Trends are changing faster than ever. This makes it necessary to stay up-to-date with what’s happening and take notice of people’s needs to better cater to consumers. These apply to HR practitioners as well.

Each year, the evolution of recruitment seems to continue faster than the year before with no better example than the ongoing pandemic last year. For one, more positions now come with the option to work remotely. Another being employers ensuring an enchanting candidate experience during the hiring process. Instead of it being a one-way relationship in the eyes of the applicant, HR has been focusing on making candidates feel their contributions would be valued with the company actually benefiting from them.

There are plenty of ongoing trends that HR professionals must keep track of especially amid the pandemic. It’s going to be essential to navigating through the year with a lot of research and data-driven predictions, but here are some that you must take note of.

1. Shift to “Quality of Hire” as one of the major recruiting metrics over the next 5 years

As we enter 2021, we can expect “Quality of Hire” to be one of the most significant metrics HR professionals will pay close attention to, more so than the traditional  “Time to Fill.”

Why is that? Simply because it’s the KPI that is the most critical and that has the most impact on a business. Quality of Hire is the value a new hire adds to a company. On-boarding a talent fast doesn’t necessarily mean they will have the best performance or a long tenure at an organization.

With Quality of Hire, companies can better assess increases in employee engagement, productivity levels, and job satisfaction as well as a decrease in turnover costs.

2. Companies will invest more in tools and technologies

This is common in recruiting today as technology is integrated into almost every aspect of recruiting from finding candidates to video interviewing and assessing them. However, we can expect that companies will invest more in acquiring better and more automated systems for maximum efficiency. A good example of this is the benefits of investing in a recruiting software, which is at the center of any good recruitment strategy.

Not only will this help reduce tedious tasks and effort, but it will also result in a higher ROI for the business in producing a larger output than normal such as more positions being filled with the right candidates, or improving on key metrics such as turnover. These technologies have the potential to make a company stand out in the market and boost its branding.

Upon successful implementation, these new technologies are quickly adopted and become the new norm in a company’s daily operations.

3. Passive candidates will be more in demand

70% of job seekers are passive. Even if they’re not actively looking for new career opportunities, they are the ones being sought-after by companies.

According to research, these passive talents are 120 times more likely to want to make an impact on your business than active candidates. They also already have the right skill sets and proven experience that will immediately contribute to the business.

However, it may be challenging to pitch to them to join a new company since they’re not actively looking for work, and are most likely already well-established in their current role. Therefore, it’s vital for recruiters to have access to tools that maximize their efficiency. Tools such as Manatal’s AI-based candidate recommendations allow them to more efficiently identify the most suitable candidates within a large set of candidates. This in turn gives them the time to build the relationship with the best candidates which leads to a higher closing-rate.

4. Recruiters will slowly integrate remote working

Recruiters have a compelling voice when it comes to workplace planning. Trends foresee that they will slowly lead the idea of remote work.

Hiring new people doesn’t have to be limited to a single geographic location. With the help of technology and valuable insights and data derived from it, HR professionals can determine the benefits of having a global workforce in terms of productivity and profitability.

Since they would have the necessary reports and analytics to back up this recruitment strategy, HR can convince management to hire candidates anywhere in the world to augment company culture, diversity, and competitive advantage.

5. HR will bridge the talent gap by upskilling and reskilling

The cost of new hires can be minimized by building your current team. Through upskilling and reskilling, it’s possible to bridge the talent gap without the need for additional workers.

This provides so many opportunities for both the employees and the company itself. It teaches your team new skills, allowing them to grow incrementally. This helps the company itself meet its goals and objectives too in the form of possessing talent with advanced skills who take the company forward.

Investing and training employees promotes job satisfaction and builds company culture and morale. The talent market can be competitive, so why not start internally first?

6. Diversity will be valued more in the workplace

85% of employers and hiring managers believe that increasing diversity will be vital to the workplace. This is not just a matter of personal conviction, but it is also advantageous to discover untapped potential that helps the business grow. This is why many companies have already launched initiatives to increase employee diversity in their ranks.

2020 has been a rough year for everyone, but we will come prepared this time around. With these recruitment trends in mind, it’s essential to keep up to date with modern recruitment trends to fully harness all the opportunities the market has to offer.