Last month, LinkedIn released its 2018 Global Recruiting Trends Report. The report data is compiled through interviews with industry experts and a survey conducted with nearly 9,000 talent leaders and hiring managers internationally.  It identifies major trends that are expected to define and drive talent acquisition in the coming year. 

The report’s authors assert that the “new wave” in recruitment will be to leverage technology to shift away from the transactional and often inefficient components of hiring, such as repetitive candidate screening and interview scheduling, to more strategic initiatives that have more organizational impact.  The study identified four major hiring trends that reinforce the shift in this direction, summarized, below:

1.      Diversity 

Diversity topped the list of initiatives that talent professionals say they’ll be addressing in 2018.  As the talent pool continues to diversify and workers, in general, are in higher demand, employers who are unable to engage with diverse talent sources will be disadvantaged.  Aside from the pure labor dynamic, there was a cultural and financial performance tie-in, with 78% of study respondents citing diversity as a strategy for improving culture, 62% for improving company performance, and 49% better representing customers. 

2.      Reinventing the Interview Process

Employers recognized that traditional interviewing techniques often fall short in assessing soft skills and candidate weaknesses; can be prone to interviewer bias; can take too long to process; and may require training to be effective.  56% of those surveyed think new interview tools will have an impact on how they hire this year.   The study identified five approaches that are gaining in popularity:

·        Online soft skill assessments, which can measure attributes like teamwork and customer service orientation, sometimes difficult to gauge through traditional means

·        Job auditions where candidates are paid to complete actual work so that they can be observed in action

·        Casual interviews, where meetings are held in more relaxed, “real world” environments, such as over a meal at a restaurant, to gain more insight into a candidate’s character

·        Virtual reality interviews, where candidates are immersed in virtual 3D environments to assess their skills

·        Video interviews can be recorded and reviewed later, making interviewing a large pool of candidates in a shorter period of time realistic

3.      Data Utilization

Talent acquisition professionals are making greater use of data in their approach to recruiting decisions, with 50% indicating that data is a top trend impacting their hiring process.  The study points out that while utilizing data to make recruiting-related decisions is not new, the volume of available data and speed at which it can be processed makes it an increasingly powerful decision making tool, harnessed not just to track, but to predict selection outcomes.   

Opportunities to utilize data to inform and improve decision making are abundant.  One case study showcased an airline that had been utilizing “nice” as a trait by which to assess flight attendant candidates.  Upon analyzing customer feedback data, they discovered that “helpful” was actually a characteristic consumers found to be more valuable in attendants.  Modifying the selection focus lead to an increase in both customer satisfaction and employee engagement.   

4.      Artificial Intelligence  (AI)

AI is making its way into many facets of life and business, and recruiting is no exception.  It’s now being used to source and screen candidates, schedule interviews, and respond to application questions.  Talent leaders and hiring managers viewed AI as a powerful tool in the hiring process, with 67% indicating it is saving them time, and 43% indicating it helps remove human bias.  While there are certain elements of recruiting that will likely not be replaced by artificial intelligence, such as building relationships with candidates, overall, 76% of survey participants indicated that AI would at least have a somewhat significant impact on recruitment. 

Source:  LinkedIn Talent Solutions