What’s the Next Big Thing in Recruiting?

by SHARLYN LAUBY on OCTOBER 28, 2014

(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by our friends at iCIMS, a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) talent acquisition solutions. The iCIMS Talent Platform was recognized as a 2014 Cloud Computing Excellence Award winner by Cloud Computing Magazine. Very well deserved! Enjoy the post.)

Sometimes I wonder if waiting for the “Next Big Thing” has become a new sport. Earlier this month at the HR Technology Conference, I felt like people were waiting for this clear signal of “Next Big Thing” in recruiting.

Whenever I feel that way, I have a tendency to start at the basics. Like with a definition. Even when I know the definition. It helps me focus. So, recruiting is defined as the activity of enrolling, hiring, and/or engaging a person either in an organization or as a supporter.

After three plus days of educational sessions and expo hall conversations, know what I realized? We all hold the key to the “Next Big Thing”. Instead of looking for it to happen, we need to make it happen ourselves.

1. Refocus our recruiting goals and strategies. The fundamental goal of recruiting doesn’t change. It’s to hire the best people in the most effective and efficient way possible. The first part of the sentence doesn’t change. We will always be looking for the best talent. But the second part – effective and efficient – is always changing. That’s why we have to find solutions to scale our efforts. Including recruiting technology solutions as part of organizational goals sends the message that talent is a “Big” deal within the company.

2. Rework the use of tools such as mobile, social and video in the recruitment process. By now, we understand that video, social and mobile are not fads or trends du jour. It doesn’t matter how much we personally use them. Our recruiting strategy must include them. HR departments have a real opportunity to usher in the “Next Big” wave of engagement with mobile recruiting, social sharing, and video interviews.

3. Revise our hiring policies and practices. If we’re going to refocus our strategy and rework the tools, then it’s obvious we have to revise our policies and practices. With the help of an applicant tracking system (ATS), we can streamline the hiring process. We can also create a more collaborative hiring environment. Building high performing recruiting teams will be “Next” on the minds of senior leaders as the search for talent continues to get tougher.

4. Refine the candidate experience. There’s lots of talk these days about the candidate experience – and with good reason. The candidate experience impacts the bottom-line of the organization. What candidates think of your organization impacts who applies, who gets hired, who takes care of the customer, and therefore how well the company performs. The candidate experience isn’t a “set it and forget it” strategy. Smart organizations will build talent networks to keep a constant pulse on what’s “Next” with talent.

5. Redefine employment metrics and data. I had a boss who always said, “What gets measured gets done.” It’s a slight variation of the famous Peter Drucker quote. We have to make sure our methods are successful. Using data from our recruiting technology allows us to establish the metrics we will use to define success, evaluate our progress, and make adjustments as necessary. Technology takes the excuse “It’s impossible to determine those numbers.” off the table.

What’s great about this approach is we can do one of these, all of them or a combination to create the “Next Big Thing” for our organizations. If your organization already has recruitment technology in place, then it becomes a question of stepping up your game.