Trend in recruiting number one: the signs point to a new beginning

Without any exaggeration, the most turbulent months of Recruiter’s career are behind them. Out of necessity came creative solutions that have shaped the new trends in recruiting. After the Covid-19 pandemic led to a temporary hiring freeze in many industries a year ago, things are now looking up. This is our number one recruiting trend.

Many HR professionals are very positive about the outlook for recruiting in 2021. Eight out of ten employers surveyed for career portal Monster’s HR Report 2021 plan to hire in 2021.

HR Trend Number Two: Digitalisation of Recruiting

By the way, during the widespread hiring freeze a year ago, it wouldn’t have been necessary everywhere to shut down the entire recruiting machinery to zero. Many companies simply lacked the right tools to keep recruiting. Almost one in five companies would have liked to continue recruiting new employees, but didn’t manage to switch to virtual processes fast enough. This is the result of a joint survey of 1,788 applicants and 130 recruiting managers by Personalmagazin and softgarden.

This leads us directly to trend number two in recruiting: What recruiting departments need acutely is a precisely fitting digital basis for their recruiting. Crucial, for example, are collaboration and coordination functions that recruiters can use to exchange information independent of time and location and make quick decisions based on automated pre-selection processes.

Last but not least, it is important to have a well-designed career page that ranks well on Google and that candidates can use to perfectly inform themselves about an employer. After all, career fairs and other events are failing in the long run and candidates are searching for new jobs online more than ever. This has once again increased the importance of a good career website.

Human Resources Trend Number three: Video Recruiting

One of the areas where recruiters have been quick to digitise their recruiting processes is the Video Recruiting. In the wake of the health crisis, video interviewing has surged. Immediately after the outbreak of the pandemic, 60 percent of recruiters said they conduct job interviews primarily via live video. This is the result of a study by the online job platform StepStone and the German Association of Personnel Managers (BPM), for which a total of 2,600 recruiters were surveyed. According to the survey, more than one in two (56 percent) were also certain that the use of digital tools in recruitment and selection will increase significantly in the future.

They are right! The video interview has become an indispensable part of everyday recruiting and is therefore our HR trend number three. But there is a lot of work to be done here as well. Some recruiting departments still use video conferencing tools for their remote interviews that were not explicitly developed for recruiting. This is not recommended! For example, because these tools often do not record job interviews in a privacy-compliant manner and are not automatically deleted after the application process has ended. This can be critical with regard to the GDPR standards.

Time-shifted interviews are also usually not feasible with the classic tools. Here, the candidate receives questions from the recruiter in advance and records his answer as a video. This way, the talent can decide for himself when and how he wants to answer. For HR employees, time-shifted interviews definitely have advantages: If many promising candidates have applied for the same position, they can be asked the same questions. This ensures a high degree of comparability between the applicants and they can be “screened” in a shorter period of time – in the truest sense of the word.

To meet this need, softgarden integrated a video interview function into its applicant management system early on. This allows you to invite candidates to a video interview directly from the software. softgarden supports common video platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and GoToMeeting.

Recruiting Trend Number four: An optimal Candidate Experience

Let’s move on to recruiting trend number four. We know from our surveys and studies: the importance of a good candidate experience is increasing. Generations Y and Z in particular expect simple, uncomplicated and efficient processes and are increasingly less likely to accept employers who do not meet this expectation. After all, today even complex processes like buying a house or selling a car can be done in a flash via an app, but recruiting clings to rigid processes. That’s not communicable.

The results of our Candidate Experience Study are clear: 59 percent of candidates want an application process that is completed in 10 minutes or faster. And 75 percent of candidates think there should be no more than one to two weeks between submitting their application and being invited for an interview. With the right application management tool, that’s easy to achieve.

Employers should also begin to understand that a good recruiting process must be designed to provide applicants with all necessary information in a timely manner. For example, the job advertisement can and should include salary information. When employers ignore the needs of job applicants, it comes back to haunt them. After all, 64.4 percent of candidates have already pulled the ripcord because of poor or non-transparent recruiting processes.

Conclusion: The digitalisation catch-up in HR begins

Our conclusion: the HR trends in recruiting all point to greater digitalization in recruiting – in all areas of applicant management. From the initial research to contacting the applicant to signing the contract. Everything should become simpler, faster and less complex. This is the only way to inspire candidates and celebrate recruiting successes. The faster companies act and digitise their processes, the better. Don’t forget: Today, talents have the choice between different job offers. Accordingly, companies can no longer afford to ignore the needs of candidates. They then act according to the motto: Other employers also have nice jobs and are gone. Opportunity lost.

What do you think of the recruiting trends we’ve noticed? Do you agree with us? How has the past year shaped your recruiting? We look forward to hearing your comments!