The Evolving Recruitment Landscape

The Needs of Job Seekers

In this post-pandemic world, candidates of all ages and at all levels are looking for:

• Wellbeing at work
• Work/life balance
• Empathy and honesty through the hiring process
• Pay transparency and pay equity
• Fair, inclusive hiring practices

In research compiled by the University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, work wellbeing is shown to be an important factor in recruiting processes. In one analysis, candidates had “screened out” companies with poor wellbeing grades.

Work/life balance has repeatedly been shown to help attract and retain talent. According to the Oxford report, several studies have demonstrated that encouraging family support and manager support decreased turnover. In a 2020 GitLab report about remote work, 34% of employees “found the ability to care for family a top benefit of remote work,” while 43% appreciated spending “more quality time with family.”

Job seekers are also searching for streamlined recruitment processes that show respect for their time and investment, as well as honesty about working conditions. Slow hiring processes and lack of communication – or lack of “informed” communication – from the employer is a big put-off which can repel candidates. In fact, some form of “employer ghosting” might be an important contributing factor to “candidate ghosting.” 

In an atmosphere of increasing regulation for pay disclosure around the globe, pay transparency is more commonly expected by job seekers. A prime example of such legislation is the European Union Pay Transparency Directive, which came into effect in June 2023; it gives European member countries three years to put into their national laws a wide-ranging set of pay transparency rules, including mandatory gender pay gap reporting and obligations for pre-employment pay disclosure. In the United States, the rise in regulatory pressures – and candidate demands – has pushed an increasing number of companies to disclose pay information, even ahead of regulation. In  August 2023, for the first time, half of Indeed’s job postings included some type of employer-provided salary information; this is up from 18% in 2020. Such trends can be seen in many parts of the world. 

Job seekers also expect fair, inclusive hiring practices. In the job search process, there is nothing more off-putting than encountering non-inclusive language – in job postings or during interviews – or unfair job requirements. Two disparate examples are a) entry-level jobs requiring three or more years of experience, and b) higher-level positions where an Ivy League education is expected. In many cases, such demands create unfair barriers to employment for frustrated job seekers, while depriving organizations of qualified personnel. Candidates seek employers who treat them fairly and sensitively, according to their capacities and motivation.

Recruitment Processes Under Strain

In this evolving hiring landscape, recruiters are facing numerous challenges:

• A skills or talent gap in many sectors
• Limited talent pools
• Understaffed talent acquisition teams
• Inefficient processes

With ever-evolving business models and technologies, many sectors are experiencing a skills gap that puts great pressure on recruiters to find solutions. A 2023 PwC Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey refers to “a widening skills gap” in multiple sectors. Increased awareness and action concerning environmental issues have exacerbated this problem.

At the same time, qualified candidate pools are perceived to be “harder to come by,” according to a 2023 Frost & Sullivan report. In one study, close to 50% of U.S. and U.K. employers blamed the “poor quality of candidates” as their main hiring problem. In addition, there is often a high no-show rate at hiring events.

These skills gaps within organizations and in external candidate pools make it all that more important to be effective in finding top talent. Given the competition for talent, as well as the evolving needs of candidates, recruiters must find qualified job seekers and hire at ever-increasing speeds.

Unfortunately, talent acquisition teams are often understaffed, overworked, and mired in time-consuming, rote tasks. According to the Frost & Sullivan report, approximately 80% of talent acquisition time “is spent on manual tasks involving screening and scheduling candidates for interviews.” This situation can lead to an “impersonal” hiring process, with low bandwidth for high-value tasks that require the human touch, such as interacting with qualified, engaged candidates.

The inefficiency of these “traditional” hiring methods leads to both high cost and slow recruitment processes.

Despite these challenges, recruiters sometimes look at potential technology solutions with a degree of reticence for several reasons:

• The number of solutions available
• The existence of cumbersome, non-user-friendly tools
• Tool/service costs not being associated with hiring outcomes

Talent acquisition professionals also express concerns that recruiting automation solutions could lead to them “losing control of key decision points,” or that candidates could be put off by “impersonal,” automated interactions.

In fact, recruiting automation platforms can solve a host of talent acquisition issues, but only if each of these concerns is addressed.

Related: What Is Recruiting Automation?

The Benefits of Recruiting Automation Platforms

Hire Faster and Attract Top Talent

With the appropriate technology, properly implemented, recruiting automation tools can help recruiters attract and hire top talent more quickly. The most effective automation solutions are referred to as “matching and hiring platforms,” as they can optimize the full recruiting process.

Such solutions streamline the sourcing and evaluation processes, by:

• Increasing the quality and quantity of the candidate pool by providing access to a large database of qualified job seekers.
• Attracting more qualified candidates through:
  • Built-In advertising mechanisms
  • Automated matching processes aligned with employer and job seeker preferences
• Improving the evaluation process for items that can be automated, enabling the system to identify the best talent.

These platforms can also optimize virtual and in-person hiring events, by automating screening, skills assessment, interview scheduling, and candidate messaging, and by providing a platform for running events.

All of these features can help organizations optimize the candidate engagement process, by:

• Connecting with candidates quickly
• Keeping candidates engaged throughout the hiring process
• Providing a seamless candidate experience with tool integration

These processes ultimately improve the quality of candidates hired as well as speed to hire.

Related: How to Reduce Time to Hire with Indeed’s Recruiting Automation

Optimize the Recruiter Experience

Recruiting automation systems can significantly improve workflow and optimize talent acquisition processes, by:

• Increasing recruitment productivity and efficiency through the reduction of manual task workloads (especially for tasks with little value-add, such as scheduling)
• Saving time and increasing recruiter bandwidth, so that they can redirect their energies toward tasks with high human intervention value, therefore:     
  • Improving the rate of finding and engaging talent and reducing time to hire
  • Enabling hiring professionals to scale recruiting efforts to the specific needs of each role
  • Reducing cost to hire

Collaboration and Customization

Retaining Control in the Era of Automation

In contrast to some recruiter concerns, with an effective recruiting automation tool, talent acquisition professionals actually have more control over their hiring process. All automated processes are set up based on hiring professionals’ parameters, from the skills associated with each job to the interview process used (e.g., in person, video, call, etc.).

They can connect directly with candidates through the platform and across multiple integrated tools. Good platforms also allow multiple users to collaborate across different steps. In addition, by automating rote tasks, recruiters are free to spend quality time with candidates and set up effective processes.

The key to a robust platform is streamlining an organization’s processes for the best balance of manual and automated tasks. You want to reduce unnecessary manual work to provide flexibility while maintaining control of your environment. The goal is efficiency through automation without sacrificing the human touch.

Optimize Your Platform for Candidate Experience and Recruiter Experience

When selecting and setting up a recruiting automation platform, it is critical to focus on platform ease of use. While the number of tools used should be reduced to a minimum, choosing a system that allows for tool integration is essential to optimize cross-platform processes. Finally, organizations should select an environment that gives different pricing options, including a cost structure based on outcomes.