When it comes to recruiting the perfect candidates for your client companies, factors seem to always present themselves that either make your job easier – or much, much harder to do. According to this article by HFM Talent Index, a multi-national study by the social networking website LinkedIn surveyed near on 4,000 recruiters in an attempt to discover the recruitment industry’s top priorities, issues and focus areas. Affirmative Portfolios takes a look at some of those recruitment trends below…
Recruitment Challenges
Competition
Of the three major challenges experienced by talent acquisition specialists and recruitment agents, most agree that competition for talented employees is taking pole position. Larger companies with larger salary pools attract the most talented employees, leaving slim pickings for the rest of the industry.
Limited Budget
Another major issue facing recruiters in 2017 is that their hiring budgets are simply not sufficient. Budget limitations greatly restrict the accessible pool of potential placements, which could lead to inadequate recruiting for key positions.
High Turnover
Few organisations realise it, but staff turnover says a lot about both the company and the recruiting team. Limited budgets lead to inferior recruitment which often – when combined with inter-organisational issues – lead to high staff turnovers. This in turn puts a strain on recruitment budgets as the vacant position needs to be re-filled.
Measuring Recruitment Success
A lot can be said about a recruitment agency by looking at how they measure their recruitment success. Below are three recruitment key performance indicators for 2017:
Length of Stay
How long do new hires remain in their positions? This depends completely on the employee, however recruitment specialists should be able to tell, from meeting with a candidate, whether or not they’re in it for the long haul. The longer an employee remains in their position, the better for the recruitment agency!
Recruitment Timeframe
How long does it take to find a suitable candidate? In the corporate world, time is money. The longer a seat remains unfilled – the unhappier the hiring manager becomes. Recruitment success hangs heavily on how quickly a recruiter can find a suitable replacement.
Satisfaction of Recruiting Manager
At the end of the day, the hiring manager who approaches the recruitment firm needs to be satisfied with the candidates put forward. In an industry where much is dealt with via word of mouth, an unhappy recruiting manager can seriously damage a recruiter’s chances of receiving a positive referral.
Stand-Out Trends Moving into 2018
For long-term strategy planning, the HFM Talent Index article reveals five focus areas that can be worked on in order to positively shape the recruitment industry for years to come:
- Recruiting more diverse candidates, as well as considering foreigners looking for jobs in South Africa
- Greater emphasis on in-depth talent assessments, including soft-skill assessments
- Improving in-depth interviewing methods to yield greater candidate insight accuracy
- Decision-making based on ‘big data’ acquisition and in-depth talent analytics
- Tailored recruitment taking into account organisation culture and finding fits based on candidate alignment with company vision.
