Top Six Recruitment Trends For 2017

A positive and well-articulated employer brand, excellent candidate experience and a mobile-first approach have emerged as the top trends in recruitment for the year ahead according to Employment Office.

After analysing industry developments in 2016, Employment Office’s recruitment experts have put the spotlight on the up-and-coming areas deserving recruiter attention in 2017.  

Employment Office’s managing director Tudor Marsden-Huggings explains that the unifying factor to next year’s trends is that employers need to deliver the experience candidates expect.

“Ultimately, job seekers are pressed for time, spoilt for choice and more demanding than ever, expecting potential employers to do the work for them in terms of luring them to the opportunity, communicating why they should apply via a compelling employer brand and caring for them throughout the application process,” Mr Marsden-Huggins said.

“Adhering to industry best practice next year will require employers and recruiters bring more to the table and invest in their job seekers as they do their customers.”

Here are Employment Office’s top six trends in recruitment for 2017.

  • It’s All About the Experience

Today’s job seekers value user experience and personalisation more than ever so the job seeking experience will significantly influence which employers attract the best talent.  Therefore, an expedited recruitment process that puts the emphasis on pre and post candidate care is more important than ever.  Job seekers are also turned off by a protracted interview experience and expect job boards (and career sections of the employer’s website) to be easy to navigate, mobile optimised and personalised.  Employers need to think hard about the candidate experience and put their job seeking ‘customer’ first with a convenient process facilitated by sophisticated recruitment software, skilled recruitment professionals at the helm and good candidate management.  

  • A Strong Employer Brand

What was once a luxury is now a crucial must-have in the fight to secure and retain great talent.  How an employer is perceived by job seekers is more influential than ever, and the perception can work for or against the employer.  With the rise of employer review sites like Glassdoor, an employer’s brand is more visible than ever before and in the current climate, candidates are more likely to decline a job offer from a company with a poor employer brand.  Having a solid employer brand is a company’s selling point to job seekers and what helps keep good employees around for longer.  Getting it right and promoting it to job seekers is the key to attracting top talent, reducing recruitment costs in the long run and retaining quality staff as positive advocates.

  • Social Media Makes the Advertising Mix

Social Media is the key to getting in front of passive candidates, especially younger job seekers who resist traditional recruitment channels and methods. The use of social media in the recruitment advertising mix is expected to increase in 2017 as recruiters and employers cotton on to the visual impact, influence and targeting opportunities platforms like Instagram and Facebook provide.

  • Job Ads That Stand Out

There are more avenues for job seekers to find out about vacancies than ever before and as the competition to attract quality candidates intensifies, so too does the importance of having job ads and InMail messages that cut through the noise.  Personalising the message to the job seeker and outlining ‘what’s in it for them’ will be critical to attracting more applications.  Spam-like communication (primarily through LinkedIn) and bland company-centric job ads won’t cut it.  In 2017, the successful recruiters will be the ones who leverage the information and motivations associated with the behaviour archetype of their target candidate to create impactful and meaningful impressions via their job ads and InMail messages.

  • Mobile is the New Frontier

The all-conquering mobile phone demands webpages be optimised for display on its screens, including job boards and careers pages. With more job seekers conducting their searches and applying for jobs via their mobile than ever before, recruiters should push towards a mobile-first approach in 2017 to keep pace with demand.

  • The Paper Resume is Dead

In 2017, recruiters will rely less on traditional resumes as they move to using recruitment software.  To aid the expedited and convenient candidate experience employers are striving to cultivate in a mobile-first environment, the duplication of resume and LinkedIn profile will need to cease.  Instead, candidates will be expected to apply with links to their up to date LinkedIn profile that acts as a digital resume with tricked-out enhancements that make it superior to its two-page paper cousin.

The Importance of Employer Branding

Employer branding has never been more critical.  And every organisation has an employer brand, whether they acknowledge it or not.

If you don’t know what yours is, or how it impacts your ability to recruit and keep great talent, simply listen to what your employees are saying about workplace conditions, read the reviews you are bound to have on Glassdoor, take stock of the mounting costs associated with unnecessary recruitment and issues with high staff turnover.

Attracting top talent has never been harder than it is today and if turnover at your business is high and recruitment a chore, it’s time to think about your employer brand.  Whether good or bad, your employer brand significantly influences your ability to attract and retain the right people for your business.

Your workforce is your customer

The balance of power associated with job seeker and employee behaviour has shifted and employers are now under scrutiny.  Today’s candidates are acting like customers and should be treated as such by employers.

Think about the time, energy, expertise and investment businesses put into attracting, nurturing and retaining customers.  To stay relevant in a job seekers’ market, employers need to adopt a marketing mindset and apply the same customer-centric principles to job seekers and employees.

It’s a consumer world

We live in a ‘broadcast culture’ world, where consumers see it as their duty to share and review their experience with brands.  Under these conditions, job seekers are influenced by what others have to say about your organisation.  You don’t need to have witnessed the rise of sites like Tripadvisor and Glassdoor, or the volume of complaints lobbied on organisations’ Facebook pages to know that people love to rate things, and are especially compelled to do so when it’s bad.  

People trust what other people say, which makes this advocate behaviour particularly powerful for employers.  Organisations that are able to harness the power of an engaged workforce of positive advocates will be the ones to succeed in recruitment long term.  But this hinges on an employer’s ability to identify, articulate, communicate and nurture their employer brand.

Getting ahead of the curve and proactively taking the reins of your employer brand is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but now a critical must-have.  Without doing so, you will be at the mercy of what employees and job seekers perceive your employer brand to be.  And we can guarantee your competitors are taking their employer brand seriously, and they’ll have the edge over you.  

Great talent values a strong employer brand

  • 56% of professionals rank employer brand as the deciding factor when choosing a job (LinkedIn)
  • 52% of candidates use employer review site Glassdoor during their job search (Software Advice)
  • Companies with high engagement have four times the earnings per share (Gallup US Employee Engagement Survey)

To attract high-calibre candidates and retain them, it is critical for organisations to position themselves as an employer of choice by effectively executing and communicating their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) which forms the backbone of their employer brand.  

Build a great employer brand by

  • Understanding your target audience
  • Auditing your current employer brand assets (ie, careers page, Glassdoor reviews, employee engagement survey results) to benchmark your current position
  • Being honest about your company culture and benefits are to know what you are (and more importantly, what you aren’t) so the foundation of your EVPs and employer brand is authentic and lived by the organisation.  Employees will resist an employer brand they don’t experience themselves, and job seekers will sense the falsity
  • Engaging employees in your EVP to encourage advocate behaviour
  • Show – don’t just tell – the world what your EVPs are and what your employer brand is through storytelling, advocates and social media
  • Adopt a marketing mindset to establish and communicate your employer brand

Don’t leave it any longer.  Now is the time to nail your employer brand.  

 

Employment Office helps organisations to consistently attract and retain top talent through powerful employer branding.

Our experts have developed a proven model to bring your employer brand to life and position you as an employer of choice.

Talk to us today about how we can transform your recruitment results and elevate your employer brand.

Speak Employment Office’s employer branding expert Mark Puncher by contacting him on 07 3330 2484.