The Bleeding Edge: Top Trends in Talent Management
By Rocky White, CEO, The SyN Learning Institute
Companies invested more than three billion dollars in talent assessment in 2014, which is pretty solid evidence that hiring the right people remains one of the most important human resource functions out there. If people are a company’s most valuable resource, then recruiting the right people should be among an organization’s top priorities.
John Sullivan, PhD., a leading talent management expert, studies trends in people analytics. Rather than looking at the most common and widely accepted best practices in hiring, Sullivan focuses on what he calls “bleeding-edge trends” to provide the best prediction of what will most impact recruitment in the near future.
“These trends are unique and rare because they have been adopted by less than five percent of the major firms. However, they are important for all recruiting leaders to know and watch because they signal the path that all progressive firms will eventually have to follow,” says Sullivan.
I appreciate his approach because it pushes leading-edge thinking further by forcing companies to contemplate tomorrow rather than today–a core value at The SyN Learning Institute. We make it our job to scan the horizon for what lies ahead in human resource and talent management in order to bring you the most current thinking and training on those trends.
Top Five Hiring Trends of the Bleeding Edge:
- Eighty-three percent of recruiters report the hiring process power has shifted away from employer, where it has solidly rested for years, to the job candidate where it is likely to grow. In a candidate-driven marketplace, recruiters must increase the hiring speed by quickly identifying the great candidates and selling them on the corporate brand.
- Big data will (and should) influence hiring decisions, but the nuts and bolts of the process will be conducted via the humble mobile phone. While most firms have finally figured out that job applications should be mobile friendly, the best firms are realizing that the mobile platform should dominate every area of recruiting because of its versatility and high response rate. It will be used for interviews, candidate skill assessment, offer-letter acceptance and signature.
- Leading firms have already figured out there is a significant shortage of talented and up-to-date recruiters. Sullivan says we can expect to see bidding wars over the few available top corporate recruiters. A lack of leading-edge recruiter training will, unfortunately, add to the problem.
- Résumés will become optional, and online profiles will become the norm for referrals and initial applications. The top five percent of major companies have already eliminated the “résumé update wait” by accepting LinkedIn profiles, which generally offer a more in-depth look at a candidate, and, more importantly, are more accurate than a résumé. “LinkedIn profiles are viewed by so many individuals that any misstatements would be instantly discovered,” says Sullivan.
- Increased turnover rates will have a major impact on recruitment tactics. Turnover rates continue to spiral upward, up forty-four percent last year over the previous year. This increase has a two-fold impact on hiring efforts: The volume of recruiting will increase significantly, and at the same time, a firm’s reputation for high turnover will negatively impact the ability to recruit new talent. Increasingly, firms will need to begin assessing candidates on their likelihood of an early departure.
The talent management and hiring industries have evolved dramatically over the last decade, and as big data continues to impact the process, the changes will only continue. The SyN Learning Institute’s vast network of leading talent management experts offers the field’s most up-to-date information and training. Our onsite speakers are available to partner with managers in creating pre-hire assessment tools, interview strategies, post-hire reviews and overall talent management guidance. In addition, our ongoing webinar series provide talent management tools on a daily basis. Check out the training solutions of The SyN Learning Institute.
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