Recruiting Trends

1. Treat Your Candidate as Your Customer

With the lowest unemployment rate ever in the EU and increased job opportunities, it’s harder to

attract talent than ever before. The tides are turning: it’s no longer about what the candidate can do for

you. It’s all about what you can do for the candidate.

This means selling your company to candidates like you sell your services to clients. People are the

single most valuable part of who you are, and they need to see and feel that.

How?

• Create an easy-to-navigate, attractive career site. Be transparent about how you care for your

employees and the kind of company culture your workplace practices. What is it that sets you

apart?

• Money ≠ Happiness. Many companies mistake money as the key factor in attracting hard-to-find

talent when in reality, engineers would consider a pay cut for their ideal job. Offer growth

opportunities that speak to your target talent and fits with their goals

2. Apply on-the-go

Meet your candidates where they spend most of their time: on their phones. Our analytics show that

approximately 33% of applications come through mobile devices. Catch their attention by optimising

your application process for mobile use.

How?

• Cut the application length. One-in-five of candidates drop out after spending 10 minutes on an

application. The exact talent you're losing in your pipe is the kind you want – they're in demand

and value their own time. Show that you value their time too!

• Create tailored questions for a specific job instead of requiring a cover letter and CV. Use

multiple choice questions or insert a range for candidates to place themselves - You can

even get to know the candidate through short video responses.

3. Automate the admin

Odds are, administrative tasks are stealing your time. In an ideal world, the majority of your time would

be spent working with candidates and letting the administrative hassle around recruiting processes

take care of themselves. Thanks to HR tech, this is becoming a reality for many people.

How?

• Invest in HR tech that automates. For example, moving candidates through a process

automatically dependent on response.

• Automate the most time-consuming tasks. Learn how to automate admin that saturates your

time, like organising candidates into specific stages or scheduling interviews. The time investment

this takes is about 4 minutes. The return of it is many, many more hours spent meeting candidates

and making faster hires.

4. Respect your candidates

According to CareerBuilder and SilkRoad’s latest survey, 68% of employees believe their experience

as a candidate reflects how the company treats its people. With technological advantages making it

easier to stay in closer contact with just about anyone, it is only natural to stay in touch with those

interested in joining your company.

How?

• Respond to applications quickly. 55% of applicants move on if they haven't heard back from

you within two weeks.

• Keep candidates engaged. Stay in touch through direct chats, email, or text message. Be willing

to answer questions and speak to them about the opportunity, even before they apply.

The better you take care of your candidates, the better they speak about you, which is arguably the

most effective kind of marketing. It’s not news, but always a good reminder :)

5. Know the facts

Knowing how your candidates find and connect with you is the single best way to optimize your

recruitment. Track where your job ads are gaining most traction or how long a recruitment takes -

these measurements happen automatically and are easy to understand.

How?

• Invest in an all-in-one ATS. Yes, again. An ATS automatically tracks how long your candidates

are in specific stages, or which kinds of platforms and devices your candidates are applying from

(and a lot more). Then? Optimize.

• Use an NPS survey. Don't be afraid to ask your candidates about their experience. Learn about

yourselves from their point of view - this helps you target and adapt to them more authentically.