LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, surveyed nearly 9,000 recruiters, hiring managers from 39 countries and interviewed industry experts to analyse the state of hiring across the world. Four hot trends stand out – Diversity, New Interviewing Tools, Data, and Artificial Intelligence as the top ideas that will change how talent is hired in 2018.
The Global Recruiting Trends 2018 report offers detailed insights on how these trends will impact recruiters and organisations, as well as how they will create a shift in the recruitment process across industries. These hiring trends showcase how new ideas are putting an end to the transactional and tedious nature of recruitment, and are instead focusing on using strategic methods with a human touch to find high-potential talent.
Irfan Abdulla, Director of Talent and Learning Solutions, LinkedIn India & South Asia, said
Workplaces are evolving faster than ever before, and we are seeing an emergence of new jobs and skill sets in India. Therefore, the Indian recruiter too will undergo a transformation and use new tools to assess high-potential talent. Diversity will be key in how people hire this year, and a strong assessment of soft skills such as leadership and communication, along with digital skills will be imperative. To arrive at the right choice, companies in India are now using data, analytics and insights to make better decisions.
Here is a rundown of the 4 key global recruiting trends that will shape the future of talent acquisition and how companies will hire talent in the years to come:
Diversity: The new global mindset and the hot source of corporate growth
- 81% of talent acquisition leaders and hiring managers in India say that diversity will be the top trend affecting how they hire, which is much higher than the global average of 78%
- Companies are prioritizing diversity for a plethora of reasons, with growing evidence that diversity along with inclusion and belonging, enhances productivity, promotes innovation and a higher engagement
- 78% of companies prioritize diversity to improve company culture; 62% do so to boost financial performance; and 49% to better represent customers
- Gender [71%], Race [49%], and Age [48%] are the red-hot topics where companies are focusing their diversity efforts
- Companies are focusing on all three – diversity, inclusion, and belonging, and looking ahead we will see more companies disentangling the concepts and measuring belonging
New Interviewing Models: Reinventing the interview with a blend of traditional with smart models
- Higher than the global average of 56%, 61% of Indian respondents say that interviewing innovations are extremely important to the future of hiring
- According to the survey, companies continue to believe in the popularity and effectiveness of traditional interview techniques with giving maximum emphasis to structured interviews [88%] and behavioral interviews [89%]
- Talent leaders find interviewer bias [42%] and limited ability to assess soft skills [63%] and weaknesses [57%] as the most prevalent shortcomings of traditional interviews
- To overcome this, hiring managers are increasingly looking at smarter interview models and 5 techniques have come on the scene to improve the old model: Soft skills assessments [59%], job auditions [54%], meeting in casual settings [53%], virtual reality assessments [28%] and video interviews [18%] are considered the most useful interview innovations
- Online soft skills assessments measure traits like teamwork and curiosity and give a more holistic picture of candidates earlier in the process. In job auditions, companies pay candidates to do real work so that they can observe skills in action. Casual interviews typically take place over a meal and can offer a unique look into candidate character. With Virtual Reality [VR], companies immerse candidates in simulated 3-D environments to test their skills in a standardized way. Video interviews can be recorded or live and help by tapping a broader talent pool in far less time.
Data: The new corporate superpower
- Mexico [61%], Brazil [59%], India [56%] and China [56%] are the 4 countries with the highest number of respondents who believe that using data is the top trend affecting how they hire; The global average is 50%.
- The survey shows that 64% of the talent acquisition professionals use data now, and 79% are even more likely to use it in the next two years.
- 69% of talent professionals believe using data can elevate their careers.
- Currently, the 5 most common uses of data in talent acquisition are to increase retention [56%], evaluate skills gap [50%], build better offers [50%], understand candidate wants [46%], and do workforce planning [41%]. For example, If you’re trying to grasp why employees are leaving, you might look to employee surveys, 360-degree reviews, compensation history, and promotion history to start triangulating an answer.
- The two greatest barriers to using data include poor data quality [42%] and figuring out where to find the data [20%].
Artificial Intelligence [AI]: The secret workhorse
- [76%] of respondents said that AI’s impact on recruiting will be significant and will help them work faster by automating administrative tasks, and smarter by generating insights they wouldn’t think of alone
- Areas where AI will impact recruiting the most include, sourcing candidates [58%], screening candidates [56%] and nurturing candidates [55%].
- 67% of respondents said that AI helps save time and 43% believe that it removes human bias
- AI is the future, but so is human touch. Moreover, research shows that AI is least likely to replace top 5 skills that require personal and emotional engagement like building relationships with candidates, seeing candidate’s potential beyond credentials, judging culture add or culture fit, gauging candidate interpersonal skills, and convincing candidates to accept offers. AI doesn’t replace you; it empowers you.
Survey Methodology
LinkedIn surveyed 8,815 talent acquisition professionals and hiring managers.
- Talent acquisition professionals work in a corporate HR department and must have some responsibility for the hiring process.
- Hiring managers must have some authority over hiring decisions for their team.