Mobilizing HR - The Trends Affecting HR and Recruitment

The HR space is ripe for change - and it’s about time.  In an industry that’s had very little change in decades, there’s starting to be a lot of noise around disrupting HR processes and leading the charge is the integration of technology in traditionally people-to-people processes.

Let’s look at the three trends that are specifically affecting the HR Space.  They are:

The increasing importance of social networks in both the hiring and retention of staff

The use of Mobile technology to connect and stay connected with people - or what we call “creating digital intimacy”

The use of video as a communication tool.

But it’s not just technology that’s having an affect, there are also workforce trends that are having a big impact.  They are:

1. There is a war for good talent – and it’s going to get harder to find.  According to the Institute for Global Futures, a global war for Smart Talent will be the top driver of competitive advantage for businesses, as educated, skilled and experienced employees will be in high demand and short supply.  And from research we’ve just done through our network of both employers and brands, we found that finding quality staff is still the number 1 problem – and a priority.  Even huge brands with their own career sites, which garnish thousands of candidates for them, still report that finding the quality needles in those haystacks is a big challenge.

2. The trend to, and increasing demand for, flexibility in the workplace will not only be desirable but will be a key in retaining the best talent

3.The move to a more flexible, project-based workforce will mean that workers will be even more transient and the best workers will have even more opportunity to handpick the best jobs.

So what does all of this mean for you?

Well, let’s start with finding staff.

The HR industry has been typically the same for decades.  The last major change to this was the birth of online job boards – aggregated sites with lots of jobs in one place.  In fact, job boards – an “online classified” model - and many of the recruitment methods used with them don’t differ from the way things were done before the advent of those sites.

However, digital technology and, more importantly, the rise of mobile, social and video technology is set to, and has, a huge impact on where people are and how they connect.

Like it or not - mobile is where it’s at.

You only have to wait for a bus or train – or catch one – to see that just about everyone looking at a small screen.  It’s how we connect these days.  The days of instant gratification are well and truly here.

We now have information at our fingertips – everything that’s pertinent to us.  Any question we want answered – from what to have for dinner to quantum physics explanations, are just a Google search away.

So we know that our audience is now, for the most part, mobile therefore we have to be able to reach them on mobile devices and satisfy their instant gratification mentality.

Mobile websites aren’t doing it any more nor do they satisfy the need for instant gratification because, for a job seeker, they’re a wasteland of silence.  Which leads in to the next point – the importance of social engagement.

In the next part of this series, we’ll discuss the importance of social engagement and how social platforms are and will have a huge effect on how we recruit in the next decade.