It is verily a battlefield out there. In this age of ever increasing competition and advancing technology, more so with every passing day, corporate are forced to rethink their strategy to stay ahead in the race. In any organization, employees are among the deciding factors for it to be a success or fading into oblivion. So hiring the best of the lot of candidates available is pivotal to the success of an organization.
Gone are the days when candidates walk in with their resume comprising sheets of paper meticulously mentioning their accomplishment tucked in a file. Come digital age, both employees and employers are showcasing their brand image in the virtual space.
These days, candidates are creating and managing their professional identity in professional networking sites like LinkedIn. These sites create a fair ground for employers and employees to interact and understand the requirements of each other on a deeper level. So there is a paradigm shift from the conventional resume to a digital hiring model. For a candidate interacting with a prospective employer or vice versa has never been easier.
When professional networking sites have grabbed their chunk of the bite, can social media be far behind? These days there is a surge in professionals, who have firmly established their presence in social networks and to get a complete picture of your prospective candidate be it their aptitude, personality traits or other relevant info, profiling would be equally beneficial on this front also.
A new revolution is sweeping across the tech space these days. Well no prices for guessing! It is “Big Data”. Let us take a look at what this term implies and how it is related to our topic of discussion. There is a huge talent pool these days but how to get your best pick is the million dollar question.
Be it candidate profiles in the professional networks and/or social media networks there is a lot of data out there to be assessed. Now hiring managers can’t be expected to spend their valuable time rummaging through the endless data day in and out. Here is where data analytics tools like Big Data make their presence felt. They apply intelligence to effectively analyze the candidates’ data to get useful information and in the process help organizations make better informed and strategic decisions. In this case, aid to get the right man for the right post.
It should be kept in mind that digital hiring alone is not enough, equal importance needs to be placed on face to face interviews to get the right hire.
Gamification is another innovative method of hire that has gained prominence of late. This method of hire aims at making the process of hiring easy going and interesting. In this method of selection, candidates play the part of gamers. Their overall performance is assessed to grade the candidate accordingly. This methodology is adopted in companies requiring work of creative nature or work blended with innovation.
Some of the other notable trends being followed in the industry are as follows:
- Hiring has become more of task oriented than job oriented.
- Professional networking sites outsourcing candidates for positions in the company.
- Optimum use of employee referral networks.
- Effective marketing strategy in the online space to invite top talent.
- Creation of communities linked to organizations. The actual office environment is simulated in these organizations and potential employees get experience of working in real time. At the appropriate time, they can be seamlessly integrated into the mainstream.
- Online interviews such as through Skype are quite common already, but another trend is catching up. Prospective candidates can upload a video detailing their profile online. This can be viewed as per the recruiter’s convenience.
We have seen some of the latest trends in recruiting. It is important to keep in mind there is no one correct recipe for hiring. It may depend on the organization, their expectations in terms of skills and a lot many factors. But one look at the statistics, there is certainly a lot of hope present.