2020 shook the U.S. jobs market to its core, with the global pandemic quickly leaving millions of people unemployed and sending companies scrambling to create a leaner, more digital workforce. These sudden changes exposed long-standing inefficiencies in recruiting systems, including a lack of recruitment automation and internal mobility programs – and all of these are already starting to show up as the most important hiring trends of 2021 and beyond.
AI Systems
If you haven’t embraced the power of automated recruiting yet, 2021 is definitely the year to do so. With the economy tanking in light of COVID-19, there are fewer jobs to go around and more applicants flooding the opportunities that are available. Without AI systems in place to help manage those applicants and pinpoint the best prospects, recruiters will spend all their time buried in tasks that could be easily automated, rather than working on strategic initiatives that will protect their companies from future market upsets.
Now, more than ever, recruiters need AI systems to help optimize their applicant searches. These systems can save up to 14 hours of menial tasks a week according to Ideal.com. That’s time that could be better spent on vetting, interviewing, and successfully wooing top candidates into the position you are trying to fill.
Prioritizing Soft Skills
As automation continues to take over more mundane tasks, soft skills like problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking are going to become increasingly important in the workforce. In fact, the need for these skills will increase by 26 percent by 2030, according to data from the McKinsey Global Institute.
These very human skills are going to be what help take companies to the next level in the decade to come. Recruiters need to be aware of that, and increasingly capable of evaluating and hiring for the soft skills that will guarantee continued success in any given role.
Contextualized Data and Talent Intelligence
It turns out that resumes and even LinkedIn profiles provide very little valuable information to recruiters assessing applicant qualifications. Sure, you may get some job titles and a list of various tasks an applicant has completed in their previous roles, but you don’t really get a picture of what that candidate is all about.
That’s where contextualized data and talent intelligence comes in. Companies like Censia procure information from more than 2,000 sources across the internet. That information is then intelligently evaluated and organized to reveal patterns and meaningful insights for recruiters looking for ways to weed out which applicants will be most successful in the current job opening. This data-driven approach to hiring can greatly increase productivity and efficiency and reduce hiring costs, according to Workable.
Internal Mobility and Recruiting
COVID-19 has left companies scrambling to find ways to stay afloat amidst a tanking economy and various forced business closures. Those that have been successful have done so by relying on a workforce that possesses a deep understanding of not only their industries but also the inner workings of the companies they have been tasked with helping to evolve.
Internal recruiting was already predicted to be an upcoming trend prior to the pandemic, but our current global situation has increased loyalty among employers and employees alike. The result is hiring managers who recognize the value of internal recruiting now more than ever before.
Luckily, Censia helps recruiters identify not only the best external candidates for the job but also the best internal candidates. By assisting with talent management, and maintaining extensive employee profiles, our system allows recruiters to quickly and easily pinpoint who among the current workforce might have the skills necessary to move into current openings—reducing the time to fill those openings and the time spent on onboarding and training.
Diversity Hiring
It seems that “diversity” has been a buzzword in hiring for the last several years—and for good reason. Research has shown that gender diversity increases productivity in the workforce. Gender and ethnically diverse teams result in 33 percent higher financial returns. Even neurodiversity in hiring has been touted as providing companies with a competitive advantage.
If your company hasn’t committed to a focus on diversity hiring yet, 2021 is the year to do so. The economy is shifting drastically in light of current global events, and not all businesses are going to survive until 2022. Those with diverse teams stand a much better chance of rising to the top than those still operating with mostly homogeneous workgroups.
