three corporate recruiting trends you can’t afford to ignore

Copyright © 2013 Recruiting Trends, Diversified Business Communications 2

Three Corporate Recruiting Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore – How LinkedIn, Mobile, and Big Data Are Changing the Game

The world of recruiting changes so rapidly. New trends, touted as the latest and greatest, constantly vie for attention, while yesterday’s supposedly important trends seem to quickly lose luster. For recruiters and other talent acquisition professionals, knowing which trends are truly game-changing is essential. But how do you separate the hype from the need-to-know?

Research from Recruiting Trends, a leading resource for the employee recruitment industry, finds that LinkedIn, mobile, and Big Data are being leveraged for talent acquisition – but not as expected. Yesterday’s game has already changed. Here are three trends that should now be a part of every corporate recruiting strategy.


Three CorporaTe reCruiTing Trends You Can’T afford To ignore

1. LinkedIn to drive corporate branding and streamline recruiting

In 2013, 46%, almost half, of the US workforce has a profile on LinkedIn.1 It is the fastest growing recruiting site, and recruiters are increasingly turning to LinkedIn to source and recruit new candidates.

A Recruiting Trends September 2013 survey finds 84% percent of corporate recruiters are using LinkedIn. While this is an overwhelming majority, it means that 16% of corporate recruiters are not using LinkedIn. What’s more, 50% of recruiters who do use the business networking site say they are not using LinkedIn profiles for candidate applications. Of course, this may be because many organizations are still wed both philosophically and via their recruiting systems to traditional resumes.

Still, survey data raise important questions: How are recruiters using LinkedIn, and why is it a critical tool?

While it seems obvious that recruiters are using LinkedIn for sourcing new candidates, what’s surprising is that almost 60% of recruiters are using LinkedIn to build a corporate brand.2

Boosted in part by a stronger economy, LinkedIn has in many ways turned the recruiting world on its head. It has effectively provided the candidate with the tools to self-promote and moved some of the traditional “recruiting leverage” into the hands of the candidate. Now a recruiter has to make an even stronger effort to meaningfully connect with candidates, while making the case for why their company is valuable (employer branding) and making the application process as easy as possible.

Source: Recruiting Trends

Have you used LinkedIn Profiles for candidate applications?

Yes, with resumes,

40%

Yes, instead of resumes, 7%

50+3+40+7

No, 50%

Don’t Know, 3%

Identifying new candidates

Social networking

Building corporate brand

Providing corporate information

One of many sources of “big data”

Screening current applicants

Monitoring existing employees

0% 50% 100%

93%

72%

57%

46%

46%

38%

10%


How are you using LinkedIn?



LinkedIn has become the professional profile of record, which has led recruiters to increasingly post jobs only on LinkedIn. As many as 48%3 of recruiters currently post jobs on LinkedIn, using it as their only social media source, while 7%4 of recruiters accept LinkedIn profiles in place of resumes.

Coca-Cola, a global leader in soft drinks and beverages, gives candidates the option to apply using only their LinkedIn profile. The company estimates that 11% of applications come through in this way, with a 2% hire rate. It may not seem high, but considering 50% of Coca-Cola’s hires are internal, it’s actually a sizeable number, resulting in potentially more candidates and hires than any single job board.

LinkedIn profiles are increasingly used to not only source new candidates but to vet resumes, add color and history to traditional resumes, and integrate with existing recruiting and HR software platforms, allowing for an improved candidate application experience, while streamlining recruiting and other HR processes.

As LinkedIn usage continues to increase on both the recruiter and the candidate side, talent acquisition professionals and job seekers can’t afford not to leverage this critical tool.

“I don’t see how you can be an effective recruiter without knowing how to navigate around LinkedIn.”

– August Nielsen, Director of HR,Veterans United Home Loans

Source: LinkedIn

• 45 million LinkedIn people searchesper month

• 27% of LinkedIn unique visitingmembers are on a smartphone ortablet

• LinkedIn holds 2.7 millionmobile-optimized company pages



2. Mobile technology puts further “recruiting leverage” into the hands of the candidateand expedites recruiting process

While LinkedIn, social media, and job boards make it easier for candidates to self-promote and apply for jobs, mobile is also becoming an increasingly important recruiting platform. Candidates are not only viewing websites and LinkedIn via smartphones and tablets for the purpose of research, they’re applying for jobs. LinkedIn reports over 45 million people searches during the month of February 2013.5

Increasingly, employers are looking to create mobile friendly careers sites which allow candidates to apply right from their phone. As one recent Recruiting Trends survey respondent put it, “We use the Apply with LinkedIn API because it is the industry standard and the quickest way to implement a mobile apply now feature.”

The Recruiting Trends survey finds more than 40% of recruiters have received an application using a mobile or tablet device, which is a strong sign of candidate interest. Data from other sources show that between 15-30% of applicants are viewing and applying for positions using mobile technology.

Indeed, a leading job search engine, claims to have the number one free business app; with more than 23 million job applications submitted since its January 2012 launch, it currently averages more than 3.5 million applications per month.6 Indeed also designates which jobs can be applied for directly from its mobile app and finds that these jobs often have higher applications rates, strongly suggesting that recruiters may be missing

out on candidates due to not being accessible during that critical mobile window.

Coca-Cola is planning to implement a mobile application solution by the end of the year to make the application process easier, and because the company believes it is missing out on applicants, particularly in some markets.

“We see a great need for mobile, especially in the larger emerging markets like China, India, Africa,” says Tim Conley, Talent Systems Consultant for Coca-Cola. “People may not have laptops or bandwidth but everyone seems to have a smartphone.”

Have you had candidates apply for a job using a mobile

or tablet device?

Don’t Know, 38%

Yes, 40%

No, 22%Source: Recruiting Trends

40+22+38



Not only is there an increase in candidate use of mobile technology, but increasingly recruiters are using mobile and tablet technology to make their jobs easier.

“Recruiters are pretty much working from their tablets,” says August Nielsen, Director of HR for Veterans United Home Loans. “It makes it easier to get out of the office. If you’re [spending] over 50% of your time in the office, you’re not doing what we want. Recruiters use their phones and their tablets to get out so they’re not lugging their laptops.”

Mobile is being used in a variety of ways in the recruiting world, including texting interview meeting requests, managing auto-fill application forms, creating and saving profiles, accessing recruiting site analytics, and tying into HR systems once an applicant has been hired.

Mobile makes the job search process easier for candidates, and eases the recruiting process for talent acquisition professionals. Among recruiters, the general consensus is that having the tools at your fingertips facilitates finding the right candidates and saves time.


• 71% of recruiters use asmartphone for at least somepercentage of their recruiting efforts



3. Big Data abounds, but the right tools and a personal touch still seal the deal

The amount of data available via the web, job boards, social media, and other recruiting resources has exponentially increased the information a recruiter can find when sourcing. It has also increased the data that can be found on individual candidates. Sifting through available information can be time consuming, frustrating, and overwhelming.

And often candidates feel the same way as they are bombarded with email, unwelcomed job solicitations, and a vast number of positions to weed through.

Having the right tools and software is integral to improving the experience for recruiters and job seekers alike.

Recruiting software that integrates social referrals, analytics, contingent sourcing, search engine marketing, and candidate self-service, can make candidate search easier. Additionally, for large companies, software can monitor the external environment and look across the internal salaried, part-time, and contingent workforce to help source the right person from the existing employee database.

But even after a recruiter has used tools and data to uncover the right candidates, there is still the matter of candidate engagement.

“LinkedIn is one of the better sourcing tools if you want to find someone immediately. But people aren’t responding as quickly as they used to,” says Michael Goldberg, Director of Talent Acquisition for Freeman, one of the world’s largest face-to-face marketing firms.

According to Goldberg, LinkedIn, job boards, and other sources can help you find the right candidates, but you still have to search to find their contact information and then personally reach out.

In the end, after all the searches, analyses, and research, sometimes the old-fashioned phone call is the quickest route to recruiting success.

These three corporate recruiting trends provide payback as they further candidate engagement, enhance the candidate experience, increase recruiting efficiency, and improve quality of hire. Can your recruiting organization afford to ignore these trends?

“Successful recruiters aren’t hiding behind emails; they’re picking up the phone. They’re doing a little research to make that first contact meaningful.”

- Michael Goldberg, Director of Talent Acquisition, Freeman



(Endnotes)1 LinkedIn website and US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)2 Recruiting Trends September 2013 survey on LinkedIn and mobile usage in recruiting3 Masters in Human Resources Degree Guide: http://www.masters-in-human-resources.org/recruiting/ 4 Recruiting Trends September 2013 survey on LinkedIn and mobile usage in recruiting5 Martin, David. “45 Million Mobile LinkedIn Searches.” ERE, Mar. 18, 2013: http://www.ere.net/2013/03/18/45-mil-lion-monthly-mobile-linkedin-searches/ 6 Indeed: http://blog.indeed.com/

As part of its ongoing effort to provide the talent acquisition community with best and next practices, Recruiting Trends periodically conducts industry studies and surveys, such as the survey cited in this white paper. For more information on data and methodology, please contact Recruiting Trends.

About Recruiting Trends

Since 1970, Recruiting Trends has been dedicated to serving the recruiting industry. RecruitingTrends.com and its companion biweekly newsletter, Recruiting Trends Bulletin, reach senior-level recruiters and human resource and talent management leaders within small, medium, and global enterprises and are the industry sources for key decision makers and influencers in the profession to read about what’s going on in their world. Recruiting Trends features articles and research that explore current and future trends, share leading-edge best practices, identify tactical recruiting expertise, and offer industry insight.

Recruiting Trends also hosts Recruiting Trends Best Practice Webinars featuring recruiting experts who discuss relevant and timely sourcing, recruiting, and on-boarding topics. In addition, Recruiting Trends holds the Recruiting Trends Conference and other live even.

In April 2013, Recruiting Trends was acquired by Diversified Business Communications, a global organization operating on four continents, and a major independent producer of events and media worldwide.

http://www.masters-in-human-resources.org/recruiting/

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http://www.ere.net/2013/03/18/45-million-monthly-mobile-linkedin-searches/

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