The Top 3 Recruitment Trends to Watch Out for in 2020

Recruitment trends guest post by Caroline Gleeson, CEO and co-founder of Occupop

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed over the past month it’s that in both Ireland and the UK, business is truly booming! Recently, Ireland experienced an unemployment rate of 4.8%, a 13 year low, something that has no doubt been boosted by tech giants who have made Ireland their second home.

According to IDA Ireland, our green isle is home to over 900 software companies, each of which employs 24,000 people and generates €16 billion of exports annually.

Although the increase in recruitment is positive, from my experience as a co-founder and ex-recruiter, I believe it presents a new set of challenges, including a tightening labour market alongside shorter employment timeframes. Today employers face fierce levels of competition in order to hire the best candidates for their business, faster and more effectively.

I believe there are three key recruitment trends for employers to watch out for the next 11 months, not just in tech but in other industries also. These are:

1. AI, and it’s ability to help remove timely recruitment admin

A recent survey by Modern Hire found that 50% of firms use AI to source and screen candidates. AI-led recruitment is becoming more available for smaller companies, enabling them to significantly reduce the CV screening time and action the best candidates quickly, much like their larger competitors. A common myth about AI screening is that the AI deletes any CVs that don’t meet the criteria. This is not the case for the majority of AI screening tools. The control still remains in the recruiters’ hands.

Another AI-led trend that continues to grow is incorporating chatbots into the recruitment process. Chatbots allow for any time communication with candidates, ability to register interest, instant job apply for open roles and interview scheduling, all leading to a more efficient process that can be easily adapted to suit companies key hiring needs.

2. A shift in companies needs and the need to hire for soft skills

It’s estimated that between now and 2030, demand for social and emotional skills will grow across all industries by 22% in Europe. AI and automation will re-shape traditional roles with hard skills being most susceptible to automation. Harvard Business Review has outlined the following soft skills and emotional competencies as being most advantageous for candidates to possess to beat the AI and automation takeover. They are:

— Results-oriented
— Relationship-focused
— Process and rule followers
— Innovative and disruptive thinkers
— Pragmatic

From my experience, It is important for companies to look at their business and assess where they plan to automate and what are the future trends that will influence the roles they hire for. I think that, once this is established, the skills necessary to carry out roles now and into the future should be outlined in the job description and assessed during interview stages. Tools like interview scorecards, game-based assessments and AI video interviewing allows HR & hiring managers easily assess candidates for both hard and soft skills necessary to carry out roles but also their ability to grow and adapt within the company along with future of work trends.

3. Automation will be leveraged so HR teams have more time to focus on retention

Certain HR trends remain key to employee retention, and ultimately attraction particularly among tech firms. In 2020, well-being, remote working, company culture and learning & development need to be prioritised more. However, according to CareerBuilder, the average HR manager is losing 14 hours a week. This is through manually completing tasks that often take up a significant amount of time.

Automation is becoming a key recruitment tool to give HR teams more time to focus on retention strategies. In the same CareerBuilder report, it was found that 72% of employers predict that elements of their talent acquisition will be automated within the next decade. Such time-intensive processes that can now be significantly reduced include interview scheduling, multiple email, workflows, hiring manager review. In addition to this, from my experience, the automation of these processes also allows for more satisfied candidates.

Caroline Gleeson is CEO and co-founder of Occupop. For more see Occupop.com.