How to Guesstimate Which Recruiting Trends Actually Matter
Staying on trend doesn’t always matter.
Food trends can be ignored in favor of eating whatever looks good and is on sale.
Fashion trends can be neglected, so long as you stock up on neutrals... Or, for virtual workers like myself, opt for PJs all day every day.
Music trends can actually be detrimental to your life, especially considering the current enthusiasm for EDM.
And fitness trends ought to be ignored at all costs. For the love of bread, moderation, and an injury free body (please stop trying to stand on giant rubber balls whilst balancing a kettlebell on your head!)
But, when trends apply directly to your company, or profession, they do matter.
Winning the war for talent requires that you understand current recruiting trends and implement the ones that work. - Click to Tweet
Especially if your competitors are doing the same. Considering the sheer volume of recruiting trends out there it can be a real pain trying to track them, understand them, and choose which ones to implement. Here are some ways that you can make that process easier.
How to identify which recruiting trends you need to pay attention to:
Watch the Competition
Recruiting can be a lot like marketing, and all good marketers know that keeping your eyes on the competition is essential for success!
Your competitors are your competitors because they are after the same candidates as you. So it follows that the trends that work for them will probably work for you too.
Look at other companies in your field with a similar budget and employer brand. Analyze their hiring strategy, then use that analysis to help improve your own.
If your competition is using Twitter to successfully reach qualified candidates, you should add Twitter to your strategy.
If they tried Pinterest and it was a total disaster, then you can probably skip it.
This is not to say that you should mimic your competition Tweet for Tweet, but learning from their successes and failures can save you a lot of time.
You can then use that time to innovate.
Know what you're working with
Assess your own company culture and employer brand. This will help you determine whether or not a new recruitment trend makes sense for your specific needs.
If you have a youthful culture, and strong brand, then you can use a much broader range of social networks. The trend towards highly visual social recruiting on platforms such as Instagram makes sense for companies like Lululemon. The same cannot be said for an accounting firm.
On a more basic: assess your budget and resources. If you have a minimal budget, and no creative types on your team, then the growing trend towards video recruiting, though popular, is just not a good fit for where your recruiting is at right now.
Follow HR and Recruiting Blogs
Top 10 trends articles are the bread and butter of the blogging industry.
Not only will good blogs provide you with lists of all the latest innovations hitting your industry, but they will also provide you with helpful reviews, case studies, and tutorials.
Here are 7 blog picks for HR trend spotting:
Follow Marketing Blogs
Basic marketing strategy: Reach people, engage with them, and convert them into customers. Swap out the term customers for applicants and you're hiring.
Marketing and recruiting are similar in a lot of ways, but much to HR's chagrin, the marketing department tends to get a significantly larger budget. That's why there are a lot more blogs, magazines, and newsletters devoted to marketing strategy.
These resources are great for learning about trends in social networks, engagement tactics, and branding methods.
Here are 5 marketing blogs that are great for HR too:
Do you have any recruiting trends that you would like us to cover on the Jobcast blog? If so, let us know in the comments!
