5 Ways To Keep Up With The Ever-Changing Recruiting Industry

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HR Practices

The recruiting industry has witnessed a lot of upheaval in the past few decades as technology has taken over our world. What used to be a mainly face to face and over the phone industry is now almost completely based online.

The changes have really just begun as well. From AI tools to recruitment marketing, the recruiting industry is set to continue its ever-changing nature in the 2020’s. If you want to be ready as a recruiter, you’ll need to have the skills on this list covered. So sit back, relax, grab a notepad and follow along.

Hone Your Marketing Skills

Wait, but you’re a recruiter, not a marketer, why do you need to hone your marketing skills?

Perhaps the biggest change in the recruiting industry over the past decade is one that has caused reverberations across the entire global economy. Workers now have the power to review employers.

In the past, it was only employees who were desperately trying to impress employers, these days its more of a dating process where both parties have to attract one another.

That makes recruitment marketing a crucial skill for any recruiter. Recruitment marketing refers to the strategies an organization uses to find, attract, engage and nurture talent before they apply for a job. It’s sometimes called the pre-applicant phase of talent acquisition.

If you want to attract top talent in 2020, then people need to actually want to work for your company and that’s where recruitment marketing can help.

Skills like search engine optimization, landing page conversion optimization, digital marketing, content marketing, social media engagement, and reputation management are now critical to success for recruiters.

Be Flexible

Becoming a more flexible recruiter is another key to success for the 2020’s. That could mean anything from being willing to text with candidates to specializing in a specific industry or recruiting level.

As far as texting goes, if you haven’t already started texting recruits, it’s time to start. As Amy Warner, director of talent acquisition at recruitment software company iCIMS said in a recent interview:

 “I think we will see more employers start to formalize processes and systems to use text messaging and chat capabilities in recruitment. They will turn to a dedicated solution to not only make it easier for recruiters and candidates to text, but to also ensure that they are staying compliant and properly protecting the candidates’ information and data.”

From text messaging to changing specializations in recruitment, being flexible will be key for future recruiters.

One example of this can be seen in the increasing numbers of executive staffing agencies that have popped up over the past decade. These more specialized recruiters are able to attract top talent by focusing their businesses on executives. Having the flexibility to make moves like this will be vital going forward. 

Become a Social Media Expert

Becoming a social media expert is now critical to success in the recruiting industry. In fact, according to a recent Jobvite report, the top way companies grow employer brand reputation is through social media.

Linkedin recruiting pros now have thousands of connections at a minimum. This can make recruiting a breeze when a single post can be viewed by hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of hours.

And it’s not just Linkedin that you need to aware of either, Matt Singer, vice president of marketing at Jobvite says other platforms are just as important:

Recruiters are turning to social media platforms where they know potential candidates are more active. This might explain why more recruiters are turning to Facebook and Instagram. Instagram’s popularity with job seekers is increasing its use with recruiters, especially Millennial recruiters and those working at technology companies.”

So if you aren’t a social media expert already, it’s time to get started before the industry leaves you behind.

Remember Employer Reputation

In the past, there really wasn’t any recourse for a job candidate who was mistreated by a recruiter or their employer. These days that’s not the case. Job candidates can now leave reviews on job sites like Glassdoor and Indeed, and these reviews matter.

If an employer’s reviews start to fall because of your recruiting efforts, believe me, you will be getting the boot before you know what hit you. That means you have to treat each candidate with dignity and respect otherwise the quality of applicants you receive will continually fall.

On top of that, according to Career Arc, 64% of job seekers say that a poor candidate experience would make them less likely to purchase goods and services from that employer. The last thing you want is for your company to lose business because of your recruiting efforts.

This means you should be following glassdoor and indeed reviews closely. Being able to respond to internal and external reviews both positive and negative is now a requirement for recruiters.

Stay Up-to-Date With the Tools of the Time

Despite initial struggles with AI in recruiting, including Amazon’s AI bot that was quickly revealed to be biased against women, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools are here to stay in recruiting. 

Harver.com has a great list of AI recruiting tools that will be making its way into your life in the coming years. One example that’s already on the market is Ideal, an automated screening software that uses AI to learn what good candidates look like based on your past hiring decisions.

Tools like this will be a requirement for recruiters in the future, and those that are able to master them now will be well ahead of the competition going into the 2020’s. 

It’s no secret that recruiting is an industry in a constant state of flux. That means if you want to keep up as a recruiter, you need to be a lifelong learner. Much like physicians or lawyers, you’ll need to stay up to date with the latest and greatest if you want to compete. Hopefully, this list helps give you an idea of how you can do just that.

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