccable soft skills. 

In Conclusion: Recruitment trends for 2022

Overall, these trends ask organisation’s like yours an important question: are you ready to put people at the heart of what you do? If you look to automation tools to streamline key processes, you’re saving your people time and empowering them to build better relationships with clients. If you use this time to build better relationships with candidates, too, you make higher quality hires for your organisation. And with highly capable and adaptable people on your team, you have the peace of mind to transform your leadership style and maintain cohesive teams that see the bigger picture. 

If you want to discuss your recruitment goals in-depth and how our team helps you implement strategies like this to get the best results, reach out to us today.

The global workforce is reshuffling 

For many, the pandemic prompted a shift in focus. Billions of people were forced to reflect on their lives, their careers, their wellbeing, and how these three major facets of their lives interact. Values, priorities, and personal goals came to the fore, and millions realised that their roles didn’t quite fit in as well as they’d thought. 

Now that some geographical areas are enjoying more stability, staff feel “safe” enough to move on and find opportunities that align with their values. And so, we see a massive amount of people resigning and reshuffling within the global workforce. According to Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index, a whopping 46% of the global workforce is considering a job change. 

Many countries are already in the midst of the massive shift. Of course, this isn’t true for all locales. Your organisation might still be fighting to find its feet amidst ongoing lockdowns and restrictions in flux. Whether you are struggling to retain your team, or you’ve already lost key team members to the global reshuffle, here are our best insights to help you engage your team and grow your business sustainably: 

8 Strategies to get ahead of the Great Resignation

They’re not workers, they’re humans

Your team members are not a means to an end, nor should they feel like it. It is your duty as the employer to maintain a psychologically safe workplace, and that means that you should respect mental health, empower a work-life balance, and provide flexibility where it’s needed most. Particularly if your organisation is based in an “unstable” COVID environment, it’s important that your team members feel like they are valuable, rather than just a cog in the machine. It’s the latter that drives people to resign and look for more meaningful work. 

Speaking of which: 

Renegotiate roles and responsibilities 

This is a great move for organisations that aren’t empowered to recruit new staff right now. Retaining your team is of utmost importance right now. Check in with your team members and investigate what makes them tick. Ask your team member which tasks energise them and which drain them. Where possible, shift projects around so that your team is able to spend more time on what excites them. This goes a long way to reframe how they think about work and its place in their lives. Minimising the energy their role drains from them reduces the risk of burnout and resignation. 

Improve your internal processes 

If you’re not empowered to grow your organisation right now, it’s a prime opportunity to review your internal processes and work out the kinks. Find and treat the pain points that your teams put up with. Let go of legacy systems that bottleneck your workflow so that your team can do great work more easily, reliably, and accessibly. Projects like these reduce frustration and improve productivity, scalability, and future-readiness. 

If you are fortunate enough to be in a more “stable” COVID environment, enjoying greater mobility and proximity to “normal life”, there are still some strategies you should consider to retain and hire great talent: 

Appeal to values 

Whilst it’s important to advertise salary when recruiting new team members, you have to step up your game to appeal to candidates these days. Most people have reevaluated their values, and how their job and lifestyle contribute to or work against them. Your organisation must articulate benefits that go deeper than just money. Think about what people value: their health, their loved ones, their sense of wellbeing, growth, recognition. Articulate how you celebrate these values, and great candidates will come. For example, do you offer health insurance, generous parental leave, lots of learning and development, internal mobility, a strong culture of reward and recognition? 

Recruit Australia-wide 

If the role can be done remotely, consider recruiting from all across Australia and New Zealand and driving economic growth for all. Drawing from a wider talent pool makes it easier to find a great new team member in a competitive candidate market. The flexibility that a remote role offers is also incredibly attractive to some people and could set you apart from the competition. 

Consider “downsized” candidates  

Since the start of the pandemic, multitudes of talented people “downsized” their careers to reduce the amount of pressure and responsibility in their work lives. As is their right! Your organisation would do well to consider candidates whose resumes differ from your “usual suspects” and embrace these experienced professionals who are content to take on more “relaxed” roles. The hesitation usually stems from a worry that highly qualified or experienced candidates apply for roles that are “beneath” them because they’re looking for a quick, easy fix between bigger roles. This is not necessarily true, anymore. The candidates cover letter will show you what they’re after, so be discerning, and address this concern directly in your interviews. You never know, their knowledge could still be a valuable resource in a “downsized” role. 

Consider upskilling 

Where labour shortages are considerably high, consider upskilling and reskilling your current team to fill skills gaps. A whopping 94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if their learning and development is invested in, according to this LinkedIn Learning Report. And organisations are starting to understand this, with upskilling and reskilling reported as a top priority for L&D professionals globally. It’s easy to see how developing your current team benefits your organisation: improving internal mobility, engaging team members, retaining talent, and improving adaptability. 

Recruit smarter 

If your current environment empowers you to hire new team members, consider your internal resources. If your HR team is strapped for time and resources, consider a recruitment partner to find and hire great team members who fit the bill. A recruitment partner can reach further, advertise more effectively, and power through the administrative tasks that you simply don’t have the capacity to. Focus on uplifting your team while your recruitment partner bridges the gap between where you are now and the growth you want to achieve. 

Regardless of your current position, these strategies help you to improve your culture and look after your current team. Whether you’re hiring right now, or couldn’t fathom it, helping your team do their best work and feel valuable to your organisation goes a long way towards retaining talent, until such time as you recruit more.

Job listings are at an all-time high on Australia’s most popular job boards, and yet the number of applications is the lowest its been since 2012. This means that candidates are in high demand, and your competitors are looking for the same talent as you. 

Here’s how to optimise your job listing to attract more high-quality candidates to your new role: 

Optimise Your Job Listing Summary

Let’s illustrate this tip with an example. Think of a time when you wanted to gain insight into a particular topic or wanted to buy a special product. You probably opened your browser and used a search engine to find some more information. You were presented with a wall of search results, made up of webpage titles with short descriptions underneath each one. It’s safe to assume that you used those descriptions to decide which website was most likely to give you what you wanted. 

And that is precisely how job boards work these days. The summary of your job listing is critical to catch the eye of great candidates in your area. It’s the first point of contact between you and your new team member. You want to make a good first impression, right? 

Candidates spend most of their time on the search results page of every job board. This is your first opportunity to one-up your competitors and engage the candidates from the start. Make the recruitment process more interesting: avoid using tried buzzwords and try to be specific, instead. If your organisation has a great culture, try explaining what makes it so great. Is it because you have team lunches or social drinks on Friday afternoons? Be specific! It’s more engaging.

Optimise Your Job Listing for Mobile 

Candidates are increasingly using their mobile phones to browse job boards. This is a well-known trend that affects a wide range of industries. Ideally, you should optimise your job listing for mobile, making sure that your summary is easy to read on a smaller screen. 

It’s also worth mentioning that not everyone can create and send a customised cover letter from their phone. Be conscious of how much you ask of your candidates on the first interaction. Rather, keep it simple and give your candidates the option to send personalised information at a later stage. 

Talk to Your Ideal Candidates 

To attract the kind of candidates you want, you have to step into their shoes. Creating an engaging job listing hinges on the industry, seniority, and location of your vacancy. Try using the Law of Attraction data portal from SEEK to tailor your job listing to your ideal candidate’s needs and wants. This information shows you what to emphasise in your summary and the job listing itself. 

Similarly, attracting more diverse candidates depends on your messaging. Different things appeal to different demographics. For example, flexible work hours might be more appealing to female candidates in a particular industry, whilst overtime pay is more important to their male counterparts, just for example. 

Be Explicit About The Salary 

If you aren’t stating the salary range up front, you’re missing out on a lot of great talent. Candidates don’t want to apply for a role and find out further down the track that it’s totally below or above their paygrade. Don’t waste their time, and they won’t waste yours, either. 

Candidates appreciate transparency. If you don’t think your salary range is competitive enough, make sure to foreground benefits and other positive aspects of your organisation. Do you offer onsite parking or flexible work arrangements? What about discounts and loyalty programs? These are key considerations for many candidates and can turn the tide in your favour even if the remuneration is about average for the role. 

Optimise Your Job Listing Format 

Make your job listing easier and more engaging to read. Break your job listing down into a number of smaller paragraphs separated by bolded headings. This makes it easier for candidates to get the information they need and also improves the quality of the leads you get. 

Confronting your candidates with a wall of text makes it hard for them to understand the role and what might be expected of them. Key requirements are lost in the sea of information and can lead to wasted time and confusion further down the line.

Changing the way you write and structure your job listings will change the kind of candidates you attract to your role. You can optimise your job listing by implementing these tips, and you will soon see the benefit of taking the candidate’s experience into account. Job boards are an effective tool for attracting talent if you adapt to these recent changes and make the most of each job listing. 

If you need help recruiting great candidates for your vacancy, reach out to the Recruit Shop team to chat about your vacancy. Our recruitment experts make use of quick and effective recruitment strategies to attract candidates to your role. We save you time and money by taking the “grunt” out of recruitment, empowering you to make decisions based on a concise shortlist of candidates. Call Recruit Shop on +61 1300 207 156 or email info@recruitshop.com.au to learn more about our affordable recruitment services in Australia and New Zealand.