The future of job search: 7 striking trends that you as an employer can use to your advantage
The labour market is currently in a state of flux. The digitisation of HR processes has been given a real boost by the COVID-19 crisis. As an employer, you are actively scouting for new talent. For employees too, many aspects of finding and applying for jobs are changing. The traditional CV (with its accompanying cover letter) as well as the job interview are increasingly making way for innovative job application tools. Here’s our overview.
1. Employers are becoming a brand
From a job-seeker’s point of view, recent developments in the labour market have been ideal. Competition between companies for the best talent is getting tougher. For employers, this means making an extra effort to sell your brand as authentically as possible. How? By offering authentic, online information about your company culture, (flexible) working conditions and career opportunities. Your own employees also play an important role in promoting the employer brand and in spotting new colleagues.
2. Your own employees as recruiters
One trend in both talent and job searches is giving your own employees a platform—in the form of testimonials, (success) stories and posts on social media—to inspire and encourage potential colleagues to apply. Put a different way: within the current context of a tight labour market, recruitment in many companies and organisations has become a focus area for all employees, not just the HR department. This also results in a more human and personal approach to recruitment.
3. Digital marketplace of vacancies
The days of circling a job advert in the newspaper are long gone. Today, companies need to be highly visible online, for example, via job portals or professional network groups. These databases function as ‘marketplaces’ for employers, recruiters and job seekers, with digital search and selection tools making it considerably easier to match the two parties. Artificial intelligence and big data can also be used to proactively propose suitable jobs to specific groups of applicants, who in turn can be alerted to interesting vacancies using a variety of digital channels.
4. Applying via WhatsApp
For many job seekers, pen and paper have now been replaced by the keyboard and smartphone. It should therefore come as no surprise that apps like WhatsApp are becoming increasingly popular as application channels. Answering a few questions or tapping a few confirmation buttons makes it very easy for new candidates to indicate their interest in a job offer. Fast, efficient and user oriented!
5. The importance of video applications
Using new digital channels provides an edge, but it can also end up marginalising the human aspect of recruitment. Candidates should not be deterred from using digital selection systems. Video applications are an excellent solution for ensuring that the individual remains at the centre of the process. For employers, the benefit of a video is that it gives you a good idea of the candidate and what they can do for your organisation, within just a few minutes.
We’re happy to share our list of all the advantages:
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Use of this technology has gained momentum because of the COVID-19 crisis, and it’s a trend we expect to grow in the coming years. Note: video applications require the appropriate preparation and a degree of flexibility from both parties. After all, video interviewing remains a distinctly different process to face-to-face interviewing.
6. The cover letter: a thing of the past?
This suggestion might seem harsh, but the fact is that the importance of attaching cover letters to job applications is gradually diminishing. Companies that use recruitment software scan CVs to select applicants. Employers also screen candidates’ skills via other professional networking groups. Our advice to jobseekers is to spend more time and energy on a carefully designed and structured CV than on a cover letter that might end up in the (virtual) waste-paper basket.
7. Artificial intelligence rules!
A robot that screens a CV? Check! A chatbot that helps the HR department with advice about applicants? Check! Online assessments as a valuable source of big data? Check!
AI, chatbots and online screening tools are not a threat to employers and candidates. On the contrary, they offer important advantages. For employers, AI can be a very efficient (pre-)selection procedure. For candidates, it offers an assessment based on objective criteria.
Candidates do have to think carefully beforehand about how best to design their CVs or cover letters because the filters used in screening software attach high value to certain terms.
What about chatbots that your HR department can deploy to guide candidates towards the ideal vacancy, or to pre-select candidates? This tireless 24/7, first-line assistance can relieve recruiters and HR staff of certain routine tasks, freeing up their time for more human contact with applicants. A win-win for all parties.
