Top 6 Recruitment Trends in 2020

What's shaping recruiting trends?

The unemployment rate hovers at a record low of 3.5%, a number that has steadily decreased every year since the height of the 2008 financial crisis. A low employment rate brings its own set of unique challenges for recruiting, and with global issues like a trade war with China and the U.K.'s expected departure from the European Union, the global economy might be in for uncertain times.

A slow time to hire means recruiters will need to compete for top talent and recruiting tactics will need to be increasingly innovative. Here are the top six things we see coming in 2020:

1. Recruiting with Flexibility 

A competitive hiring market means offering perks to employees, including one that's increasingly prioritized by job seekers: flexibility. According to a 2019 survey conducted by the International Workplace Group, 80% of respondents said they'd choose the job offer that came with flexibility over the one that did not. Furthermore, 85% of businesses responded that productivity actually increased in their workplace due to more flexibility.

Offering flexibility as a job perk, i.e., allowing employees to work some time from home and other hours at the office, can help you gain an advantage versus businesses offering positions that do not include flexibility. Flexibility, of course, can depend on the type of job and technology involved and is most suitable for employees who can work remotely via their laptops.

2. Hiring outside your target market

The shortage of workers who are traditionally qualified for specific jobs means employers will continue to look outside their traditional target markets. This means hiring will not necessarily be based on prior job experience, but based on the candidate's potential for growth and the ability to be trained on the spot.

Employers will also need to look for skills they think will help prospective employees easily adapt to the responsibilities of the job — otherwise known as transferable skills. Transferable skills can include things like dependability, strong communication skills, organization, adaptability and leadership.

3. Video recruiting

Video has been increasingly used by organizations in their recruiting processes to convey what tasks the job entails and to showcase the organization's culture, mission and values. Use of video can help organizations speak to prospects remotely, record interviews for feedback from other team members and assess personality traits.

4. Collaborative recruiting

Building your business through networking and current co-worker connections is a great tactic that can bring quality team members to your organization. An employee referral program that provides incentives to employees who recruit people they know can be highly beneficial to both employer and employee.

According to a CareerBuilder study from the early 2010s, 88% of employers surveyed rated employee referrals higher than all other sources as the best means of generating return-on-investment. When competition for employees is so high, finding new hires through connections rather than job boards is a viable and compelling alternative.

5. Automation

Technology is becoming increasingly more capable, and digging through each resume manually is becoming a thing of the past for large organizations. Automation can help facilitate candidate screening, interview scheduling and skills analysis.

6. Diversity hiring

In 2015, a study performed by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company found that companies with greater racial and gender diversity were 35% more likely to have financial returns higher than their respective industry medians on a national basis.

Whatever recruitment strategy organizations choose to integrate in 2020, methods will ultimately be at the mercy of the job market and the global economy.

While we can't predict the future of the economy, we can guarantee this: Recruitment will be defined by innovation and technology — and the organizations that embrace both will have greater success at recruiting the right employees for the long haul.