If you’re like 69% of recruiters, you expect competition to increase in 2015. With the demand for highly skilled workers on the rise, what can YOU do to outpace your competition? Buy a clue from JobVite’s 2014 Social Recruiting Survey which was completed by 1,855 recruiting and HR professionals across most industries. It reveals the practices and trends that are redefining recruiting competency.
First off, what does keeping up with the competition mean these days? It means branding and engaging with candidates across multiple platforms. Those who do this through connecting on mobile devices will comprise the top tier of recruiters, while heightening reliance on referrals is another tool recruiters plan to use more of to maximize resources.
How should you brand your company? The data suggests that your best bet is to spotlight—in this order of importance—company culture, better benefits, flexible hours, higher compensation, and remote working options. What should your guiding principle be when matching candidates with employers? For an excellent summary, read “The New Essential Quality to Look for In Recruiting” by Paul Petrone: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-essential-quality-look-while-hiring-paul-petrone?trk=tod-home-art-list-large_0.
Are employers using social media for hiring? Only more than ever before. According to this survey, recruiters overwhelmingly resolve to invest further in social recruiting in 2015. Already 93% of recruiters and a majority of employers report that they review candidate’s profiles before making hiring decisions. 73% of recruiters report hiring candidates through social media: 79% hire through LinkedIn, 26% hire through Facebook, 14% hire through Twitter, and 7% hire through candidate blogs.
The importance of social recruiting is a huge takeaway from this survey. Since implementing social recruiting, 44% of recruiters state that the quality of their candidates has improved, 34% report that hiring time has decreased, and 30% claim that employee referrals have gone up. Despite the benefits that social recruiting brings, a mere 18% of recruiters consider themselves to be experts at it. Getting on board where social recruiting is concerned doesn’t have to mean breaking the bank: 33% of recruiters don’t spend a dime on it and 41% spend between $1-$999.
If you’re not using mobile solutions for every step of the recruitment process—from posting a job to searching for and contacting candidates and forwarding resumes to colleagues—you’re missing the boat. According to those surveyed, the use of mobile career sites decreases hiring time (14%), improves the quality of the candidate pool (13%), improves the quantity of hires (19%), and improves the quality and quantity of referrals (10%). 43% of jobseekers use mobile solutions when looking for work but only 41% of recruiters are there to meet them. No smart recruiter wants to lose out on the benefits of investing in mobile career sites, though—51% plan to do just that in the year ahead.