How to Keep Up With These 3 Recruitment Trends

return on effort

On October 6, 2021, we had the pleasure of attending, and speaking, at the Recruitment Agency Expo. As this was the first real-life event we’ve attended since lockdown, this was an extra special couple of days for us. If you missed our speaker, Josh Pines, VP International Alliances, talking about how to compete with online agencies, or you just want a refresher, here’s part two, where he covers three trends in recruitment and how to approach them. Read part one here.

The 3 Trends in Recruitment

We all know that the world is facing uncertainty and change at an unprecedented pace. You are being challenged to adapt, work within a different environment, and continue to be able to support the relationships that are so critical to the industry. All of this is driving the three trends the industry is seeing:

Relationships

It’s important to keep relationships with candidates, but it’s also vital to develop and strengthen relationships with clients. Agencies have an opportunity here to become their clients’ trusted advisors in this rapidly changing economy, to adopt technology to meet their changing needs and shifts in the market. Agencies need technology that will provide excellent client and talent experiences, like having full candidate history at their fingertips and automating communication around the different steps of the placement process. Never before has the recruitment industry relied so heavily on the power of relationships.

AI & Automation

Another big trend dominating our industry right now is AI & Automation. In recruiting and recruitment, AI has the power to transform the way we source candidates, match them with jobs, engage them, gather referrals and qualifications, drive diversity and much more. Everyone wants to know how they can start to optimise their business with these technologies.

Uncertainty

We suddenly find ourselves operating in a world of economic uncertainty, with rapid changes to global health outlooks and global economies. How do recruitment agencies respond to that and operate in this uncertainty? Past studies of companies during recessions show that those that took a long-term perspective, and focused on growth instead of just cutting costs, were more likely to bounce back stronger on the other side.

 

So, now you know what the three trends in recruitment are. How do you keep up and prepare your business for them? Here’s how.

Map Out Your Strategy Before Digitising Your Agency

recruitment trends

As we discussed in part one, the way you keep up with the trends in the industry is by digitally transforming your business. However, before diving straight in with a new piece of software, you must do one thing first. You must plan and map out your strategy – you can’t just digitise your processes. And you can’t build everything. In fact, you may be better off not building anything. Because the move from that wooden wheel on the left to the modern wheel and tire on the right didn’t just make things smoother, it introduced dozens of new materials, processes, efficiencies, and opportunities. And while the farmer in antiquity could easily shape that wheel on the left with his or her own tools and hands, no one nowadays is building their own run-flat tires and titanium alloy wheels! Buying best-of-breed in a market that’s ripe for digital transformation allows you to focus on being the Best-Recruitment-Business.

So what’s under the hood at digitally transformed agencies? It starts with automation and a shift towards self-service for clients and talent alike. Giving your talent and your clients more power actually increases engagement with both and reduces the busy work that keeps your operational costs high. Moving from handwork to heart work, as a friend in the industry likes to say. Then you need a powerful and flexible matching engine to figure out which workers are good fits for which roles. And that self-service isn’t just about finding work and workers but also for streamlining time capture, timesheet approval, and many other financial transactions to get to payroll and invoicing faster and easier, with virtually no errors. And that’s all sitting on a foundation of automated compliance that makes life easier and safer for all your stakeholders.

The Digital Transformation Journey

recruitment trends

To conclude, the organisations that we have seen succeed during times of uncertainty and emerged the strongest from the global pandemic are those that have pursued a journey of digital transformation. Here are the steps you should follow if you want to transform your recruitment business: 

  1. The first step in that journey is digitisation. This is all about getting teams on one data set, one single source of truth. Digitisation is the foundation that allows you to automate.
  2. Automation is the next step in the customer journey. Automation is a superpower that allows businesses to avoid the pitfalls of manual data entry, improve performance on KPIs like submission rates, time-to-fill, fill ratios, MSP SLA’s, etc.), and make more informed strategic decisions based on data insights rather than “gut feel”.
  3. Both digitisation and automation pave the road to empower candidates and clients alike through self-service.

 

To learn more about how Bullhorn can help make manual tasks automated, read our guide here and subscribe to the Bullhorn Blog to get recruitment trends sent straight to your inbox.

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