Navigating your top challenges when hiring employees in 2020

Candidates still have the pick of the bunch

Skills shortages continue to grip industries nationwide, forcing organisations to enter the ring to recruit (and retain) the top talent. With more open job vacancies than skilled candidates, this remains one of the greatest obstacles for today’s recruiters, yet the solution might be easier than you think.

A few simple changes can make all the difference, which is why more and more employers are pouring resources into improving one fundamental aspect: the candidate experience.

By embracing recruitment process automation to phase out lengthy applications, introduce unbiased screening measures, build talent pools and communicate with candidates at each stage of the recruitment process, you can now engage with candidates like never before.

What’s more, with a robust HR, recruitment and onboarding software solution, you can do all of this through a fully branded portal to create a unique candidate journey and onboarding experience that will put you streets ahead of the competition.

Only creativity will cut it

Gone are the days of recruiters simply connecting candidates with jobs. The modern-day recruiter must now wear many hats; including those of both marketers and industry experts.

Enter ‘recruitment marketing’, a recently emerging trend also known as the pre-applicant stage of talent acquisition, whereby recruiters focus their efforts on attracting and nurturing talent to their organisation by proactively marketing to them.

This talent acquisition strategy has not only been proven to help strengthen employer brands but also effectively reach candidates on social media and through better-optimised company career pages. Plus, in line with current marketing trends, 2020 will see an even greater transition towards inbound recruitment, where recruiters can target candidates through branded content to increase brand recognition and engagement.

Whilst for many this concept may be a step into the unknown, talent acquisition software can not only help to take the admin onus off your department, allowing you more time to get your creative juices flowing, but also help you to manage and bring your new initiatives to life.

However, if that doesn’t quite swing it for you, maybe the significant cost savings and numerous other benefits attributed to recruitment marketing might!

Data under-utilised or data overload?

Recruitment can be an incredibly rewarding career, though sometimes it can feel like the time to reflect on previous experience for future improvements is… non-existent.

From reporting on your open vacancies to application drop-offs, candidate source quality to rejection reasons - there are a multitude of areas to utilise and manipulate data to better inform your decision making. But if you’re currently relying on good old spreadsheets, you’ll know first-hand that this can be extremely time-intensive. Not to mention placing you at risk of GDPR and other compliance breaches.

So how can hiring departments mitigate this risk and save time whilst getting to the heart of the information that they need? The answer lies within an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) – a centralised solution for which to handle all of your recruitment and hiring needs.

And the beauty of this when it comes to data is that everything is in one place.

At the click of a button, you can gain access to hundreds of useful reports and, thus, key insights to help streamline your hiring process. Though don’t underestimate the value of being able to obtain such information so easily.

It may just be what helps give you the edge when it comes to attracting the best candidates.

It’s safe to say that there aren’t many hiring challenges that can’t be overcome through automation, and if the brilliant technological advances in the previous few years have been anything to go by, we can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2020

Get in touch today to learn how _­Access HR and recruitment solutions can help to support your organisation.