What are the recruitment trends that will impact your business in 2020?  A successful recruitment strategy is focused on securing top talent in a competitive landscape.  The open labour market in 2020 will be distinct from others because it’s the first time in modern history that there will be 5 generations working alongside each other.  A report by Maritz Motivation, an HR Consulting company, has examined the impact of Generation Z entering the workplace and how the changing demographic impacts businesses.

What are the key recruitment trends to consider in 2020?

Automation and AI

One of the key upcoming recruitment trends is automation and AI.  We speak to recruiters and candidates regularly about the impact of automation and AI in their industry.  Employees are fearful of losing their jobs and recruiters are in a similar boat with an increasing focus on AI.  In fact, up to 46% of work activities in Australia are under threat from automation in the next 10 years.  23% of HR Professionals surveyed in recent research from IBM have concerns that AI in HR will increase bias in hiring and talent development.  As the algorithms and processes behind AI and automation in the recruitment process are set by humans, it’s increasingly important that they should align with the HR and people management strategies of the business.

‘Soft’ skills

 Increasingly, one of the key recruitment trends is for employers to hire for ‘soft skills’ such as collaboration, stakeholder engagement and collaborative thinking.  Referred to as ‘skills of the heart’ by Deloitte, ‘soft skills’ are the currency of the future, state HC Mag.  In fact, our increasing national skills shortage is estimated to increase to a deficit of 29 million skills by 2030 – so how do you adequately recruit for skills that can be difficult to measure? Gerard Ward, co-founder of psychometric testing software company Testgrid, believes that employers should look for candidates from a wide breadth of industries who have varied life experiences, in comparison to the standard candidate recruitment experience of identifying graduate candidates from high-ranking Universities with the most impressive scores.

Candidate Experience

Recruitment is essentially a competitive industry to secure the best and brightest talent.  Gen Y and Z candidates seek out a recruitment experience that is aligned to their goals.  Savvy employers are segmenting their recruitment experience depending on demographic and psychographic data – what candidates are seeking from the organisation, the type of worker (permanent/contract/casual) and matching the candidate journey to candidate expectations.  Gerard Ward, CEO of video interviewing platform Vieple, says that getting the candidate experience right is vital.  Candidates that are satisfied with their candidate experience are 38% more likely to accept a job offer.  Conversely, 87% of candidates feel that a positive recruitment experience can change their mind about a company that they were once unsure about.  Additionally, 83% of candidates feel that a negative interview experience can change their mind about a company they were once positive about.

Which of these recruitment trends could improve the recruitment strategy for your business?

Does your business require recruitment support?  Speak to the recruitment team at Flexi Personnel.