For so many years, we’ve been in the thick of it. We’ve helped startups scale their engineering teams from two to twenty. We’ve watched enterprise clients pivot overnight, chasing talent with niche cloud certifications one month and AI experience the next. We’ve seen candidates go from eager to elusive, salaries spike seemingly out of nowhere, and job descriptions rewritten on the fly to keep pace with market demand.

The truth is, tech hiring is no longer just about filling roles; it’s about anticipating what’s coming next. And right now, we’re standing at a crossroads. The dust from last year’s layoffs hasn’t fully settled, yet demand for specialized talent is surging again. AI is reshaping job functions as fast as it’s creating them. And hiring managers? They’re being asked to do more with less, faster than ever before.

So, where does that leave us? In this post, we’re breaking down the current state of the tech hiring market, what’s working, what’s not, and the trends we believe will define the months ahead. Whether you’re building a team from scratch or just trying to hold onto the talent you have, this guide is for you.

The Current State of the Tech Hiring Market

The tech hiring market in 2025 is complex, fast-moving, and anything but predictable. While headlines may suggest a slowdown, the reality we’re seeing on the front lines tells a different story. The hiring market hasn’t cooled; it’s just recalibrated. Companies are no longer hiring in volume; they’re hiring with precision. And the skills they’re after? They’ve changed dramatically in just the past 12 months.

Key hiring trends in 2025

1. Surge in AI and automation roles
Since the explosion of generative AI tools, companies across industries, from fintech to healthcare, have been racing to build, integrate, and maintain AI-powered systems. As a result, demand for AI/ML engineers, prompt engineers, and automation specialists has skyrocketed. We’re now seeing roles that barely existed two years ago become cornerstones of product roadmaps.

2. Emphasis on remote and hybrid work models
Despite return-to-office pushes from some tech giants, remote and hybrid roles remain highly desirable, especially among top-tier candidates. Employers that embrace flexible work continue to attract stronger talent pools, while rigid in-office requirements are becoming a common dealbreaker. For hiring managers, this means adapting processes, communication styles, and compensation expectations to support distributed teams.

3. High demand for cybersecurity, cloud, and data experts
As businesses collect more data and migrate more infrastructure to the cloud, cybersecurity, cloud engineering, and data science roles continue to be among the most challenging to fill. The rise in cyberattacks and increased regulatory scrutiny heightens the urgency even further. Hiring managers are under pressure to find candidates who are not just technically capable, but also equipped to manage risk in real time.

What’s hot (and what’s not)

In-demand roles:

• AI/ML engineers: Driving innovation through machine learning models and AI applications.
• Data scientists and analysts: Interpreting complex data to inform business strategies.
• DevOps engineers: Enhancing deployment efficiency and system reliability.
• Cloud specialists: Managing cloud infrastructure and services across platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Cybersecurity experts: Protecting organizations against evolving cyber threats.

Roles with decreasing demand:

• Traditional IT support: As automation and self-service tools become prevalent, the need for conventional IT support roles is diminishing.
• Generalist web developers: There’s a shift toward developers with specialized skills in modern frameworks and technologies.

Market imbalances

Selective talent shortages
Despite reports of layoffs in the tech industry, there’s a paradoxical shortage of talent in specialized areas. While some roles see an oversupply of candidates, positions requiring niche skills remain hard to fill.

Unemployment rates and job openings
As of April 2025, the tech unemployment rate has risen to 3.5%, up from 3.1% in March, indicating a slight cooling in the market. However, this rate remains below the national average of 4.2%, reflecting sustained demand for tech professionals. 

In terms of job availability, there are approximately 450,000 active tech job postings, a decrease from 478,000 in March. This decline suggests a cautious approach by employers amid economic uncertainties.

The paradox of selective surplus
What we’re witnessing is a hiring paradox: thousands of professionals are actively job-seeking, while specific critical roles go unfilled for months. This disconnect is forcing hiring managers to refine their search criteria, move faster with offers, and get creative with incentives, including remote flexibility, learning budgets, and equity.

Challenges IT Hiring Managers Are Facing

Increased competition for top talent

There’s a quiet war happening behind the scenes of every job posting. You may not see it, but if you’re trying to hire a cloud architect, an AI engineer, or a seasoned DevOps lead, you’re not alone. Startups, Fortune 500s, and newly minted AI labs are all chasing the same candidates, and offering increasingly aggressive packages to lure them in.

But here’s the twist: the best candidates rarely apply. They’re passive. Employed. Selective. And they’re only engaging with opportunities that feel tailored, high-impact, and human. If your job post is generic or your process feels transactional, you’ve already lost.

Related: Attracting Passive Candidates: Ways to Secure Top Talent

Compensation pressures are growing

The comp conversation has become a chess match. Candidates today are well-informed and quick to walk away from lowball offers. We’ve seen engineers counter with numbers 20% above market, and get them.

It’s not just about base salary anymore. Remote flexibility, learning stipends, and wellness perks all matter. And with remote work opening up access to higher-paying markets, many companies find themselves competing with Silicon Valley-level offers, even if they’re based in the Midwest or Southeast.

For hiring managers, this isn’t just a budget issue; it’s a positioning issue. If your comp structure isn’t aligned with current market realities, you’re not just falling short. You’re invisible.

Related: Attract Top Candidates With These In-Demand Perks and Benefits

Time-to-hire is slowing you down

In tech hiring, speed isn’t a luxury; it’s survival. And yet, time-to-hire continues to creep upward.

We’ve had clients lose out on dream candidates because approvals took too long or interview processes dragged on for weeks. Meanwhile, other companies are closing offers within five days of first contact. In this market, delays are deal-breakers.

Hiring managers must now operate like recruiters: they must be proactive, fast-moving, and highly attuned to the candidate experience. Otherwise, top talent will quietly disappear to a competitor who moved faster.

The skills gap is getting wider

The final challenge? The roles are evolving faster than the workforce can adapt to them. Tech stacks change. New tools emerge. The job descriptions of today barely resemble those from two years ago.

This leaves many hiring managers searching for unicorns—candidates with experience in five tools, three languages, and two certifications. But that mindset creates paralysis. The more rigid the wishlist, the smaller the pool becomes.

The best hiring managers are shifting focus from credentials to capability. They’re asking, can this person learn quickly? Can they adapt? Can they grow with us? Because in a market this fluid, potential is often more valuable than polish.

What’s Coming Next: Predictions for Tech Hiring

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that the future of tech hiring won’t be shaped by tradition; it’ll be shaped by disruption. The companies that adapt will thrive. The ones that cling to outdated practices? They’ll struggle to keep up.

Here’s what’s coming.

Skills-based hiring will outpace degree-based hiring

The days of rigid degree requirements are fading fast. More companies are waking up to a simple truth: the best developers, analysts, and engineers aren’t always the ones with the fanciest credentials; they’re the ones who can build, adapt, and solve problems in real time.

In the years ahead, expect to see job descriptions rewritten to prioritize real-world projects, portfolio reviews, and technical assessments over where someone went to school. Platforms like GitHub, Kaggle, and LeetCode will carry more weight than diplomas.

This shift will level the playing field, but it will also challenge hiring managers to rethink how they evaluate talent. It’s not about checking boxes. It’s about recognizing potential.

Related: How to Use Skill-Based Hiring to Build a Stronger Workforce

AI will transform the hiring process

We’re not just hiring people who understand AI, we’re using AI to hire people. From resume screening to candidate matching, automation is becoming a core part of the recruitment tech stack.

But this isn’t about replacing human judgment, it’s about enhancing it. Smart hiring managers will lean on AI to handle the repetitive parts of recruiting so they can spend more time doing what matters most: building relationships.

AI will also raise the bar for personalization. With tools that can analyze a candidate’s interests, career history, and even communication style, your outreach will need to feel thoughtful, timely, and tailored, or it’ll get ignored.

Remote will become global, not just national

Remote work cracked the door open. Global hiring is about to blow it wide.

As collaboration tools mature and asynchronous workflows become the norm, we’ll see more companies sourcing top talent from across time zones, not just across state lines. Hiring managers who embrace this shift will find richer, more diverse talent pools and a competitive edge.

Of course, global hiring comes with its own set of challenges, including legal logistics, cultural fluency, and compensation parity. But the payoff? Access to brilliance without borders.

Related: Can You Trust AI to Handle Recruitment?

Workforce models will evolve fast

Not every tech hire will be a full-time position. In fact, many won’t be. We’re entering a phase where contractors, consultants, and fractional hires will play an even bigger role in scaling innovation without bloating headcount.

The best hiring managers will learn to work across multiple workforce models, knowing when to bring in a freelancer for a sprint project and when to invest in long-term FTEs. Agility will be the new gold standard.

Actionable Tips for Tech Hiring Managers

1. Reframe your job descriptions

Too many job descriptions read like procurement checklists (long, vague, and stuffed with outdated requirements). In this market, that won’t cut it.

Your job posting is your first impression. It should tell a story, not just about what the job entails, but also about the kind of impact the candidate will make. Instead of listing 12 must-have skills, try this:

• Clearly outline what the first 3, 6, and 12 months will look like.
• Replace jargon with real-world outcomes: “You’ll lead the migration of X platform to AWS, improving system uptime by 40%.”
• Emphasize mission, not just tasks. Why should a senior developer or data engineer care about this role?

Related: Best Practices for Writing Clear and Compelling Job Postings

2. Move fast, but thoughtfully

Hiring timelines can make or break your chances of landing top talent. We’ve seen engineers with three offers in hand within five days of starting their job search. If your process involves six interviews over three weeks, you’re already behind.

That doesn’t mean sacrificing quality. It means designing a process that’s structured and decisive:

• Pre-align your interview team and block out time in advance.
• Limit interview stages to what’s truly necessary—often, three is enough.
• Provide feedback within 24–48 hours of each round.
• Set expectations with candidates early so they don’t feel like they’re drifting.

Real-world example: One of our clients went from 28 days to 9 days time-to-hire by consolidating interviews into one virtual panel session and assigning a dedicated internal “hiring sprint” lead.

3. Use data to set competitive compensation

Compensation is no longer just about salary; candidates are comparing:

• Base pay
• Equity or profit-sharing
• Remote/hybrid flexibility
• PTO policies
• Career development budgets
• Wellness stipends and mental health coverage

And they’re using real-time tools to do it, like Levels.fyi, Blind, and Glassdoor.

To compete, you need to stay ahead of the curve. Regularly benchmark your roles using third-party salary guides and real-time labor data if your budget doesn’t stretch as far as the big players. Highlight other key differentiators, such as meaningful projects, startup equity, or a fast-track to leadership.

Pro tip: Don’t make candidates guess. Be transparent about ranges. It builds trust and reduces wasted time.

Related: Search Average Salary By Job Title and Location

4. Partner with specialized staffing experts (like us)

Your internal team may be great, but they’re also juggling a dozen open roles, onboarding, and workforce planning. When time is short and the stakes are high, working with a staffing firm that specializes in tech can be a game-changer.

The right partner can:

• Tap into passive talent you’ll never find on job boards
• Pre-vet candidates for both technical skill and team fit
• Shorten your time-to-fill from weeks to days
• Help shape your offer strategy to improve acceptance rates

Remember: Staffing isn’t a last resort. It’s a strategic advantage.

5. Invest in your existing team

While every company wants to hire “rockstars,” the most innovative leaders know that talent isn’t always found; it’s developed.

Upskilling, reskilling, and creating clear career paths can be just as valuable as external recruiting. Employees who see a future at your company are less likely to leave and more likely to bring others with them.

Ideas to consider:

• Offer learning stipends for certifications (AWS, CompTIA, etc.)
• Start a peer mentoring or tech guild program
• Share open roles internally before going external
• Set quarterly development goals as part of performance reviews

Not only does this improve retention, but it also fosters a culture of morale and innovation from the inside out.

Related: Ways to Invest in Employee Development

Let’s Tackle the Tech Hiring Market Together

We’re standing at the edge of a hiring evolution. The companies that succeed won’t be the ones who wait for things to go “back to normal.” They’ll be the ones who adapt first, hire intentionally, and build teams that are resilient, agile, and future-ready.

You don’t need to do everything at once. Start by tightening your process. Update your job descriptions. Benchmark your offers. Reach out for help if you need it.

And if you’re looking for a partner who understands the stakes, knows the market, and speaks fluent tech? You know where to find us.

Recruiting technology is helping employers do just that. From AI-powered screening to smarter interview platforms, the right tools can speed up hiring without sacrificing quality.

We asked our team of recruiting experts which tools are making the biggest difference this year. Here are the recruitment technology tools they recommend to help hiring managers streamline their processes and make stronger hires.

Recruiting Technology That Will Improve Your Hiring Process

1. Video interviewing

Video interviews are no longer a workaround but a foundational part of the hiring process. The best platforms offer structure, flexibility, and collaboration tools that go far beyond a basic video call.

• Spark Hire supports live and one-way interviews with built-in evaluation tools and sharing options. It integrates with scheduling platforms and lets hiring teams review and rate candidate responses on their own time.
• VidCruiter offers structured interviews, automated scheduling, and customizable scoring guides. It’s designed for high-volume or multi-stage hiring, helping teams maintain consistency across roles.
• myInterview focuses on early-career candidates with short, branded video responses and personality insights. Its mobile-first design makes it easy for candidates to record and submit answers anytime.

These platforms help speed up decision-making, reduce scheduling issues, and improve the consistency of interviews across your organization.

2. Candidate listening

Today’s candidates expect a smooth, respectful hiring experience. Listening tools help you understand how applicants feel throughout the process and identify areas where your approach could improve.

• Trustcruit collects feedback at every stage, from initial application to onboarding. The platform organizes responses by recruiter, department, or location to help uncover patterns and performance gaps.
• Survale combines real-time feedback with automated dashboards that track candidate sentiment over time. It ties insights back to specific interactions, making it easier to refine your process where it matters most.
• Culture Amp, often used for employee engagement, also offers customizable candidate experience surveys. It’s a useful option for companies wanting a single platform for pre- and post-hire feedback.

These tools give hiring teams the information needed to build stronger experiences, improve response rates, and increase the likelihood of accepted offers.

Related: Sample Candidate Experience Survey Questions

3. Competitor intelligence

It helps to know what other employers are doing to stay competitive in hiring. Competitor intelligence tools enable the tracking of industry trends, job market movements, and recruiting strategies in real-time.

• Meltwater scans news, blogs, and press releases for updates on competitors, including layoffs, expansions, and new office openings. These insights can signal shifts in the talent market before they hit mainstream awareness.
• Sprout Social monitors how competitors engage with candidates online, from job posts to employer branding efforts. It helps recruiters track messaging strategies and adjust their own outreach to stand out.
• Visualping automatically alerts you when a competitor’s careers page or team structure changes. It’s useful for spotting new roles, hiring waves, or org chart adjustments without manual tracking.

These tools give recruiters a broader view of the market, helping them anticipate change and act faster when opportunity strikes.

4. Candidate assessments

Assessments help take the guesswork out of hiring by offering data-backed insight into a candidate’s skills, behavior, and fit. Modern platforms go far beyond basic testing, offering real-world scenarios and structured comparisons.

• Criteria Corp offers a range of pre-employment assessments, from cognitive aptitude to personality and skills testing. Its results are easy to interpret and help recruiters make consistent, informed decisions.
• Harver uses realistic job simulations to evaluate how candidates would perform in actual work situations. It’s especially valuable for roles that involve multitasking or customer interactions.
• Codility is designed for tech hiring and evaluates candidates with coding challenges based on real engineering tasks. It includes anti-cheating measures and detailed scoring to ensure fair comparison among candidates.

These tools help hiring teams build confidence in their decisions and reduce bias by focusing on demonstrated ability, rather than relying solely on resumes or interviews.

Related: How to Use Pre-Employment Assessments to Make Better Hires

5. Automation 

When recruiters are buried in repetitive tasks, it becomes harder to focus on what matters most: building relationships and making smart hires. Automation tools handle the busy work, so your team can stay productive and strategic.

• Sense automates candidate communication with personalized touchpoints throughout the hiring journey. It sends reminders, updates, and check-ins without manual follow-up.
• Greenhouse includes built-in automation for task assignments, interview scheduling, and candidate updates. These features help teams stay on track and reduce time-to-hire across departments.
• Checkr streamlines background checks with real-time updates and smart workflows. It flags delays early and speeds up clearances so you can move forward quickly.

With less time spent on logistics, recruiters can spend more time with the people behind the applications.

Related: What Is Recruitment Automation and How Can You Use it to Hire Smarter?

6. Artificial intelligence

AI in recruiting has shifted from hype to habit. It helps hiring teams prioritize candidates, streamline the screening process, and personalize the experience without adding more work.

• HireVue analyzes candidate video responses using AI to highlight communication patterns, pacing, and confidence. It helps recruiters assess soft skills that are harder to measure on paper.
• HireEZ uses AI to source passive candidates and rediscover talent in your existing database. It ranks potential fits based on role requirements and previous interactions.
• Eightfold.ai predicts candidate-job matches based on skills, career paths, and the likelihood of engagement. It’s especially helpful when hiring for future potential, not just past experience.

AI helps you work smarter by filtering noise, surfacing the best options, and giving you more time to focus on human connection.

Related: Can You Trust AI to Handle Recruitment?

7. Employee engagement

Recruiting doesn’t end with a signed offer. Keeping employees engaged is just as important for retention and long-term success.

• BambooHR streamlines onboarding with checklists, e-signatures, and milestone tracking. It helps new hires feel supported from their first day.
• Slack makes daily communication easy with channels, direct messages, and quick updates. It builds team connections, especially for hybrid and remote environments.
• Lattice tracks performance and engagement with pulse surveys, goal tracking, and feedback tools. Managers can spot concerns early and recognize standout contributions.

Strong engagement tools help protect the time and effort you invest in hiring by building a workplace where people want to stay.

Related: Highly Effective Strategies for Employee Retention

8. Applicant tracking systems

An applicant tracking system (ATS) keeps your hiring process organized, consistent, and easy to scale. It centralizes communication, tracks progress, and helps teams move candidates forward without missing a step.

• Greenhouse supports structured hiring with customizable workflows, feedback forms, and interview kits. It’s built to help teams collaborate and stay aligned on every decision.
• Lever combines ATS features with a candidate relationship management system to nurture prospects over time. It’s ideal for companies hiring regularly or across multiple departments.
• Workable offers an all-in-one platform with job posting, interview scheduling, and reporting tools. It’s intuitive for small teams but powerful enough to support high-volume hiring.

The right ATS brings clarity and control to your recruiting process, allowing your team to focus more on finding the right candidates.

Related: Pro Tips for Choosing the Best Applicant Tracking System for Your Business

How to Choose the Right Tools for Your Team

With numerous options available on the market, selecting the right recruiting technology ultimately comes down to your specific needs. The best tools are the ones that solve real challenges without adding complexity.

Start by identifying where your team feels the most friction. Are you struggling to manage candidate communication, organize interviews, or find time for follow-ups? Once you’ve pinpointed the issues, it becomes easier to find tools built to solve them.

Look for platforms that fit naturally into your workflow. Strong scheduling integrations will be key if your team relies heavily on calendar coordination. If hiring spans multiple departments, collaboration features should be a top priority.

Consider how the tool impacts your candidates as well. A platform that improves communication, sets clear expectations, or makes it easier to apply will support a better overall experience.

Finally, think about what the next year might look like for your hiring team. Choose systems that can scale, adapt, and integrate with the platforms you already use. The right setup will save time, reduce mistakes, and help you stay focused on what matters most: hiring the right people.

The Right Tools, the Right Partner

Recruiting in 2025 isn’t just about filling roles; it’s about doing it better, faster, and more thoughtfully than ever before. The right technology can help you hire more efficiently, reach stronger candidates, and create a process that reflects your values as an employer.

But tools alone don’t solve problems. You still need the right people behind the strategy. People who know how to use those tools to build lasting teams.

At 4 Corner Resources, we partner with hiring managers and talent leaders to improve every part of the recruiting process. From selecting the best technology to finding top-tier candidates, we offer the support and insight that today’s competitive market demands.

Let’s build a better way to hire together. Connect with our team today!

This supply-and-demand imbalance is making it harder than ever to find top legal talent. Nearly all legal hiring managers agree that identifying qualified candidates is a significant challenge. Regardless of who you’re hiring, the process now requires a more strategic and proactive approach.

Based on current data and industry insights, here are the legal hiring trends that will define 2025—and what you should be doing to adapt.

1. The Demand Is Shifting From Big Law to Boutique Firms

The prestige and high pay of Big Law firms have long attracted top legal talent; however, 2025 is witnessing a noticeable shift. Many attorneys are opting out of the Big Law grind in favor of boutique firms and in-house positions that offer better work-life balance, more autonomy, and opportunities for specialization.

This trend is particularly prevalent among candidates with in-demand skill sets who can afford to be selective in their job search. Boutique firms are attracting these professionals by offering flexible schedules, personalized growth paths, and a stronger sense of purpose. At the same time, in-house legal departments are expanding, attracting candidates who want to work closer to business operations without the pressure of billable hours.

This trend presents a window of opportunity for employers outside of Big Law. Boutique and mid-sized firms that position themselves as lifestyle-friendly, mission-driven, or niche experts tend to have greater success in attracting high-caliber candidates who previously wouldn’t have considered anything outside a top-tier firm.

Tip for employers: If hiring outside of Big Law, highlight what makes your opportunity unique, such as flexible work policies, mentorship, a collaborative culture, or a focus on a specific legal specialty. These attributes are often just as appealing as a hefty salary.

2. AI & Automation Are Reshaping Legal Roles

Artificial intelligence is no longer just a buzzword in the legal industry; it’s changing how law firms and legal departments operate. From contract review to legal research, AI-powered tools are streamlining routine tasks, reducing turnaround times, and lowering costs. Legal professionals who understand how to work alongside these technologies are becoming increasingly valuable.

Roles are evolving to include tasks like managing e-discovery platforms, training AI models, and interpreting outputs from legal analytics tools. Candidates who possess a combination of legal knowledge and technical fluency, particularly in tools such as Relativity, Westlaw Edge, or AI-driven contract management systems, are in high demand.

This legal hiring trend means rethinking job descriptions and hiring criteria. It’s no longer just about experience with case law or drafting contracts; it’s also about understanding the broader context. Now, the search is for professionals who can navigate both legal strategy and digital platforms.

Tip for employers: When hiring, look beyond traditional credentials. Candidates who demonstrate adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to work with new technologies will be better equipped to grow alongside your practice as legal tech continues to advance.

Related: What Is Recruitment Automation and How Can You Use It to Hire Smarter?

3. Hybrid and Remote Work Is Still a Top Priority

Even in an industry known for its traditionalism, remote and hybrid work is here to stay. Flexible work arrangements remain one of the top priorities for legal candidates, especially mid-career professionals who now expect some level of autonomy over where and how they work.

Most legal professionals report being just as productive working remotely, and many won’t even consider a job that doesn’t offer at least hybrid flexibility. This has significant implications for employers that still require full-time, in-office attendance. Candidates are increasingly drawn to firms and departments that trust their teams to deliver results without micromanaging their schedules.

At the same time, embracing remote work expands your potential talent pool. Firms that offer hybrid or remote roles can recruit from new markets, fill niche positions faster, and compete with bigger-name employers by offering a better lifestyle fit.

Tip for employers: If you’re not offering remote or hybrid options, you may be losing out on highly qualified talent. Be transparent in job descriptions and interviews about your flexibility policies, and make sure they’re competitive.

4. Soft Skills Are In High Demand

Technical expertise will always be essential in the legal field, but in 2025, soft skills are proving to be just as critical. Employers aren’t just looking for attorneys who can interpret case law; they want professionals who can communicate clearly, collaborate across departments, and build trust with clients.

This shift is especially important as legal work becomes more cross-functional and client-facing. In-house legal teams are partnering more closely with business units. Law firms are expected to deliver not only legal guidance but also strategic counsel, meaning the best candidates are those who combine legal expertise with people skills.

Top soft skills employers are prioritizing include:

• Communication: Writing clearly, speaking persuasively, and tailoring messaging for different audiences
• Emotional intelligence: Navigating high-pressure situations with empathy and professionalism
• Collaboration: Working effectively across teams, especially in hybrid or remote settings
• Adaptability: Staying flexible in the face of changing regulations, workloads, and technologies

Tip for employers: When interviewing, look for examples of how candidates have used these skills in real-world scenarios. Behavioral interview questions can help uncover qualities that may not always be evident on a resume.

Related: How to Assess Soft Skills in an Interview

5. More Candidate Lateral Movement

Lateral movement is a legal hiring trend on the rise, with more legal professionals changing jobs not just for promotions, but also for better alignment with their values, lifestyle preferences, or career objectives. Candidates are making strategic moves to firms or departments that offer greater flexibility, growth, or focus in a specific practice area.

This increase in lateral movement has made passive recruitment more important than ever. Many of the best candidates aren’t actively job hunting; they’re currently employed but open to the right opportunity. These individuals often need to be persuaded, meaning employers must build a strong employer brand and maintain a consistent presence where top talent is already spending time.

It also means hiring teams need to move quickly. Top lateral candidates won’t stay available for long, and in many cases, you’ll be competing with multiple offers or counteroffers.

Tip for employers: Don’t wait for resumes to come in. Collaborate with recruiting partners who have access to passive talent and can effectively promote your opportunity to high performers who may not be actively searching.

6. The Rise of Contract & Interim Legal Talent

Contract and interim hiring is no longer just a stopgap; it’s become a key part of legal workforce strategy. Law firms and legal departments alike are turning to on-demand legal professionals to manage workload spikes, cover employee absences, or provide specialized expertise for short-term needs.

This key legal hiring trend is especially valuable in today’s talent market, where permanent hiring can take weeks or even months to complete. Bringing in contract attorneys, interim legal assistants, or project-based paralegals enables employers to remain agile, maintain productivity, and reduce overhead costs while still obtaining the necessary legal support.

At the same time, more legal professionals are open to contract work than ever before. Many enjoy the flexibility, project variety, and control that contract roles provide, making this talent pool deeper and more skilled than in years past.

Tip for employers: If you haven’t already built contract hiring into your legal staffing strategy, now is the time. Partnering with a staffing firm that specializes in legal talent can help you quickly access experienced professionals who are ready to hit the ground running.

We Can Help You Navigate Legal Hiring Trends and Secure Top Talent

Hiring legal talent in 2025 is no small feat. Between record-low unemployment, growing job demand, and rising candidate expectations, filling critical roles requires more than just posting a job ad and hoping for the best.

We specialize in connecting employers with top-tier legal professionals—whether you’re hiring for a corporate counsel, paralegal, legal assistant, or contract attorney. We take a consultative approach to staffing, helping you overcome hiring challenges with flexible solutions that match your goals, budget, and timeline.

Whether you’re building out a legal department, scaling a team, or simply trying to make your next great hire, we’re here to help you compete for the best talent on the market.

Customer service agents have always been the front-line representatives for your business, but their role and what’s required of them have shifted significantly in the last few years. Today’s consumers want instantaneous, seamless, and personalized support on whatever channel they’re most comfortable using, with 82% of customers saying they expect agents to resolve the problem they’re facing “immediately.” The brands that stand the test of time will be those that can deliver on this demand, and that starts with a strong customer service hiring strategy. 

Being aware of these 12 customer service hiring trends will help you meet customer expectations while attracting and retaining exceptional talent.

1. Increased Competition

Though overall hiring for customer service positions has declined since the pandemic’s hiring highs, competition is fiercer than ever. This industry faces some of the biggest challenges with retention in any field, so companies are ready to snap up top candidates or lure them away from competitors with better pay or more flexibility. 

The prevalence of remote work throws another wrench into the race for talent. Candidates largely prefer the option to work from home, but not all companies can offer it, making for an even tougher landscape for some firms. 

In addition to offering competitive salaries and robust benefit packages, companies can set themselves apart in the talent shortage by focusing on strong employer branding, a highly tailored employee value proposition, and clear paths for career advancement.

2. Growing Specialization

Generic, catch-all customer service roles are being replaced with specialized positions requiring expertise in certain technologies or business areas. This is of growing importance as companies work to better sort and funnel inquiries to the correct person, improving the customer experience. 

Our effort to update our job descriptions is one way we’re helping our clients adapt to this trend. Narrowing our focus and identifying the precise skills and knowledge each position requires yields a better, more relevant pool of candidates, allowing us to hire faster and see better results. 

3. Necessity of Experience With AI-powered Tools

Think about the last time you needed support from a company. I’m willing to bet your interaction started out with an onsite chatbot, and then, if (and only if!) your issue couldn’t be resolved via self-service channels, you were routed to a live agent. AI has reshaped customer service interactions, and this hybrid AI-agent model is the new standard. 

The use of AI has also sparked a shift for customer service as a revenue driver. With the help of AI-backed insights, agents are able to intelligently recommend products, solutions, upsells, and cross-brand selling that drives profits. Candidates must be comfortable using and working alongside AI-powered tools to enhance efficiency and deliver relevant support while contributing to sales growth. 

4. Ability to Handle Omnichannel Interactions

As I touched on earlier, modern customers expect seamless service across platforms–phone, email, chat, texting, live chat, you name it. Customer service reps must be adept at managing interactions across these channels, ensuring consistency in their communications. This is something my recruiters always ask about when interviewing customer service applicants with a question like ‘how comfortable are you managing multiple support channels at once?’ or ‘tell me about a time you had to deal with two or more customers on different channels simultaneously.’

To support agents in this regard, employers should implement robust omnichannel training and equip agents with integrated technology to simplify and streamline interactions. 

5. Proficiency With CRM Software

I don’t know of a single customer-oriented business that doesn’t use some form of a CRM. Employers should prioritize candidates who have experience navigating CRM and ticketing platforms to track customer interactions, manage cases, and personalize experiences. Again, training is key, as is investing in the tools that will support your teams’ success. 

6. Data Analysis Empowers More Tailored Interactions

Data analysis plays a growing role in delivering high-quality customer service. Agents must be comfortable using data and customer history to personalize their conversations, anticipate customer needs, and decide on the most effective way to resolve issues. As such, consider including data analysis as a necessary skill in your job requirements and screen candidates for prior experience in this area. 

7. Data as a Recruitment Tool

Data has another valuable place in customer service on the recruiting side. There’s more data available to guide your customer service recruiting than at any other time in history. Use it to reach the right candidates, identify the most desirable customer service traits, and analyze the fruitfulness of your efforts.

Recruitment tools like personality tests and behavioral assessments are especially useful when hiring for customer service roles. Personality tests are valid predictors of job performance. When compared against data from within your organization, results from tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can help identify culture fit and detect the traits that are most associated with success in the role.

While personality tests focus on the traits of a candidate, behavioral assessments can help you understand a candidate’s reasoning and gauge their likely behavior when confronted with common on-the-job scenarios. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, using behavioral assessments can help reduce turnover and increase revenue.

Related: How to Leverage Recruiting Metrics to Improve Your Hiring Process

8. Human Touch Personalizes Experiences

We’re seeing an interesting dichotomy in customer service right now. AI is huge and customers want to use technology to independently resolve their own problems when possible, but they also want to be able to talk to a human who can provide personalized service any time it’s a necessity. Thus, look for candidates who can balance automation and technical service with a human touch, using their communication and interpersonal skills to create meaningful connections and build trust. 

9. Emphasis on Employee Experience

With increased competition for strong customer service talent, employers are focusing on improving the employee experience and using it as a recruitment tool. Employee expectations are high. Flexible work arrangements, mental health support, continuous learning opportunities, and a positive workplace culture can enhance job satisfaction and boost retention, which contribute to lower overall recruiting costs. 

10. Training Takes Priority

I’ve mentioned several times already how important training is to keep pace with industry trends. It’s also one of the top benefits employees are looking for when deciding to work, especially Gen Z and millennial employees, who cite training and development among the top three factors they look at when choosing an employer. 

Provide thorough training on engaging, job-specific topics like AI, automation, omnichannel communication, CRM strategies, and data literacy. This will not only satisfy employees but strengthen your workforce. You can also leverage AI to support your training initiatives. Data on things like individual employee performance and customer satisfaction by channel offer guidance on where to devote more resources to training and coaching. 

11. Customer Service as a Business Strategy

When hiring for customer service roles, try to think of the customer service department as more than an individual department in your operation. Instead, consider customer service a key piece of your larger company strategy.

While all employees represent your brand to some extent, your customer service professionals are your figurative mascots, speaking and acting directly on the company’s behalf. How you use them and curate the talent in this department can shape and mold your brand perception among your customers and within the larger marketplace.

Ideally, you’ll seek candidates who can adopt this big-picture approach. They’ll see themselves as more than just cogs in the wheel; rather, they’ll embrace the opportunity to help determine the wheel’s direction and its success in getting to its destination.

When narrowing down candidates, look for those who approach service as part of a bigger philosophy on work rather than just a skill. Interview questions like, ‘What do you find most rewarding about your job? ‘ ‘ What role do you play in your organization?’ and ‘What core values are most important to you?’ are useful in shedding light on this.

12. Flexible Structure of Positions

Round-the-clock customer support has become commonplace, which means a rising need for qualified workers across time zones. You can meet this need with twofold approaches: tapping into the growing market for freelance and remote work and creating support positions beyond the traditional 9-to-5.

For many candidates, the ability to work remotely some or all of the time is not just a perk, but a requirement. It’s also good for employee engagement; the ability to work remotely increases employee happiness at work by as much as 20%.

High-quality part-time jobs are also in demand, particularly among women and seniors. Depending on your industry, your customer service positions may be well-suited to part-timers.

By offering flexibility in the structure of your customer service department, you’ll be better equipped to attract top talent in the field.

Related: The Pros and Cons of a Remote Workforce

Win Top Customer Service Talent With a Specialized Staffing Agency

Many of the trends we’ve discussed above rely on you having a working knowledge of the traits and skills that make for an effective customer service professional within your organization. But what if you don’t have that data?

That’s where a customer service staffing agency comes in handy. A customer service recruiting firm can draw upon aggregate data from dozens or even hundreds of other organizations to identify the particular skill set needed for success in a customer-facing role, then leverage the latest technology to help you find and connect with workers who fit the profile. A recruiting professional or headhunter will be able to provide insight about candidates that goes beyond what’s listed on their resume and cuts down to whether they’re a good fit for your company.

At 4 Corner Resources, we have access to a deep and wide pool of the top customer service professionals spanning the country. We specialize in recruiting for call center and customer service positions like help desk specialists and inbound customer service reps; in fact, I got my start in enterprise telephony delivering contact center solutions and strategies.

We understand that choosing the wrong candidate leaves no room for error when it comes to customer service. That’s why we focus on finding candidates who demonstrate the right mix of hard and soft skills necessary to serve your customers effectively. We offer hiring solutions ranging from direct-hire headhunting to contract-to-hire recruiting and contract staffing.
Ready to fill your customer service position?

Contact us today, and let’s get started.

Take a mid-sized finance firm my company works with. Once my team has identified a great candidate and they’ve been hired, the company’s HR team sends over their new hire paperwork, distributes the employee handbook, and answers questions about benefits. On the other hand, the people ops team organizes a welcome lunch for the new hire’s first day, assigns them an onboarding buddy to help acquaint them with their team, and creates a tailored 30-day new hire success plan. Though the activities complement one another, they’re very distinct. 

Here’s another way I like to look at it. If there’s a party, HR organizes the venue and sends out invitations. In contrast, people operations would mingle and ensure everyone is having a good time.

Why does the difference between people operations and human resources matter? Because we’re not talking about a party. We’re talking about the success of your most important business asset–your workforce–and HR and people ops can both play a critical role. 

Learn the difference between people operations and human resources and better grasp the situations where you might leverage one or the other in this post.

What Is HR?

HR stands for human resources. The department manages a company’s activities related to its employees, like hiring, onboarding, training, resolving conflicts, and so on. 

HR is responsible for many logistics that arise from employing people, like administering company benefits packages and ensuring staffers are paid for their time. HR also has an important compliance duty, ensuring that the company provides a safe and equitable work environment and follows all applicable labor laws. 

Human resources as a business function have been around for more than 100 years. Its origins date back to the early 20th century when business magnates like Andrew Carnegie began to recognize the value of strategic workforce management in helping an organization accomplish its goals. 

What Are People Operations?

People operations is under the umbrella of HR, but its duties have a more defined scope. A company’s people operations department is focused on optimizing the employee experience, which may include employee engagement, development, and retention initiatives. 

People operations think about employees the way marketing thinks about customers, looking for ways to improve their experience with the organization and increase satisfaction. They also concentrate on how HR operates, working to modernize systems to make them more user-friendly. 

The idea of people operations as a formalized corporate department has been a new development within the last decade. The concept was pioneered by Laszlo Bock, who spearheaded Google’s famous People Ops department. Bock advocates for focusing on purpose rather than processes, which is also a great way to define what people operations does. 

Contrasting People Operations vs. HR

The differences between HR and people operations are subtle; it’s one of those things where you know it when you see it, but it can be tricky to define. To help illustrate their distinct roles, here are some key ways in which HR and people operations differ. 

Approach 

HR takes a practical approach, carrying out the day-to-day employee-related activities necessary for a company to function. People ops take a more conceptual approach, thinking strategically about the relationship a company is building with its employees and the culture that’s being created. 

Systems

HR operates within well-defined systems, which are essential to make sure work gets done efficiently. Payroll, for example, is administered the same way each week to ensure employees get their checks on time. People operations have more leeway in their processes, often experimenting with new ideas and looking for creative ways to get things done. 

Legal function

Legally speaking, HR ensures the company dots its i’s and crosses its t’s. HR specialists are responsible for knowing the law concerning employers and helping the company operate within its bounds while accomplishing business objectives. HR is also the first line of defense if the possibility of a lawsuit arises. While people operations must work within these legal boundaries, PO specialists don’t typically focus on legal matters. 

Reactive vs. proactive

HR is traditionally reactive, dealing with employee-related issues as they arise. For example, an HR representative might step in to act as a mediator in a disagreement between two employees. Or, as was the case with one client’s new hire who was struggling to meet expectations, the HR team scheduled a six-month performance review for the employee’s manager to provide detailed feedback and action items for improvement. 

People ops are proactive, seeking to establish practices that prevent issues from arising in the first place. In the case of the struggling employee we just mentioned, people ops might initiate a company-wide program of continuous feedback in which managers meet weekly with their reports to discuss challenges and brainstorm solutions, addressing imminent performance problems head-on. 

Shared goals

Despite some nuanced distinctions, HR and people operations share many of the same goals, though their roles in achieving them may differ. Here are a few of their common objectives.

Hiring

HR handles the candidate life cycle, overseeing the systems used to attract talent, collect applications, track candidates, administer interviews, and make job offers. People operations focuses more on the candidate experience, optimizing communications with applicants and working to provide a more seamless experience during the hiring process. 

Related: Candidate Experience Best Practices and Why You Should Follow Them

Employee retention

Retaining employees helps control recruiting costs and contributes to a more skilled workforce, so it’s in the best interest of both HR and people operations to focus on keeping good workers around. HR may do so by providing effective onboarding, coordinating an attractive benefits package, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion initiatives. People ops can aid in retention with strategies like employee development opportunities, employee recognition/rewards programs, and creative perks. 

Related: Highly Effective Strategies for Employee Retention

Company culture

People operations play a major role in defining a company’s vision and creating a culture that supports it. HR helps execute the initiatives that bring that vision to life. For example, people operations might decide that greater employee autonomy is an important element in building the desired culture. HR might then implement a policy of unlimited PTO to empower employees with more control over their schedules. 

Technology

HR and people operations rely on technology to do their jobs and make those jobs easier. HR and PO leverage technology to streamline workflows, reduce costs, save time, and automate processes. People operations pay particular attention to employee use of technology, looking for ways to deploy it that will make workers’ lives easier (i.e., digitizing old systems, using convenient apps instead of desktop software, etc.)

Key HR Trends

Skill-based workforce planning

Traditionally, workforce planning has been geared primarily toward headcount planning (anticipating the number of employees needed to meet business goals) or succession planning (identifying employees to develop in order to fill key openings). In 2025, HR strategists are increasingly focused on skills-based workforce planning. 

Skills-based planning focuses on hiring or developing workers with the critical skills and capabilities the business will require in the long term. It factors in current talent, business goals, market trends, competitor movements, and emerging technology. 

This approach requires taking a long view–usually two or more years out–and it’s a complex task involving many inputs. When appropriately executed, skills-based workforce planning can optimize the resources involved in hiring while keeping skills gaps from threatening the organization’s livelihood. 

Preparing leaders of the future

Business is changing, and there’s growing concern that the leaders of tomorrow won’t be ready for what’s ahead in time. According to Gartner, only 36% of HR leaders believe their organization’s leadership development programs are effective at preparing leaders for future challenges, while just 23% say they have rising leaders who can meet the future needs of the organization.

The big problem is that leadership development programs often lack follow-through. Emerging leaders learn a concept, but months or years may pass before they’re called upon to deploy it in a practical setting, and by then, the learning initiative is over. 

Forward-thinking HR professionals can better develop future leaders by investing in events and programs contributing to lasting, repeated connections. Building meaningful relationships between future leaders and their mentors and peers creates a network of connections emerging leaders feel they can rely upon for continuous learning and support in applying the concepts learned in their day-to-day work. 

Deriving greater value from technology

I can say from experience that AI has impacted how HR work gets done, but I’d stop short of saying it’s had the “transformative” effects some have raved about, at least in its current state.

I see the potential, but right now, HR technology is mainly used to automate tasks. It touches on many parts of the employee experience (virtual onboarding is one example). Still, the systems are largely disjointed, and employees underuse or abandon them rather than muddle through navigating their complex web. 

As a result, there’s a growing push to derive greater value from HR tools and technology. Rather than focusing on “quick wins” that only deliver short-term, marginal gains, organizations will look to identify opportunities to gain meaningful returns from AI and other solutions. Then, business leaders must allow sufficient time for innovation to be adopted and transformation to occur before a new initiative is implemented. In other words, big gains can happen, but more patience is required. 

Key People Ops Trends

Change management as an emerging necessity

It seems change is the only constant in our rapidly evolving landscape, and all the newness is wearing on employees. 

Seventy-three percent of HR leaders say workers at their organizations are fatigued from a change in a landscape where there isn’t time to complete the adoption of one change before another one is announced. Change fatigue contributes to reduced employee engagement and a lower intent to stay, driving the need for strategic change management as a people ops priority. 

In a strategic approach to change management, managers work to build their teams’ resilience to change rather than championing change initiatives. They identify and empower team members who are “change influencers”–well-connected employees who handle change well and can act as guideposts for their colleagues. 

Research from Gartner has shown that managers who encourage employees to take ownership of change initiatives boost sustainable performance by up to 29%. 

Hiring IT professionals remains tough, even as unemployment in the sector has risen slightly year over year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects more than 350,000 job openings annually in computer and information technology through 2033, which means the most competitive candidates will have their pick of lucrative positions to choose from. 

The rise of AI and machine learning means that every company, regardless of industry, is now in the market to hire the best and brightest engineers, data scientists, and analysts to help them apply the latest technology to solve problems and sell products. Heading into 2025, companies must remain vigilant and committed if they want to recruit the best tech talent. 

We asked our IT recruiting team to identify the biggest shifts they’re seeing in 2025 and what they mean for recruiters and hiring managers. Here’s what they said competitive employers need to do to win the best tech professionals now and in the decade ahead.

How to Attract Top IT Candidates in 2025

Step up your investment in tech

A survey of more than 800 IT professionals revealed that 43% of executives plan to expand their IT staff in 2025. Sixty-four percent said they plan to increase IT budgets, with generative AI being the biggest area of spending growth. 

On the flip side, 54% of IT staff believe their own company is not spending enough to support technology needs, so whether you choose to allocate resources to IT projects, infrastructure, employee development, or all of the above, investing in technology makes a compelling case to candidates with an eye for what their future might look like as part of your team.

Competitive organizations are also moving faster, shaving down the amount of time they spend analyzing prospective investments and acting more quickly to deploy technology that will accelerate growth. If you want to attract the workers that will drive your business forward, you need to be enthusiastic and prompt with technology investment.

Let workers stay home

In 2024, massive tech employers like Amazon, Google, and Meta called workers back in-house with sweeping return-to-office policies. Unsurprisingly, workers weren’t thrilled. In the past year, my team has worked with a number of standout candidates who were leaving stable jobs because being in the office five days a week had become a deal-breaker for them. 

Back-to-the-office mandates present a unique opportunity for smaller and more flexible firms to get ahead in the tech talent race. By offering remote and hybrid work and less micromanagement in general about where workers are and when organizations can attract skilled workers who may have previously been out of reach.

Consider the total package

According to a just-published survey from tech career hub Dice, an unprecedented 47% of technology professionals are currently seeking new roles. That’s up from 29% a year ago. While salary is still the number one driver of career changes, tech professionals are increasingly focused on prospective employers’ total compensation package–which includes non-salary compensation like benefits and perks–as well as professional growth opportunities. 

While offering competitive salaries is still a must, companies can set themselves apart by optimizing the total package. Make sure your benefits plan is on point. Offer compelling perks that are useful and relevant to your ideal candidate persona. Prioritize employee development initiatives. Highlight these offerings prominently as a conversation point during the interview process. 

Related: How to Design an Employee Benefits Plan

Avoid job descriptions that box candidates in

It seems like every other week, I come across a job description with a requirement list, and it’s so long that it’s a wonder they find someone with even half of the skills. Of course, you want to be clear about the requirements of the role, and there are no doubt a few programming languages or pieces of software that will be essential to the job, but listing too many items can severely shrink your candidate pool.

If a candidate who’s otherwise extremely qualified sees one or more skills they don’t have on your list of requirements, it’s likely to deter them from applying. Additionally, suppose the recruiter who is screening resumes doesn’t have sufficient technical knowledge about the role. In that case, they may inadvertently rule out great and capable candidates whose resumes don’t exactly match what’s listed as a requirement. Take a critical eye on what’s included in your description, and make sure you distinguish between something essential to that job and something that would be nice to have.

Related: How to Write a Job Description

Recruit beyond hard technical skills 

Whether it’s building technical infrastructure, defending the company against hackers, or finding ways to anticipate customers’ needs better, IT candidates do more than work behind computers: they create solutions to problems. Thus, you must screen for more than just a set of checked boxes on a technical skills assessment.

Staying competitive—no matter which field you’re in—means recruiting innovative IT candidates. You need leaders, thinkers, and creatives who can help you find new ways to harness technology to get things done in the context of your business.

Some of our favorite interview questions to use when talking with IT candidates are:

• Tell me about a time you had to use technology to solve a problem in your last job.
• How do you motivate a group of people to get things done?
• What projects do you enjoy working on outside of your job?
• How do you think technological advances will affect our industry in the next 5 years?

Related: The Best Interview Questions to Ask IT Candidates

The goal is to identify candidates who are not only using their skills to solve problems now but who have an innate interest in how those skills will advance your industry in the years ahead.

Craft a value proposition that matters to the candidate

In such a low-unemployment market, using the same generic value proposition for every candidate you’re looking to recruit isn’t effective, especially in the perk-happy tech world. If a candidate already works for a company with a ton of fringe benefits, your onsite gym and break room stocked with snacks aren’t going to be reason enough for them to consider jumping ship. Instead, shrewd recruiters will craft their value proposition to match the individual candidate, much like a candidate is expected to craft his or her resume to match the job they’re applying for.

To do this, turn to platforms like LinkedIn or the candidate’s personal website to see what kinds of things candidates list as their major accomplishments. This will give you a sense of what’s important to them. 

A great example of this comes to mind from a recent hire. A candidate’s resume showed he was promoted from network architect to senior network architect in just over a year’s time. This was a great indication that he was an ambitious person who would likely see great value in opportunities to further advance in his career. 

In our conversations with him, we highlighted the client’s commitment to promoting from within and laid out the company hierarchy, which showed several viable paths leading to the executive team. We were able to land an accepted offer thanks in no small part to our highly tailored value proposition. 

Related: The Challenges of IT Recruiting & How to Overcome Them

Shift your perspective on recruiting “norms”

If you want to recruit modern candidates, you need to adopt modern IT recruitment skills. This may mean shifting your perspective on what’s “acceptable” during the hiring process.

Job hopping, for example, has become more common, earning millennials the title of the generation most likely to switch jobs. 21% of millennials, which Gallup defines as people born between 1980 and 1996, have changed jobs within the past year—more than three times the number of job changes among non-millennials. Job hopping is perhaps even more the norm in the IT field as candidates work to gain diverse skills and stay employed in the boom-or-bust startup landscape.

Once frowned upon (or at least not openly encouraged), poaching employees from competitors has also become par for the course in the competitive IT world. There is, however, a right and wrong way to go about it. If you find yourself in a position to poach, do it by coming from a place of education. Share information about your open position and the opportunity it presents—again, with a specific value proposition that caters to the candidate. If the candidate is interested in continuing the conversation, great. If not, no harm, no foul.

Accelerate your hiring timeline

Think about the biggest factors that impact your ability to hire. What comes to mind? Speed might not even make it onto your list, but it’s the factor with the second-largest impact on hiring results (number one being referrals).

Average time-to-hire numbers have increased by 50% since 2010, which means many employers have gotten all too comfortable with hiring at a snail’s pace. But slow hiring means more top candidates drop out of the running, are lost to competitors, and are less likely to accept offers than if your hiring process moved more quickly.

Case studies have shown just how valuable accelerating your hiring process can be to your recruiting efforts. In one such example, Nestle Purina implemented a talent pipeline strategy that resulted in 43% of positions being filled before they even became vacant. Taking a similar approach and hiring in advance of need—or at least working to make meaningful improvements to your average time-to-fill—can serve you well in landing top IT talent.

Find creative new sourcing channels

LinkedIn is a recruiter’s best friend, but some of the most promising IT candidates don’t even have a profile there. In light of this, you’ll need to expand your sourcing channels to include platforms where top tech talent is more likely to be found.

Take app marketplaces, for example. The iPhone App Store is a gold mine of application developers, UX designers, and UI strategists just waiting to be discovered. Similarly, there are dozens of other app marketplaces for different operating systems and devices out there, and likewise for platforms that catalog software, cloud services, and even electronics. 

GitHub is another amazing resource for mining tech talent. Here’s one of my team’s secret IT sourcing tricks: identify talent with GitHub projects. First, use the platform’s search function to find projects involving your desired skills–machine learning, programming, or whatever you’re looking for. From the search results, click on any project to go to its dedicated page. In the Contributors section, you can see all of the tech professionals who worked on that project. Clicking on their profile will show you their skills, achievements, and, usually, their contact info, which you can then use to reach out. 

Related: Candidate Sourcing Strategies to Help You Find Top Talent

Stay in touch

Did you know that 16% of Microsoft employees have more than one stint at the company on their resume? In the IT world, it’s not uncommon for employees to start their career at one company, leave for a few years to spread their wings, and then return to where they began, bringing with them new knowledge, skills, and perspective.

Take a proactive approach to capture these so-called “boomerang candidates” by staying in touch in the years after an employee’s departure from your company. Send periodic emails to check in and maintain rapport by sending birthday or holiday cards.

Additionally, it is important to understand why candidates leave in the first place. Is your pay failing to keep pace with the rest of the market? Do you lack advancement opportunities? Is poor management pushing people out? Institute a structured exit interview process for gathering feedback and analyzing it regularly to identify trends that could point to a larger organizational problem.

Enlist an IT Recruiting Expert

Recruiting the best IT talent is not easy, especially if you’re not tech-savvy or need to fill a niche role quickly. Choosing the wrong candidate can not only delay your operation’s progress but can lead to unnecessary turnover and increase hiring costs.

Instead of going through it alone, why not enlist the IT hiring professionals at 4 Corner Resources for your technology recruiting needs? We’ll take the lead on sourcing and screening top professionals for roles like systems administrators, network administrators, data architects, DevOps engineers, software developers, and more to fit your needs and budget. We’ll help you stay aware of industry trends and position yourself for success in the competitive IT market.

Ready to get started? Contact us to speak with one of our technology staffing experts today.

Candidates are waiting to see what the economy does before they decide whether to stick with their current job or look for a better one. Companies are waiting to see how a new administration might impact business and what the changes, if any, mean for hiring budgets. Recruiters are waiting to see if slowing job growth will lead to an influx of new candidates or if finding skilled talent will be a persistent challenge. 

There aren’t many sure things to grab onto, yet there are some definitive trends we can anticipate and prepare for. Here are some 2025 recruiting trends we expect to play out in the year ahead. 

Recruiting Trends for 2025 to Expect and Prepare For

1. Reaching passive candidates is more important than ever

As we just mentioned, people who have jobs are hesitant to make any big moves. My recruiters hear it over and over: “I’m open to hearing about opportunities, but I’m not sure it’s a good time to make a change.” People are less likely to submit an application if they’re not fully dedicated to the effort and risk involved in switching jobs.

In light of this, recruiters must spend more time and develop creative ways to reach passive candidates. This is especially important for highly niche roles and positions that are in high demand, like nurses and data scientists. Recruiters should work to build a pipeline of passive candidates who are willing to learn about opportunities that match their skills.

Related: How to Attract Passive Candidates

2. Salaries are where it’s at

Among candidates who are confident about changing jobs, money is the number one driver for making a switch (flexibility is a close second, but in many cases, that’s not negotiable). This is a double-edged sword for recruiters. While edging closer to the top of a salary band can be an effective way to entice candidates, pay bumps are an equally effective retention strategy. It’s something to keep in mind as you talk with candidates and create job postings–which, by the way, should advertise a salary range to get the best candidates to apply. 

3. AI causes a learning curve

The use of artificial intelligence in recruiting has been on the rise for several years now, and the trend continues heading into 2025. By now, most companies use AI in some capacity when hiring, with the leading use cases being candidate matching, screening, automating engagement, and getting assistance writing materials like job descriptions and outreach messages. 

However, widespread adoption has come with a learning curve. AI isn’t the set-it-and-forget-it tool many expected it to be, and maximizing its potential means providing additional training to already busy recruiters or hiring specialists who can tackle implementation. 

Companies must balance the convenience of AI and the personalization of a human touch. Recruiters will benefit from devoting attention to the human activities that most influence applicants, like the candidate experience and the interview process. 

Related: Can You Trust AI to Handle Recruitment?

4. Hybrid is here to stay

This year, companies that previously promised “remote work forever!” called workers back into the office en masse (and did so unapologetically, we might add). Though remote work is now mainstream, fewer employees are doing it all the time than in years past, and fewer fly-remote openings are also available. For many companies, a hybrid model is the norm.

Organizations looking to gain the upper hand with in-demand candidates can make positions flexible, allowing for remote work at least some of the time. Making hard-to-fill roles fully remote can ease hiring difficulties. Organizations that are unable or unwilling to offer any location independence will be at a recruiting disadvantage, as flexibility is consistently among the top factors job seekers desire. 

5. The bar is high for employee development 

According to TalentLMS, 41% of employees said they would look for another job if their current one failed to provide adequate training and development opportunities this year. Employee development can no longer be relegated to a line item in a bulleted list of employee benefits. It needs to be a fully fleshed-out component of your employer’s value proposition. 

Not only is learning and developing something necessary for employee satisfaction, but it’s also an important measure to address the growing skills gap plaguing the American workforce. By investing in initiatives like upskilling, companies can strengthen retention while adding valuable skills to their workforces that help future-proof the business. 

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6. Healthcare, technology, and skilled trades see strong demand

This probably comes as no surprise to anyone in staffing, and I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the stiff competition in healthcare, tech, and the trades will persist in 2025. 

Despite being down year over year, healthcare job postings are up 10.8%, according to hiringlab, from pre-pandemic levels. Though job growth in tech has slowed from the frenzied pace of previous years, some positions are expected to see exponential growth over the next decade, like data scientists (which are projected to experience 36% growth) and information security analysts (33% growth). A shortage of workers in the skilled trades is making hiring nearly impossible in some sectors, with home construction and HVAC being particularly hard hit. 

Unfortunately, it’s unwelcome news for employers in these fields, who have already faced disproportionate hiring challenges for several years. Recruiters in these sectors must be diligent about leveraging cutting-edge recruiting technology, prioritizing candidate engagement, and offering a benefits package that’s tailored to the candidates they want to attract. 

7. Employers get serious on skills

We often discuss skills-based hiring as something all companies should know. However, truly embracing this form of hiring means completely upending how you define roles. 

Some of our most innovative clients have completely stopped including day-to-day duties in their job descriptions. Instead, they focus on skills and outcomes–what function the role is expected to fulfill in the company, the desired results, and the core skills necessary to make those things happen. The destination is more important than how the employee gets there. 

For employers at large, this calls for a closer look at those years-old job descriptions and a careful evaluation of the true requirements for success in a role. 

8. Organizations embrace freelance labor

Freelance labor has become a standard–and valuable–part of a strong staffing strategy. Some companies have moved to fully depend on freelance workers to fulfill certain roles, while others onboard new team members under a freelance agreement before offering full-time employment. 

The freelance market will likely experience continued growth in the decade ahead as more workers move to self-employment or supplement their W-2 income with side hustles. Companies can adapt by crafting talent acquisition strategies that cater to freelance, contract, and gig workers. 

Related: How to Find a Freelancer That’s Right for Your Business

9. Sustainable hiring grows in prominence

Sustainable hiring is the practice of recruiting employees in a manner that’s aligned with broader social, ethical, and environmental principles. It’s becoming an important factor for a growing number of candidates. 

Employers can create an attractive value proposition to such candidates by employing sustainable initiatives such as:

• Providing a fair hiring process that’s free from bias
• Offering equitable, transparent wages
• Participating in community development 
• Adopting environmentally friendly business practices
• Prioritizing employee well-being

10. Mental health benefits are a must

The workplace is a significant stressor for the majority of Americans, with 84% of people saying their job had contributed to at least one mental health challenge, according to HHS; this is an especially important topic for younger generations. Employees who are less comfortable talking about their mental health at work are more likely to experience burnout and other negative mental health consequences.

Moving forward, employers must be a source of mental health support rather than just an impetus for people to seek help. According to NAMI, more than 90% of workers say employer-sponsored mental health coverage is an important element of workplace culture. Prioritizing employees’ mental well-being isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also a valuable recruitment and retention strategy. 

Related: Ways to Improve Employee Mental Health and Why It Matters

11. Retention, retention, and retention

We’ve already discussed how the market is in a “wait and see” mode, so one goal should be a focus regardless of what happens with hiring: holding onto the workers you’ve already invested in. Prioritizing retention eliminates many of the struggles that come with vacancies, like attracting qualified candidates and the heavy resource drain of conducting interviews.  

Companies can’t drop the ball when a candidate accepts an offer. Instead, that should be when a new strategy comes into play, creating an excellent employee experience that keeps strong workers around. 

Related: Highly Effective Strategies for Employee Retention

Achieve Staffing Success in 2025 With Help From the Recruiting Experts

From new technology to shifting social trends, the staffing landscape is evolving more rapidly than ever before. Do you have the infrastructure in place to keep up with the recruiting trends for 2025? Stay ahead of the hiring curve by enlisting our team of dedicated professionals for your 2025 staffing needs. 

We can help you hire the right person for the job the first time around, saving you time and money. But our services don’t end there; when you work with our team of pros, you’ll get expert recommendations for improving your hiring efficiency and prioritizing the roles that will impact your organization. 

Start the conversation by scheduling your complimentary consultation today.

To help you better prepare, here are 10 of-the-moment talent acquisition trends, along with helpful tips for adapting to them. 

1. AI Takes the Pressure Off

Though the labor market still feels tight for many TA professionals, the number of applications per opening is on the rise. According to Jobvite’s latest recruitment benchmark survey, 72% of medium-sized businesses and 66% of enterprise-level organizations say the volume of applications they receive for each role has somewhat or considerably increased yearly. AI can help lighten the load. 

Though AI adoption presents its share of challenges, it’s something to celebrate for busy recruiters grappling with talent shortages and hard-to-fill roles. AI can tackle time-consuming tasks like writing job descriptions, optimizing social media posts, building job-seeker resources like FAQs, integrating different talent acquisition platforms, updating candidate profiles, and analyzing pre-employment assessment results. 

AI also offers the unprecedented ability to gather data that can then be leveraged to put the human touch on hiring, which recruiters will have more time for thanks to the automation of more mundane parts of the job.

Related: How Is Artificial Intelligence Changing the Recruiting Process?

2. Technology Drives DEI Advancement

Another area of talent acquisition in which AI offers promising advancements is diversity, equity, and inclusion. Technology is helping companies automate the process of making hiring more accessible to candidates with disabilities using features like screen readers, auto-captioning, and voice-activated commands. 

AI resume-screening tools can review applications focusing purely on experience and qualifications, removing the human element that can introduce bias. AI can also be useful in broadening the talent pool and identifying new sourcing channels for reaching more diverse applicants. 

3. Increased Emphasis on Entry-Level Recruitment

In a dynamic job market, companies recognize the value of cultivating talent from the ground up. Entry-level recruitment from trade schools and even high schools is gaining prominence to help organizations build a pipeline of skilled professionals who are interested in growing with the company. 

Recruiting entry-level candidates can help firms reach new audience groups, like applicants who aren’t interested in going to college and want to dive straight into a career. It’s a cost-effective alternative to recruiting experienced professionals who are both more costly and more competitive. 

4. Promotion of Employee Well-Being 

Today’s candidates increasingly prioritize mental and physical well-being as critical factors in their employment decisions. This is especially true for the fast-growing Gen Z segment of the workforce. An estimated one in four adults in the U.S. have a mental illness, so it’s no surprise this aspect of employment has become more relevant. 

Beyond offering competitive salaries and benefits, companies focus on more holistic approaches to employee wellness, such as mental health support, work-life balance, and flexible work arrangements. Organizations that actively promote a well-being culture are more attractive to prospective hires and more likely to retain their top performers. 

5. Spotlight on Gen Z

Gen Z is now the second-largest segment of the workforce, with more than 17 million employees in the U.S. (Millennials are currently the number one age group). 

This position makes Gen Z an important group to prioritize in talent acquisition strategies. Employers are adjusting their tactics and messaging to target Gen Z’s unique preferences and values, which include flexibility, transparency, inclusivity, social responsibility, and professional development opportunities. 

Related: How to Recruit Gen Z

6. Internal Hiring Takes a Front Seat

Internal hiring is becoming a strategic objective for many firms amid ongoing talent shortages. By promoting from within, companies can retain valuable employees, reduce onboarding costs, and leverage existing institutional knowledge. Enhancing internal mobility programs can give workers a clearer idea of their possible progression paths and encourage them to explore new roles, boosting engagement and fostering a culture of growth. 

7. Skills-Based Hiring for Long-Term Goals

Skills-based hiring has been on the rise for some time in response to persistent skills gaps. Now, companies are focusing on how those skills align with the company’s long-term goals. This approach centers on securing competencies that are necessary not just for immediate success but for sustained progress and innovation. The shift enables organizations to hire individuals who can adapt to evolving job demands and contribute meaningfully to long-term objectives. 

8. Growth of Mid-Term Hiring

We’ve seen temporary and contract worker hiring significantly in the last five years. Now, companies are increasingly looking at mid-term hiring as a way to enhance operations and meet immediate needs. Mid-term hiring is a form of temporary hiring that focuses on professionals with the skills and experience to help companies navigate periods of growth or change; it’s a different level of expertise than your ordinary temp worker. 

In addition to helping organizations increase efficiency and adapt to market changes, mid-term hiring allows firms to test out different roles and skill sets before making those positions a full-time part of their organizational chart. 

9. Resurgence of Relocation Benefits

The rise of return-to-office mandates comes with some sizable challenges. Namely, companies need a way to re-engage all those workers who fled the city for the suburbs or moved cross-country for a change of scenery during the height of the pandemic. One strategy that’s seeing a resurgence is relocation benefits. 

Between the 1980s and 90s, relocating for a new job was commonplace, with nearly a third of workers doing so. In 2023, that number hit a record low at under 2%. Organizations looking to tap into new talent pools can offer relocation assistance and other perks to candidates who change their address when they accept the job. 

10. Agility Is Paramount for Recruiting Teams

Agility isn’t just a valuable quality to look for when hiring. It’s also a must for the team members doing the recruiting. In a job market that seems to change as often as the direction of the wind, agility is essential to pivot to adapt to shifting trends, new technologies, and emerging opportunities. Agile recruitment practices include leveraging data analytics to optimize results, embracing AI and other technology, and maintaining flexibility to stay ahead in a competitive landscape. 

Succeeding in talent acquisition today requires a proactive approach. By understanding and adapting to the trends above, organizations can maximize the effectiveness of their recruitment efforts and build a robust workforce that’s equipped for the future.

Here, we’ll look at the pros and cons of offshoring and share some tips for starting to use overseas labor for a portion of your operations. 

What is Offshoring?

Offshoring is when a company moves some or all of its business operations to another country, typically to lower costs or improve profits. 

Technically speaking, the term offshoring usually describes the physical relocation of a business’s operations overseas. For example, if Acme Corporation built a manufacturing plant in China and hired workers there, Acme would own the plant and the workers would be direct employees of the company. 

Then there’s offshore outsourcing, which means a third party located overseas takes over a certain aspect of a business’s operations. In this type of arrangement, rather than opening its own manufacturing plant, Acme would contract with an existing plant in China to take over manufacturing without hiring its own employees. Offshore outsourcing is frequently used to lower manufacturing and call center operations costs.  

For our purposes, we’ll cover the pros and cons of offshoring and offshore outsourcing. 

Despite the common argument that offshoring has negative consequences for domestic workers, an NIH 2023 study suggests otherwise. Researchers found that increased offshoring in the United States resulted in higher productivity and capital investment locally, thanks partly to firms’ lowered costs and higher profits. 

Pros of Offshore Outsourcing

1. Cost savings

Most companies choose to outsource overseas due to potential cost savings. Offshoring certain types of labor, like software development, can reduce labor costs by as much as 70%. Offshoring can also help companies save on raw materials and improve efficiency, which further contributes to reduced expenses. 

2. Access to specialized expertise

Specialized labor, like IT or financial services, can be expensive and competitive to hire domestically. Offshoring these specialized business functions, which is known as knowledge process outsourcing, gives companies access to workers with niche skills at lower rates and with less competition, which results in lower hiring costs and potentially better business outcomes. 

Some of the most common knowledge processes that are outsourced internationally include market research, intellectual property research (like for patent applications), legal services, training, research and development, and design.

3. Access to innovation

In addition to helping companies leverage specialized expertise, offshoring can also give firms access to innovation in other areas, like machines and processes. By offshoring the development of a physical product, for example, a company might be able to use specialized equipment that already exists in another country and has been refined for a specific purpose versus allocating the time and resources to develop or assemble the necessary equipment to make the product in-house. 

4. Round-the-clock uptime

Today’s consumers demand 24/7 service. The internet made standard business hours all but obsolete for industries like retail and entertainment; now, when a customer encounters an issue with your service, they want to have it resolved at the moment, even if that moment is at 2 a.m.

By capitalizing on workers in a range of time zones, offshoring makes it more feasible for companies to offer round-the-clock uptime, such as 24/7 technical support. 

5. Improved focus on core business tasks

Cost savings aside, the greatest benefit of offshoring is its potential to free up resources that can be redirected to focus on your core business operations, ultimately increasing profits. 

For example, let’s say your HR department spends five hours a week manually reviewing and approving employee timesheets. It’s a necessary task but one that contributes virtually nothing in terms of business or intellectual output. By outsourcing this task to a qualified offshore partner, you’d free up 20 hours a month that could instead be spent on activities that will drive revenue, like attracting qualified salespeople. 

6. Speed to market

By leveraging external knowledge, tools, and resources, companies can respond to consumer demands and bring new products to market faster. This can be a significant competitive advantage, especially in industries driven by rapidly shifting trends like fashion or technology. 

7. Business continuity

Diversifying the geographic location of your operations serves an important purpose for business continuity. Suppose a production hub or server in the home country experiences an outage. In that case, a company with offshore headquarters can continue service without interruption by tapping the other locations to pick up the slack. 

8. Risk mitigation

Some countries fare better than others in times of economic downturn or global/regional crises. COVID-19 was a perfect illustration of this. Spreading operations across multiple countries reduces a company’s reliance on the whims of any single economy or political situation.  

9. Tax advantages

Some countries (aptly known as tax havens) offer tax conditions that are highly favorable to corporations. Other countries offer incentives to attract certain industries, like manufacturing or R&D. Companies can lower their overall tax burden by taking advantage of these business-friendly tax environments. 

10. Reduced regulatory burden

From labor laws to environmental restrictions, regulations vary from one country to the next. Moving select aspects of a business overseas can help firms minimize their compliance costs and the resources associated with staying on the right side of the law. 

Cons of Offshore Outsourcing

1. Less control over your operations

When you’re not present in person to manage timelines and address issues, small delays can turn into massive backlogs and fixable issues can balloon to multiple times their original size. An entire Reddit thread is dedicated to offshoring horror stories describing missed deadlines, unreasonable supply markups, and “final” products delivered with mistakes. 

One of the main concerns about offshoring is losing control over the part of your operations you’re outsourcing. That’s why it’s hard to overstate the importance of doing your due diligence and properly vetting any overseas talent or company you plan to work with rather than just going with the lowest bidder. 

2. Logistical challenges

Operational challenges are one thing, but even the most trustworthy offshore firms can encounter logistical challenges that are inherent in working with a partner located halfway around the world. 

First, there’s the language and cultural barrier. Though many overseas workers speak English, doing business involves certain nuances that can easily be lost in translation. If a complex technical issue arises, do you have a game plan for communicating about it?

Then there are those tricky things known as time zones. If both firms operate primarily during their country’s normal business hours, this can lead to multi-day lags in communication that can slow down projects. For example, if you send an email at noon from New York to Beijing, where it’s midnight, you might not get a response for eight hours or more. This means your reply would likely happen the following business day, and so on. 

Minimize time zone challenges by establishing clear guidelines on when key leaders will be available for communications, ideally during a window when both parties are simultaneously available so decisions can happen immediately. Having more than one designated point of contact on both sides is also a good idea. 

3. Public image concerns

Generally speaking, Americans have a negative view of outsourcing labor overseas. For instance, in domestic labor opinion polls, between 76 and 95% of Americans surveyed said the offshoring of production and manufacturing work was a reason the U.S. economy was struggling, and more workers weren’t being hired at home. 

Whether or not this is actually true in your company’s case, you’ll need to be prepared for potential criticism of the decision to use offshore labor in the public arena. Resources like this paper on the public fear of offshoring can help you better understand people’s concerns with the practice and equip you with the fact-based information you need to dispel negative feelings among customers. 

4. Employee morale

Similarly, internal parties may have negative feelings about the use of offshore labor. Domestic employees may feel threatened by the possibility of their job being outsourced overseas, a fear that may come to fruition and result in lowered morale. Workers may experience reduced engagement because of their disapproval of the company’s approach. 

Related: Employee Incentive Programs to Motivate and Engage Your Staff

5. Payroll and tax complications

Dealing with America’s tax system is complicated enough on its own; when you introduce an entirely different country into the mix, it comes with a whole new batch of laws to navigate and tax systems to understand. The last thing you want is to unintentionally run afoul of another company’s laws regarding registering your business or employing its workers.  

There are many ways to pay overseas workers; the one that’s right for your business will depend on several factors, like the country’s laws, where the worker has citizenship, and the location they claim as their full-time residence—enlisting an international tax or payroll expert to help you stay on the right side of labor laws when offshoring is wise. 

6. Lack of knowledge transfer

When certain aspects of business are conducted in a separate geographic location, knowledge about that part of the business becomes restricted to that region, as well. Knowledge transfer is limited, both on an individual-to-individual level and within the organization as a whole. 

7. Security concerns

Security, particularly cybersecurity, is a major priority for businesses today. Sharing sensitive information across national borders can increase the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks. Intellectual property may also be at risk in countries with weaker IP laws. 

How to Choose the Right Offshoring Location

As you review various options for offshore outsourcing, consider the following factors that may impact the location’s success.

Time zone

In some lines of business, the time zone may not matter much. In others, it will make or break the ability to communicate effectively. If time zone compatibility is a priority, consider “nearshoring,” which is choosing an offshore location that’s geographically close to your home country. 

Political and economic stability

Look for countries with a stable government, a legitimate legal system, and a pattern of strong economic growth, as these all indicate a secure place to conduct operations. 

Infrastructure

Reliable infrastructure is critical for smooth operations. Assess the quality of a country’s power grid, telecommunications network, and transportation infrastructure to determine whether you can reliably do business there. 

Regulatory environment 

Before you decide on an offshoring location, it’s important to understand the country’s laws as they pertain to your business. Pay attention to corporate regulations and data privacy laws.

Cultural compatibility

Countries with similar values are more likely to collaborate successfully. Things like a shared work ethic and a similar communication style will make it easier for employees in different locations to interact. Also, consider the quality of life in the country, as this will impact offshore workers’ morale and productivity. 

Language barrier

An estimated one in five people worldwide speaks English, and the number is even higher among working adults. Still, it’s important to understand the language proficiency level of the population you want to engage to ensure it meets your expectations. 

3 Ways to Test the Waters with Offshore Labor

If you’re considering using overseas labor for the first time, follow these three tips to ease into it. 

Offshore non-customer-facing functions

Building trust with an international partner takes time. Before you start having customers interface directly with reps overseas, begin instead by outsourcing a more behind-the-scenes function. Data entry, document management, research, claims processing, and IT maintenance are all good options. This allows you to build an effective working relationship while giving your partner time to learn your business before interacting directly with customers. 

Deal in non-confidential information 

Confidentiality is another legitimate concern when moving business operations overseas. Avoid sharing trade secrets or sensitive client data with a new offshore partner whenever possible. Additionally, you’ll need to ensure you’re not violating your existing business contracts, some of which stipulate that all work must be performed domestically. 

Get references

Some of the best offshore relationships we’ve seen are the result of referrals from someone who’s already had success working with a vendor. If you can’t get a recommendation from a trusted contact in your network, ask the vendor to provide international references that can speak to their experience collaborating on projects similar to yours. 

Strike the Perfect Staffing Balance with 4 Corner Resources

Do you need help analyzing your current staffing strategy to arrive at the right mix of domestic and offshore labor? 4 Corner Resources can help. We’re experts at helping companies attract and hire talent that will facilitate growth and drive innovation. Whether you’re looking to hire for a single department or need to find candidates to fulfill a range of business functions, we’ll take sourcing, screening, and interviewing off your plate. 

Start the conversation with one of our headhunters by scheduling your complimentary consultation now.

Learn more about recruitment marketing, why it’s so important in today’s competitive labor market, and examples of how to use it to attract stellar candidates. 

What Is Recruitment Marketing?

Recruitment marketing is a strategy employers use to publicize job openings, build brand awareness, and persuade candidates to apply for positions.

A company’s recruiting and marketing departments once worked separately. Now, because the battle to attract and retain talent is more challenging than ever, professional recruiters and internal human resources departments alike are implementing recruitment marketing strategies.

Just as it is a seller’s market in the real estate industry because the inventory of homes for sale is less than the volume of prospective buyers, the job market favors prospective talent since there are millions of positions employers are looking to fill. Considering this, it makes sense that employers have to work harder to reach quality prospects.

Recruitment marketing provides a blueprint for employers to build and showcase their employer brand and enhance brand awareness. Just as businesses need to elevate brand awareness for consumers, promoting the brand to prospective team members is equally vital. This is why recruitment marketing strategies are created to reach and interest individuals who are actively searching for opportunities, as well as experienced talent who are currently employed.

Related: How to Elevate Your Employer Branding to Attract Top Talent

The Difference Between Recruiting and Recruitment Marketing

While recruiting and recruitment marketing aim to achieve a similar goal–filling a company’s open positions–they are two distinct processes that require distinct strategies. 

Recruitment is the systematic process of identifying, attracting, and hiring qualified candidates for vacant positions within an organization. It involves activities like sourcing candidates, screening resumes, conducting interviews, verifying credentials, and making job offers. Recruitment is typically conducted as quickly and efficiently as possible to get a strong candidate up and running in an open role.

Recruitment marketing comprises all the marketing-related efforts that make recruiting easier, faster, and better for a company. It includes activities like increasing employer brand awareness, building positive public perception, and generating interest among prospective candidates. Recruitment marketing doesn’t have an “end” point. Instead, it’s conducted continuously to maintain a regular stream of talented applicants for a company’s jobs. 

To use a military analogy, recruitment is what happens when a prospective soldier visits a recruiting office. Recruitment marketing is the ‘Army Strong’ commercial, the famous ‘I Want YOU’ poster of Uncle Sam, and all the other materials that help get the prospective soldier in the door. 

Why Does Recruitment Marketing Matter?

Traditional recruiting tactics alone are no longer effective. Today’s job seekers are just as interested in the culture and mission of the organization they will join–if not more so–than what’s offered for compensation and benefits. Salaries and benefits are relevant, of course, but in a competitive marketplace, it is becoming more critical for organizations to implement and communicate a meaningful purpose. Simply put, candidates want to know why a company is in business beyond the purpose of making money.

Recruitment marketing also has practical purposes, helping you maximize the visibility of your job listings and get the most out of every dollar you’ve allocated to talent acquisition. Here are a few key benefits of recruitment marketing.

Reach more candidates

If you want to get your listing in front of as many qualified candidates as possible, you can’t rely on simply posting the position to your website and some job boards. You need to actively promote your openings where the right candidates spend time, like on select social media channels. Recruitment marketing can help you determine what those platforms are and where to spend money to expand your reach when it makes sense. 

Establish trust in your organization

Today’s top candidates are highly selective. They consider more than just money when deciding where to work; they heavily weigh things like an organization’s culture and values. Recruitment marketing helps you convey these important aspects of your company to candidates, so working for you is a no-brainer when it’s time to accept an offer.  

Convert customers into applicants

Earlier, we touched on how modern candidates think more like shoppers when making a purchase. It’s a well-known principle of commerce that it takes multiple touchpoints with a customer before they make a decision to buy. Recruitment marketing helps you make these all-important touchpoints with candidates, inching them closer to buying–or, in this case, applying–with each new interaction. 

Steps in the Recruitment Marketing Funnel

Just as sales and marketing have multi-stage funnels, recruitment marketing has a funnel of its own. This funnel is what turns completely unaware strangers into interested job applicants and, hopefully, employees. 

The steps in a recruitment marketing funnel can vary, but here are the most critical ones. 

Awareness 

Think of this step as the top of the metaphorical funnel. Every candidate in the world is floating around outside of the funnel, and the goal is to draw the best people into it. During this stage, potential candidates become aware of the company and its services. This existing awareness is beneficial when the candidate starts looking for a job or learns of an opening with the company. 

Consideration

During the consideration step, sometimes called the ‘interest’ phase, candidates begin to examine employment with the company more closely. They may browse the organization’s website, look up listings on job boards, follow the company on social media, or reach out to people in their network to learn more. 

Application

At this stage–you guessed it–the candidate makes the pivotal decision to apply for a job. From here, they’re officially part of the company’s recruitment process and subject to all of the aspects of the candidate experience, like the job application, the interview process, and the company’s communications throughout.

Selection

In this case, we’re talking about the candidate’s choice to accept a job with the company rather than the company’s decision to offer the job. Why? As you’ll remember, recruitment marketing focuses on perception and generating the desire to work for the company. To speak in marketing terms, accepting a job with the organization is akin to buying the product. It’s the final and most important conversion. 

How to Develop a Recruitment Marketing Plan

When determining a recruitment marketing strategy, think about your own preferences as a consumer. The internet is an integral part of nearly everyone’s lives, and there is stiff competition for your attention and time. What happens when you visit a site that does not captivate your interest? Chances are, you venture to another site. Perhaps you peruse Facebook, check your favorite sports blog, or click on a YouTube video. 

Job seekers have the same mentality. If your recruitment marketing is subpar, you will likely lose visitors’ interest, and an ideal candidate for your open position may end up on another company’s team. This is why investing not only in surface-level recruitment marketing but also in implementing an exhilarating recruitment marketing strategy that keeps prospects interested throughout every stage is essential.

Follow these steps to develop an effective, engaging recruitment marketing plan. 

1. Outline your goals

Though the broad goal of recruitment marketing is to attract and hire excellent candidates, there are other, more nuanced goals your recruitment marketing will be working to achieve. You may have trouble filling niche roles, so you must connect with more specialized candidates. Maybe you’re under new ownership and need to build awareness of the change in your company values. Whatever your particular goals are, they should inform all of your recruitment marketing decisions. 

You should also quantify your goals as much as possible; this enables you to measure your progress. So, if you’re looking to attract more specialized candidates, your goal might be to generate a certain number of applications. If you want to change the reputation of your employer brand, you might set targets using net promoter score or some other indicator of public perception. 

2. Establish your target audience

Use candidate personas to define the audience for your recruitment marketing campaigns. A candidate persona is an in-depth description of your ideal candidate. In addition to professional qualifications like skills and experience, a candidate persona also defines personality traits and likely demographic characteristics like living in an urban area or being within a certain age range. Candidate personas are an effective tool for helping you develop highly tailored recruitment messaging. 

3. Define the best channels

These are the places where you’ll execute your recruitment marketing campaigns, and they should be places where your target audience is most likely to be. Select your channels based on the candidate personas you defined in step two. 

Here are just a few of the many recruitment marketing channels to consider:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Tik Tok 
• X/Twitter
• YouTube
• Print
• Radio
• Television
• Streaming
• Direct mail 
• Blog posts
• Email
• Events
• Product packaging
• Outdoor advertising

Note that many recruitment marketing activities can be repurposed across multiple channels. For example, a testimonial video you shoot for your website can be broken into smaller snippets for use on social media or turned into still images with quotes for a print campaign. 

4. Set a budget

Assess the financial resources available to you. Your recruiting budget will be a defining factor in the campaigns you create. Consider not only direct costs, like advertising and event fees, but other costs, like labor and third-party contractors. 

5. Brainstorm campaigns

Now comes the fun part: actually coming up with the tactics and campaigns you’ll use to achieve your recruitment marketing goals. To generate creative, engaging ideas, involve various team members from recruiting and marketing. It can even be helpful to bring in people from other departments for a fresh perspective, 

Here are a few ways you can generate captivating recruitment marketing strategies:

• Define your biggest recruiting challenges and look for ways to overcome them, similar to what inventors do when coming up with ideas for new products
• Consider the style, tone, and format of content that tends to resonate best with your target audience
• Think interactively, like puzzles, games, and skill tests
• Borrow inspiration from other brands and industries–we showcase a few shining examples below

6. Schedule and execute

Use a content calendar or project management app to map out the steps required to execute your campaigns. For each step, assign the responsible team member and define a deadline.

7. Assess your progress

Monitor your campaign performance and periodically check results against your initial goals. Many of the same platforms used to manage marketing analytics, like Hubspot, Semrush, and Google Analytics, can be useful here, along with the reporting capabilities in your ATS. Optimize and refine your recruitment marketing plan over time based on your progress.

3 Examples of Successful Recruitment Marketing

Volkswagen’s “Inside Job” guerilla campaign

Poaching talent from the competition is a strategy as old as time. Volkswagen Group France pulled it off with a flourishing campaign to hire 1,000 new mechanics. The automaker hid job offers inside vehicles needing service, then sent those cars off to competing shops. When mechanics successfully diagnosed the problem under the hood, they’d also find a message like this one: ‘Yes, the exhaust pipe needs to be replaced. Speaking of change, how about coming to work for us?’ It’s so clever you almost can’t be mad at it, even if you were one of the target competitors.

“Overheard at Northrop Grumman” video series

Most recruitment marketing in the aerospace and defense industry looks similar and predictable–jets doing dazzling loops in the sky, fighter pilots strapping on helmets, and dramatic music. Industry giant Northrop Grumman took an innovative turn by creating a recruitment marketing campaign totaling 180 from the Top Gun aesthetic. 

In the ‘Overheard at Northrop Grumman’ video series, we’re a fly on the wall to punchy snippets of offbeat conversations amongst engineers. It’s a mix of humor and humanization we don’t usually get in this straight-laced field, making the company more approachable for non-traditional candidates. The company successfully leveraged the series to gain consideration from an untapped pool of candidates and hire more tech talent.

Deloitte Zombie recruiter

“Are you hungry for a new opportunity?” asks a pale and bloodied zombie in a business suit at the start of this recruiting ad. The spot follows the undead recruiter as she encourages viewers with the “juiciest brains” to consider a career at financial services firm Deloitte. The unconventional take on recruitment marketing ran during the season finale of the hit show The Walking Dead, helping the company reach a young, educated talent pool and highlight its creativity.

We Can Help Build Your Recruitment Marketing Strategy

Our recruiters are experienced and innovative leaders in helping companies like yours find skilled and qualified team members for your vacant positions.

We offer staffing solutions for businesses of all sizes – from startups to SMBs and large corporations throughout the United States. Our knowledge and passion for what we do, and our flexible terms and conditions, set us apart in the world of headhunting and recruiting.

We welcome the opportunity to connect if you need help identifying the right candidates for your vacancies! We’re on standby to help you transform your workforce and find the ideal candidate today!

As a recruiting and staffing firm for large and small businesses, we’ve come to realize that many of these hiring concerns can be remedied by implementing these small business hiring tips.

Small Business Recruiting Trends

Demand for remote jobs continues to rise

Thanks to the pandemic-driven explosion of remote work, millions of professionals experienced the convenience, flexibility, and comfort of working from home for the first time. Now, many of them never want to go back. Smaller companies find themselves at a unique advantage as large employers call their workers back to the office en masse. By tailoring more open job positions to be partially or entirely remote, SMBs can attract a wider pool of interested applicants and compete against enterprise organizations with more rigid in-office policies. 

While companies of all sizes report significant decreases in operating costs thanks to the remote working trend, it can be especially beneficial to small-to-midsize businesses. These businesses tend to have less space and resources to work with — and having fewer employees physically in the office means less desk space, equipment, and utilities are necessary.

If you decide to include more remote positions in your hiring strategy, be sure you’re also aware of the latest digital recruiting trends. This will enable you to effectively reach potential workers where they actually spend time and look for new jobs on their mobile devices.

Utilizing freelancers and contractors 

Modern employees are increasingly moving away from full-time jobs to pursue more flexible options, like freelance or contract work. Upwork predicts that half of all workers will be freelancers by 2027.

By hiring an independent contractors, you can look beyond your local market and tap into talent that wouldn’t be willing to relocate for a job or isn’t available to take a full-time, in-office position. This can also save small businesses on both up-front and long-term recruiting costs. With freelancers and contractors, you aren’t committing to paying a full-time salary and typically won’t have to pay for benefits or match retirement savings contributions. Additionally, suppose you use a professional staffing agency to fill freelance or contractor positions. In that case, those hires typically stay on the staffing agency’s payroll for the duration of their contract, not yours.

Employer branding is gaining momentum

In a competitive market, you aren’t just choosing candidates — they’re choosing you, too. It can be hard to set yourself apart from other small businesses in your area or attract top talent over industry giants. According to LinkedIn, 75% of job seekers consider a company’s brand before applying for a job, making it necessary to develop a strong brand as an employer.

There are many simple, cost-effective ways for small businesses to build their brand and attract top candidates. For example, regularly engaging with your customers through blogs or social media, clearly showcasing your culture and values through videos or online posts, or sharing information about the causes and philanthropic organizations you support.

Being transparent and consistent in all of your communications creates a strong brand image, which can lead to candidates who are aligned with your goals and values discovering your company. If you’re leveraging a professional staffing agency for your recruitment initiatives, make sure they have taken the time to research and familiarize themselves with your employer brand so they can source candidates who align with it on your behalf.

Heavier focus on recruiting candidates based on culture fit

For small businesses especially, company culture is incredibly important. Many small businesses feel like a tight-knit family, and when you have fewer people on your staff, each one directly impacts the overall environment. Bringing in a new hire that doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the team can make the working atmosphere uncomfortable or lower morale for everyone — and in a smaller office, this will quickly become noticeable.

Unfortunately, assessing a candidate’s culture fit isn’t an exact science. However, you can gain insight into an employee’s personality in many ways before committing to giving them a salary and spending further time and resources on hiring and onboarding. Many pre-employment assessment tools on the market fit all needs and budgets, which can uncover a candidate’s deeper motivations, preferences, and personality traits. Additionally, something as simple and cost-effective as chatting with a candidate over lunch or coffee (or, in current times, a Zoom call) can help you get to know them in a more informal setting.

Related: Reasons Why Culture Fit is Important for Your Hiring Strategy

AI offers assistance–but is underused by SMBs

Artificial intelligence is no longer some obscure technology accessible only by big firms with huge budgets. Today, AI is integrated directly into ordinary recruiting technology, some of which you might already use. Modern ATSs, for example, use AI to screen candidates and intelligently predict job success. AI can also be used to craft compelling candidate messaging and even assist with your social media strategy. 

Despite its huge potential to help offload manual tasks and optimize recruiting, the majority of small businesses still aren’t using AI. While 93% of small business owners agree that AI tools can help drive savings and improve profitability, slightly less than a third of SMBs surveyed used AI tools in the last one to two years. 

Younger workers crave stability

By 2030, Gen Z employees will account for nearly a third of the workforce. This makes recruiting them increasingly important to SMBs who wish to remain competitive in the decade ahead, and understanding their preferences is paramount. 

While Millennials have gotten a bad rap as the job-hopping generation, Gen Z workers place a much heavier value on stability. In a survey of soon-to-be college grads, stability was the number one factor students said would make them apply for a job. This should be no surprise, given the economic instability that has plagued the past few years. Small- to medium-sized businesses can capitalize on this demand by highlighting job security and promoting the importance of employee longevity in their recruitment materials. 

Key Small Business Hiring Tips

Now that you have a grasp on some of the top hiring trends let’s talk about how to go about hiring. 

Knowing how to attract top talent to your company (and away from the industry giants) is all about making your company attractive to potential applicants. You must focus on selling your unique value — highlighting what you offer that larger companies don’t.

Offer attractive compensation and benefits

One of the most effective ways to attract the best employees is to offer compensation that is commensurate with their skills, knowledge, and experience. Understanding what motivates different age groups and generations is vital for any business that wants to hire the best talent. For example, baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) have different motivations and expectations than employees who fall within Generation Y (also known as millennials).

If offering competitive salaries or other employee-related benefits isn’t an option financially for your business, there are other things you can do to help make your company stand out from larger businesses. Some employees value non-monetary rewards, such as having mentorship opportunities, skills training, and greater autonomy.

Develop a strong employer brand

In previous articles, we’ve discussed the importance of developing and showcasing a strong employer brand — the values and image your company conveys to the public and prospective employees as an employer. This could involve showcasing the organization’s culture, family-oriented workplace, or its contributions to the community.

At 4 Corner Resources, for example, our employer brand conveys that we are an organization that combines performance and effectiveness to serve our clients while also providing our employees the best training in the industry. We value the 4R Principles: Relationships, Resources, Responsiveness, and Results.

Related: How to Elevate Your Employer Branding to Attract Top Talent

Offer opportunities for advancement

Growth opportunities are crucial for attracting and retaining talented employees at small companies. Small businesses may have more advancement opportunities than their larger counterparts, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

If your organization offers relevant experiences, challenges, training, and hands-on learning opportunities, you can help employees stand out in their professional development. This differs from larger enterprises, where candidates may feel they need help in the crowd of employees.

Offer flexible or remote work opportunities

As we mentioned in our discussion of hiring trends, flexible hours and remote work opportunities are often viewed as major selling points by prospective candidates. A significant advantage of being a small business is that you can offer these types of opportunities as hiring incentives.

Furthermore, remote work opportunities provide you with a chance to attract and hire the best candidates who may not live within a commutable distance from your company office.

Streamline the hiring process

An advantage of your small size is that your approach can be more streamlined. Every hiring decision doesn’t have to go through a long, drawn-out process involving many hands in the pot.

Considering ERE Media reports that the top candidates are often hired within 10 days, it’s vital to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Use your organization’s small size to your advantage to ensure the hiring process moves quickly and efficiently.

Write detailed and effective job descriptions 

Writing a good job description is essential for finding good employees who will be the right fit for a position. After all, if your job description is ineffective, how do you expect the right people to find your job, let alone want to apply for it? 

The best way to find employees is to write job descriptions that attract the talent you need and also clearly state your expectations of those who will fill those roles.

Hold out for the right employees

Don’t jump to onboard a candidate who’s just “okay” just to get someone in the role. Hiring employees who aren’t truly suitable for a specific job means that in addition to the cost of hiring and training them, you’ll also have the additional costs of replacing them and training new candidates. This is particularly worrisome, considering that nearly 75% of surveyed employers hired the wrong person for a position and that companies lost an average of nearly $15,000 on every bad hire they made.

These costs are a significant investment for small businesses — underscoring the importance of hiring good employees the first time around. Don’t settle for anything less than employees who always bring their A-game, passion, talent, and energy to your business. 

Leverage referrals

Referrals are undoubtedly the most reliable sourcing channel for identifying skilled, dependable candidates. One of the best ways to source new talent for your business is to ask your existing employees for referrals. Because they already work for you, your employees are a recruiting goldmine for your company. They can likely make an educated recommendation because they already know what it is like to work at your company and understand what expectations its employees need to meet. They can also tell if someone in their circle will fit in on your team.

To help motivate employees to provide recommendations, you can offer them incentives — such as a cash bonus, time off, or another benefit — for each referral you end up hiring.

Additionally, getting recommendations or referrals from people you know isn’t limited to your existing employee pool. Ask around within your professional network to find out if you “know someone who knows someone” who may be a good fit. 

This can be as simple as reaching out to your contacts on LinkedIn or grabbing coffee with another business leader with whom you have a good relationship. You may be surprised to discover they know a few strong candidates who can fill your staffing needs when you are hiring employees for your small business.

Be selective where you list positions for applicants

Some small businesses will make the mistake of listing positions all over the internet on websites like Craigslist, Monster, Indeed, Zip Recruiter, and Glassdoor (to name a few). However, taking the “shotgun” approach by listing information about your job openings everywhere can hurt rather than help your recruiting efforts.

One of the small business hiring tips we recommend is to take a focused approach when posting positions. If you post your positions everywhere, you’ll get a wider net of applicants, but the overwhelming majority will not be qualified candidates. This process creates extra resume review work for you or your HR team without providing additional benefits.

Use social media to recruit, research, and qualify candidates

Should social media matter when it comes to hiring employees for your small business? For many employers, it does. According to a study by the Society For Human Resource Management (SHRM), social media is used by 84% of employers as part of their recruiting efforts, and 43% of employers use search engines and social networks to screen job candidates. The study indicates that:

• 71% believe social media recruiting helps to reduce time-to-fill for non-management, salaried positions;
• 67% believe it is beneficial to hiring management positions and
• 59% believe it is effective for hiring C-level suite employees.

Although staffing experts often have different opinions about whether businesses should use social media to review candidates, reviewing social networking platforms can be an effective way to learn more about each candidate. This publicly accessible information can tell you a lot about a candidate’s personality, values, and skills—as well as any behaviors of concern.

Promote sustainability

We’ve talked a bit about the desires of Gen Z and Millennial job seekers already, but one area we haven’t yet covered is sustainability. A 2023 Deloitte survey of these two youngest workforce age groups revealed some surprising findings about how they weigh sustainability when deciding where to work.

More than half of the survey’s respondents said they research a prospective employer’s environmental impact and policies before accepting a job, and one in six say they’ve already changed jobs or industries due to climate concerns. Approximately a quarter of them plan to make such a move in the future.

For SMBs focusing on sustainability, these preferences can be an asset. Spotlight your environmentally friendly policies and initiatives in your hiring materials. If you don’t have such initiatives in place already, now would be a great time to prioritize launching them. 

Cross-train and promote from within

Pay attention to your existing workforce when looking to fill a pressing skills need. Before hiring externally, consider whether a suitable candidate already exists within your ranks or whether one could be developed with proper training. Not only does hiring from within help you fill open roles quickly and at a lower cost, but it also promotes retention and contributes to strong employee engagement. 

Partner with a staffing agency to recruit reputable talent

Partnering with a staffing and recruiting agency is the last of our small business hiring tips. In addition to a wealth of resources and a significant network of candidates, the right agency will know your specific industry and regularly work with small to midsize businesses like yours. As such, they will bring you the best candidate for any of your job openings.

Partner With 4 Corner Resources For Your Small Business Hiring Needs

Our team of experts who are proficient in small business hiring tips has been helping attract, qualify, and screen candidates for more than 18 years. We are client-driven and have an adaptive, flexible, and personal style that makes us easy to work with. If you don’t know how to recruit employees for your small business, our recruiting and hiring experts are here to answer questions and provide guidance throughout the process. If needed, we can take the burden off your shoulders and handle the process from start to finish to match the perfect candidates with your business.

If you have questions about how to recruit good employees for a small business, we invite you to reach out. Contact us to get in touch with our staffing experts today and explore how we can help you hire for success.

With machine learning and artificial intelligence tools becoming more advanced daily, predictive analytics’ role in hiring is only set to grow. We’ll cover how organizations can benefit from it, share how to incorporate predictive analytics into your recruiting strategy, and identify the top challenges to be aware of as you adopt new technology. 

What is Predictive Analytics?

Predictive analytics is a form of data analysis that uses historical data, complex algorithms, and machine learning to identify patterns and predict future outcomes. Companies can leverage predictive analytics to pinpoint business trends, forecast future events, and make more informed operational decisions. Recruiting is just one of the many areas in which predictive analytics can improve business outcomes.

Predictive Analytics in Recruiting

Incorporating predictive analytics into recruiting processes offers numerous benefits for organizations, including the ability to: 

Forecast staffing needs

Data models can leverage historic staffing data, employee performance metrics, and information about market conditions to make intelligent and highly accurate predictions about who companies should hire and when. For example, predictive analytics could identify an uptick in customer activity in a certain region at a specific time of year, indicating precisely when and where you need to ramp up hiring. It can even forecast when employees are likely to be job searching, informing your retention and strategic succession planning efforts. 

Identify hiring criteria

Predictive analytics can analyze the characteristics of an organization’s most successful employees–say, high-performing salespeople—to create a shortlist of traits recruiters should prioritize when hiring. More precise screening leads to a stronger talent pool. 

Related: How to Shortlist Job Candidates

Predict candidate success

Data modeling can predict a candidate’s aptitude for success in a particular role, alignment with a company’s culture, and likelihood of accepting an offer. Greater accuracy in these areas reduces the incidence of bad hires and can facilitate a smoother onboarding process. 

Make hiring more strategic

Whereas traditional recruiting methods rely heavily on hiring managers’ decision-making abilities, predictive analytics allow you to make data-based decisions. This makes hiring more strategic, promotes greater efficiency, and reduces rushed decision-making that can lead to hiring mistakes. 

Benefits of Using Predictive Analytics in Hiring

Be proactive versus reactive

Traditional hiring is often reactive–you hire only when you realize you have a need, which means you’re already behind. Predictive analytics allow you to anticipate the need before you start to feel the pain of a staffing gap, allowing you to take your time narrowing the field to just the right person instead of rushing to hire someone out of urgency. 

Improve accuracy

We’ve known for a while that data leads to better hiring decisions–just look at the prevalence of pre-hire assessments for objectively judging candidates’ skills. Predictive analytics foster hiring decisions that are rooted in data rather than a hiring manager’s instinct, which results in more accurate placements. 

Reduce costs

With the help of predictive analytics, you can hire when you need to and not when you don’t, avoiding unnecessary hiring costs. And, because AI tools help you approach recruiting with a clear picture of what’s ahead, you’ll also avoid the expense of last-minute hires, which can be costly. 

Lower turnover

One of the most common reasons people say they’d quit a job is if the position doesn’t match what they expected. Predictive analytics help you select candidates who are better aligned with your open roles, resulting in stronger new hire satisfaction and less risk of turnover. 

Lighten workloads

Predictive analytics and other AI tools have immense power to tackle time-consuming screening tasks. This can reduce the burden on busy recruiters, freeing up more of their time to interact with candidates and speak with a greater volume of people. 

Personalize candidates’ experience

Personalization is the crux of an excellent candidate experience. Machine learning technology helps companies tailor the experience candidates have based on what they’re most likely to engage with. Sending the right communications at the right time boosts your ability to win top talent. 

Downsides of Using Predictive Analytics in Hiring 

Infrastructure

Depending on your needs and goals, implementing AI recruiting tools can require complex data management systems and specialized software. In addition to substantial setup costs, you’ll also need to budget for ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting.

Resistance to change

As with any new technology, there will likely be hurdles in getting buy-in from company leaders, stakeholders, and the staff who will use it. You’ll need to invest resources to educate team members on the new tools and workflows and provide ample training. 

Privacy and security 

The volume of data being stored and accessed by predictive analytics systems is massive, which raises a new level of concern for its security and the privacy of those it belongs to. Organizations must be vigilant about obtaining employee and candidate consent, following relevant data protection regulations, and being transparent about how data is used. 

Quality control

The outcomes of machine learning tools are only as good as the data that goes into them. This requires companies to be attentive to data integrity and implement regular audits and monitoring strategies. 

Lack of human element

There’s no doubt that hiring great people requires a human touch. Too much reliance on technology can mean organizations lose the human element that separates great recruiting departments. For example, a machine can’t replicate the nuance of an in-person conversation or gain the same level of context that we can (at least, not yet) from body language and non-verbal cues. 

Strategies for Adopting Predictive Analytics in Hiring

Gather data systematically

Robust, high-quality data is the foundation of any successful predictive analytics recruiting initiative. Implement systems for capturing complete data across all departments and sources involved in the hiring process, including resumes, applications, applicant tracking systems, HR software, email communications, assessments, performance reviews, etc. 

Choose technology wisely

It might be as simple as choosing the right software for small to medium-sized businesses. For enterprise organizations, this may require working with data scientists to develop effective models customized to your needs. As you select the right technology, consider ease of use, ability to integrate with other HR systems, scalability, and support options. 

Provide proper training

As we’ve already touched on, proper training is crucial to overcome initial resistance and get the most from your predictive analytics solutions. The data produced by predictive analytics is often complex; thus, it’s critical to ensure that HR professionals and hiring managers have a thorough knowledge of how to interpret and act on the insights. Provide continuous learning opportunities to keep team members current with new technological developments. 

Incorporate slowly

Don’t overhaul your entire hiring process overnight. Introduce AI tools gradually to avoid disruptions and minimize pushback. Focus on one specific goal at a time, assessing progress, troubleshooting issues, and gathering feedback before moving on to another new system. 

Refine over time

Using predictive analytics in hiring isn’t a one-time implementation. Instead, it requires continuous refinement through ongoing monitoring, updates to data models, and input from your team. Staying responsive to changes in technology and the recruiting industry will ensure your use of predictive analytics produces long-term results. 

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The Future of Predictive Analytics in Recruitment

So, is predictive analytics the future of hiring? The answer is a resounding yes. 

Organizations across industries have already begun transitioning to data-based hiring, with many early adopters reporting impressive outcomes. As success stories become more prevalent, more companies will adopt the technology. As algorithms become more refined and effective, predictive analytics will expand into other HR functions like employee development and engagement.

To be sure, there will always be a human element in hiring. Talented recruiting teams are necessary to manage, optimize, and get the most out of even the most advanced AI systems. However, the skills required for the next decade of recruiting will be different from the last, with a heavier emphasis on data analysis and knowledge of data modeling. On the flip side, uniquely human skills like communication and empathy will also set great hiring teams apart. 

Starting today, incorporating predictive analytics into your hiring strategy will help you make smarter, data-driven hiring decisions that contribute to a dynamic workforce and long-term success. 

AI in recruiting, however, is not without its downsides. In fact, there are many of them. We’ll examine how AI is changing the recruiting process and explore the pros and cons of this shift. 

The Power of AI in Recruiting

AI can disrupt any aspect of recruiting, but we see the most significant potential for improvement in four key areas.

Efficiency

AI-powered tools can tackle some of the most time-consuming tasks in the hiring process, like screening resumes and sending messages. By managing these necessary but tedious tasks, AI can free up recruiters’ time for activities that are better suited to humans, like conducting interviews and speaking with references. This can dramatically improve efficiency and enable recruiters to consider more candidates, expanding a company’s hiring pool. 

Candidate experience

If there’s one thing we know about job seekers, it’s that they want to hear back from the companies they’ve applied with. More communication is almost always better than less, yet maintaining consistent engagement with candidates has historically been a huge hurdle for recruiters. AI alleviates the challenge with tools to communicate regularly with candidates, answer questions 24/7, and even conduct interviews. All of this contributes to a more seamless hiring process. 

Accuracy

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of AI in recruiting–at least as the technology stands today–is its potential to help employers make better hires more often. Advanced algorithms can identify job success and retention predictors, helping us zero in on the best candidate from a group of finalists. Facial analysis tools can assess candidates’ expressions to gauge personality and even flag potential signs of deception. Continuous learning means the technology gets more accurate the more data it has to work with, facilitating ongoing improvement the longer you use it. 

Fairness 

Since data drives AI, it’s inherently less prone to the biases that can creep into the hiring process (though it’s not completely immune to bias–more on that a little later on). AI-assisted screening can ensure all candidates are given fair consideration. At the same time, tools like AI-powered assessments can judge candidates based on their actual qualifications rather than other factors like gender, age, or ethnicity. 

The Pros of AI in the Recruiting Process

Thanks to advances in AI, recruiters can leverage technology in many beneficial ways. Here are some of its top upsides. 

Identifying candidates

AI algorithms can search through vast pools of candidates on job boards, social media, and other platforms to identify those who match the job description. This greatly reduces the amount of time recruiters spend on sourcing and ensures that only qualified candidates are approached for consideration. 

Screening candidates

AI tools can quickly scan and filter resumes, identifying the most relevant candidates based on hiring managers’ criteria. This helps recruiters manage roles with a heavy volume of applicants and spend more time carefully considering those who are a strong fit. 

Predicting success

With the help of machine learning, recruiters can analyze historical data to identify patterns and make strong predictions. This includes things like which candidates are most likely to be successful in a role or company culture, which sourcing channels yield the best results, whether an individual is likely to be job searching or open to new opportunities, and how likely a candidate is to accept an offer.

Reducing bias

We’ve already touched on AI’s potential to make the hiring process more objective. By removing potential bias-inducing information like candidates’ names and education details, AI focuses on candidate credentials and other data-driven criteria. 

Assisting applicants

AI-driven chatbots can answer frequently asked questions, suggest roles that fit a candidate’s skills, and even complete on-the-spot screenings. This ensures timely responses and allows companies to offer a communication channel that’s available around the clock.

Analyzing data

AI has the unparalleled ability to parse through large volumes of data and layer predictive capabilities on top of it to identify trends and forecast likely outcomes. The resulting intelligence can help you make better hires, avoid hiring mistakes, predict when you need to ramp up hiring, and more. 

The Cons of AI in the Recruiting Process

While the future of AI is promising for the talent acquisition field, it also poses several noteworthy challenges to be aware of. 

Bias

That’s right–the tools meant to help employers reduce bias can develop their own prejudices. AI models are only as good as the data they’re trained on, which means they can “learn” to show preference to certain candidates based on who has been hired in the past. Companies must be mindful that AI systems are designed and trained in a way that avoids perpetuating existing biases.  

Application overload

Just as employers are using machines to do more of the tedious recruiting tasks, job seekers are using technology to automate the laborious process of applying for jobs. New services allow candidates to find matching positions, automatically customize their resume for them, and submit an application within a few clicks. As a result, a landslide of AI-generated applications swamps companies, and a bot-on-bot battle ensues as their own AI tools sift through them. 

Doctored application materials

If you had a dedicated copywriting tool that could take your cobbled-together list of jobs and skills and turn it into an impressive, impeccable resume, why wouldn’t you use it? Thanks to ChatGPT, all candidates now have access to such a tool, and running your application materials through it has become the norm before submitting them. This calls into question those materials’ usefulness in assessing a candidate’s actual suitability for a job. 

Data limitations

AI technologies get better the more data they have to learn from. For large and enterprise-level firms, this isn’t a problem, but smaller companies may not find the same level of usefulness or accuracy due to a smaller data set. 

Exclusion of qualified candidates

One major advantage of human recruiters is that they can see past the keywords and the job titles to the “whole package,” like if a candidate lacks formal education but has extremely relevant experience. AI, for the most part, doesn’t have this level of discretion, which means great candidates may be ruled out. 

Security

We’ve already mentioned several times the large volume of data AI relies on. Storing, accessing, and managing this data raises significant privacy and security concerns, especially if sensitive candidate information is mishandled or a breach occurs. 

Technical difficulties

As with all technology, glitches happen. Outages and bugs will inevitably pop up, which can confuse candidates and delay the hiring process.

Impersonal nature

Interacting with AI machines can feel like just that–talking to a machine. It’s speedy and efficient, but the impersonal nature can feel transactional and may be off-putting for some candidates. 

Job displacement

We’d be remiss not to mention the elephant in the room: AI taking over the very jobs we’re using it to do. This is particularly concerning for roles heavily focused on administrative tasks. It can create resistance and raise ethical concerns about the broader implications for the workforce. 

As AI continues to evolve, it’s best to move forward with our eyes wide open to both the possibilities and the challenges. As with any technology, we can’t fall into the “set it and forget it” trap. As we implement emerging tools, it’s crucial to evaluate their success and accuracy over time and reflect carefully on the results. We’re excited about what’s to come and to see how this technology will continue to transform our field, both in the near term and in the years ahead. 

In today’s market, prospective employees should not be viewed as job seekers. Instead, like highly regarded free agents in professional sports, they are coveted consumers with abundant choices for their next career move. Recognizing this, many companies have shifted to an inbound recruitment strategy.

Considering that the current job market is talent-driven, inbound recruitment offers a long-term recruiting and hiring strategy designed to build your employer brand and consistently grow your talent base.

What is Inbound Recruitment?

Inbound recruitment involves attracting the interest of job seekers through insightful blog posts, effective search engine optimization (SEO), relevant social media outlets, and other types of content marketing. Think of inbound recruitment as a mix of employer branding and recruitment marketing that piques the interest of job seekers who are ideally suited for your company’s career opportunities.

While outbound marketing requires purchasing ads, building email lists, and crossing your fingers for leads, inbound marketing emphasizes writing remarkable content that attracts candidates to your company and explains to them how they can thrive as part of your team. Aligning the content with job seekers’ interests increases the chances of turning initial interest into prospects who are hired and retained for the long term.

Companies that author and implement a thorough inbound recruitment strategy consistently hire extraordinary employees without incurring the prohibitive costs of traditional outbound recruitment. Organizations benefit from a healthy bottom line, a happy and productive team, and positive brand awareness.

Inbound Recruiting Methodology 

Inbound recruiting uses a methodology that mirrors the framework used for inbound marketing. When marketers leverage inbound tactics to win customers, they focus on achieving four key actions: attracting, converting, closing, and delighting leads. In inbound recruiting, the four actions are the same, but instead of dealing with paying customers, you’re engaging with talented candidates.

Here’s a breakdown of each phase of inbound recruiting and some examples of activities that might occur during each phase.

Phase 1: Attract

Goal: Making candidates aware of your company and its openings.

Example activities:

• Seeing a social media post about your job openings
• Viewing a testimonial video from happy employees
• Reading a blog post about your benefits

Phase 2: Convert

Goal: Getting candidates to engage with your company and application materials.

Example activities:

• Subscribing to your email list
• Asking questions about job openings via an onsite chatbot
• Registering for a recruiting webinar

Phase 3: Close

Goal: Getting candidates to complete an application.

Example activities:

• Attending a hiring event 
• Filling out an application
• Completing a screening call with a recruiter

Phase 4: Delight

Goal: Turning candidates into promoters of your employer brand.

Example activities:

• Receiving nurturing emails
• Filling out a candidate feedback survey
• Sharing your job openings with friends

Creating content using this methodology allows you to continuously fill your talent pipeline with high-quality candidates and engage them with a positive, productive experience. 

The Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Recruiting

As their names suggest, inbound recruiting focuses on attracting candidates into your talent pipeline, while outbound recruiting requires you to make the first contact with candidates.

Think of inbound recruiting like fishing on a lake. The company baits the hook and provides an attractive lure, but it’s up to the candidate (the fish, in this scenario) to swim over and bite. 

If we’re keeping with the fishing metaphor, outbound recruiting is like trawling, which uses a big net attached to a boat. There’s no lure and no waiting for the fish to approach. Instead, the company goes out, casts the net, and catches the fish. 

Both methods are effective ways to catch fish, and each has its own advantages. Likewise, both inbound and outbound recruiting can be valuable strategies in a company’s overall approach to talent acquisition. 

Reasons to use inbound recruiting

• Is a long-term strategy
• Requires an up-front investment of time/resources
• Can attract candidates for years to come after the initial investment is made

Reasons to use outbound recruiting

• Is a short-term strategy
• Requires a continuous investment of resources/manpower to maintain
• Produces results in the moment 

If you want to be a company that candidates aspire to work at–rather than one where filling openings is a struggle–your efforts should focus heavily on inbound recruiting. 

The Benefits of Inbound Recruitment

Always “on”

Once you’ve put in the initial work to create a piece of inbound content or a series of nurturing materials, those materials work to attract candidates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is in contrast to outbound recruiting strategies like paid ads, which stop running when the budget is exhausted, or candidate outreach, which only works when a recruiter is actively messaging candidates.

Consistent talent pipeline

The “always on” nature of inbound recruiting creates a steady stream of qualified candidates continuously entering your talent pipeline. You can engage with prospective candidates in some cases before they’re even looking for a job and nurture those relationships over time, which means your company is a natural top choice when they are looking for a job. 

High-quality candidates

Inbound recruiting methods attract candidates to you like a magnet versus you going out and trying to force candidates to engage. This means they’re more likely to be interested in your message and aligned with your values, which can promote a stronger fit for your needs and culture. It also works well to reach elusive passive candidates who aren’t as apt to interact directly with recruiters.

Control of brand messaging

With inbound recruiting, you have direct control over the content and platform of every message. This promotes consistency, helping to create a harmonious flow between different points of messaging and types of content. It also helps you to communicate your brand message in a more strategic way (i.e., an email nurture feed that delivers a series of strategically timed blog posts on different aspects of employment with your company). 

Positive candidate experience

Inbound recruiting empowers employers to deliver articulate and informative messaging in a seamless way. Candidates enjoy content that’s relevant to them while building feelings of goodwill and trust over time, leading to a more positive experience overall. 

Analytics friendly

Because most inbound recruiting activities occur online, the resulting activity can be easily tracked and cross-referenced between platforms. This facilitates an intricate data set that allows you to track the effectiveness of your efforts and continuously refine your campaigns. 

The Disadvantages of Inbound Recruitment

Heavy up-front investment

While the inbound marketing materials you create can deliver qualified candidates for months and even years into the future, they require an initial investment of time and resources to plan and create. You’ll need to allocate a budget for these efforts, knowing you likely won’t see measurable results for at least several months. 

Delayed results

If you need to fill a role ASAP, inbound recruitment is not the method to use unless you already have an established strategy in place. As we said earlier, inbound recruiting is a long-term approach and works best when paired with strategic succession planning. 

Specialized skill set

Your inbound recruiting results will only be as good as the content you create. Creating high-quality content requires capabilities different from those that recruiters typically possess, including skills like copywriting, SEO, and social media marketing. You may need to train or hire new staff specifically for these campaigns.  

Unpredictability 

Unlike outbound recruiting, where the results happen pretty immediately after you complete an action, inbound recruiting results are harder to predict with precision. A candidate who enters your inbound pipeline may convert to an applicant in two days or two years. Candidate volume can be subject to natural ebbs and flows that don’t necessarily reflect what’s happening in the job market. 

Lack of filtering ability

Anyone can see your inbound recruiting content and decide your company is a good fit for them, which limits your ability to control who enters your candidate pool. With outbound recruiting, you’re often doing some level of screening, like reviewing a candidate’s LinkedIn profile, before contacting them.  

Audience limitations

Inbound recruiting campaigns are primarily conducted online. This means you risk excluding people who don’t spend a lot of time on the internet, which can limit the diversity of your talent pool. 

Why is Inbound Recruitment Effective?

Job seekers perform in-depth research about potential employers, which is why recruiters must think like digital content marketers. Just as marketers capture and convert leads into sales with targeted content, creative recruiters can incorporate the same tactics to enhance their talent pool.

Inbound recruitment creates a phenomenal experience for prospective team members through employer branding, which is defined by how our company is perceived from the viewpoints of candidates and team members.

Job seekers become familiar with your business through their personal knowledge and experience of your products and/or services. Employer branding impacts every aspect of your company, including how you communicate as a business online, the comments your employees write on public sites, the content of your job postings, and the salaries, benefits, and perks you offer.

Outstanding employer branding helps attract and retain noteworthy talent.

Through strong employer branding, inbound recruitment:

• Cultivates a larger pool of accomplished and experienced applicants
• Requires less upfront, individual effort than outbound recruitment (which demands intensive scouting and tireless communication that yields a smaller number of ideal candidates)
• Creates extensive awareness of your company and your opportunities by producing content that is valuable to candidates
• Allows companies to closely target job seekers in a way that outbound recruitment cannot achieve
• Provides a residual effect for attracting talent over an indefinite time frame

Of course, even when you have the attention of ideal prospects, they will only apply if they apply. When you capture their attention, it’s vital to transform that awareness into action.

How Do You Implement an Inbound Recruitment Strategy?

Inspiring action through inbound recruitment is attained by developing content that showcases why your company is a sterling employer.

Examples of effective inbound recruitment strategies include employee spotlight articles, company blogs, social media posts, video interviews, infographics, and newsletters. These foster relationships with candidates so you will have top-of-mind awareness when they search for opportunities. Providing a glimpse of what it’s like to work at your company permits job seekers to consider how they align with your culture.

Inbound recruitment allows prospects to envision themselves as part of your organization’s team.

Once a candidate is intrigued by the possibility of joining your staff, you are tasked with building that relationship. You can spearhead this with these tips:

Consider what you want to achieve

Before launching your inbound recruitment campaign, it’s important to craft a clear and detailed plan that includes your objectives. What do you want to accomplish? What candidates do you want to attract and hire? Just as a real estate agent does not target first-time homebuyers with articles about downsizing for empty nesters, a company interested in filling entry-level positions should not focus on content emphasizing management roles.

Are you striving to find spectacular and seasoned senior-level managers? That requires a different approach. Successful inbound recruitment strategies target candidates at all career stages. Again, think like a marketing professional who is developing a multi-pronged campaign to generate awareness for your product or service.

Understand your target market

You must deeply understand your target audience to connect with prospects through targeted content. This is where candidate personas are appropriate.

A candidate persona is a profile of your ideal hire for a role. The profile includes essential skills, education, experience, career goals, key motivators, and personality traits.

Candidate personas impact your inbound recruiting strategy at every level, from the content you author to the platforms used for generating awareness. Ready to build a candidate persona? Simply gather data from all available sources. Then, identify common traits and data points that indicate a person is likely to be successful in a particular role. An ideal first source of data is top performers who are already in the position you are looking to fill. Identify and define the trends in skills, traits, characteristics, education, certifications, and experience that make these candidates successful.

Nurture your ideal candidates

You might be familiar with the concept of a sales funnel and the various objectives as you move candidates through it: attracting leads, nurturing them, and converting them to customers. Inbound recruiting is structured in a similar way, except instead of customers, we’re dealing with candidates. 

So, once you attract interest from a wide pool of job seekers, it is time to nurture them and further enhance their interest, eventually converting them into applicants. 

Encourage candidates to finish applications with automated emails that remind them to complete unfinished applications. Send articles, videos, and other company news to candidates. Share your company culture by showing the social side of your firm through photos, videos, and news of events like corporate retreats, conferences, holiday parties, and team-building exercises. Brainstorm targeted content to reach candidates. Follow up with the most recent job openings and invite job seekers to hiring fairs and training events directly related to their interests.

A candidate might not be the perfect fit at the moment, but they may be exactly who you need at some point soon. Keep in touch with exceptional prospects, even if you have yet to have an ideal opening right now.

Related: Ways to Hire Faster by Nurturing Candidates

Find out where your candidates reside online

Effective inbound recruitment attracts quality prospects, but that objective is only realistic if the candidates can find your content.

Determine where your candidates are likely to be online and the platforms where they reside. Also, it helps to learn where they are not likely to live so you can avoid those forums.

SEO allows you to accomplish these goals. Complete a keyword analysis. Ask how popular are specific job titles, which keywords attract the most traffic to your job postings, and where does your company ranks for job title keywords compared to competitors?

Use targeted keywords to optimize your job content. Include the job title, company name, location, and other relevant keywords. Using easily understood language in job descriptions for search engines and job seekers is important. Another SEO tip is to feature engaging content on your careers page so prospects are interested from the moment they arrive. Your page will rank higher the longer candidates stay.

Quality content is king

When you determine your target market, where they likely live online, and what type of content interests them, start crafting captivating copy. Post intriguing ads on relevant job boards. Write blog posts that are interesting and relevant. Use SEO-friendly keywords so content is easily discovered. Author white papers, case studies, eBooks, and infographics demonstrate who your company is and why it is an ideal place to get a job and, most importantly, grow in a career.

Consistent messaging instills a warm feeling of familiarity when candidates connect with your company’s website, social media, hiring portal, or other content marketing avenues. Project a consistent and desired image through your words and tone of voice across all marketing channels.

Related: We Are Hiring Sample Posts

Measure your inbound recruitment strategy success with analytics

You can discover what is working and what can benefit from improvement through web analytics and recruiting metrics. It is important to find out where the most qualified job seekers originate from, what job posts generate the most applicants, and what the most effective marketing channels are, among other questions.

Paying attention to analytics also helps you determine how much time and money you spend on your campaigns. Inbound recruitment strategies evolve over time, just as new trends arise. Analyzing results allows you to study how you can improve.

In conclusion, inbound recruitment is an ongoing process that requires the same creativity and insight as a company’s marketing and branding strategy. Finding qualified candidates in today’s talent-driven job market is not a simple task, and it demands more engaging ways to reach job seekers than traditional outbound recruitment.

Companies that continue to optimize their inbound recruitment strategy are ideally positioned to attract exceptional candidates and fill open roles for the long term. Remember, you are recruiting premium talent. These prospects have a multitude of options, and organizations that understand outstanding inbound recruitment techniques have an advantage over competitors who focus on outbound recruitment of yesterday.

Related: How to Leverage Data To Improve Your Recruitment Process

Looking to Fill Your Vacant Positions? Partner with 4 Corner Resources Today!

We are equipped to source and attract qualified candidates for your vacant position(s). We utilize tactics such as inbound recruitment to connect with candidates who are a perfect fit for your company. Our staffing experts will assist with all your recruitment needs!

Learn more about the services we offer, and contact us today!

Shift shock is a workplace trend that’s unfortunately becoming more common. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about the term and share strategies for preventing it from damaging new hire morale and satisfaction. 

What Is Shift Shock?

It’s natural for new employees to have a period of adjustment when they first start a job. Learning different systems, getting to know colleagues, and acclimating to the company culture can contribute to feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. This is pretty normal and tends to subside once a new hire has had a few weeks to settle in. 

However, when those feelings are driven by a dramatic mismatch between what the new hire expected and what they’re actually experiencing on the job, this is what’s known as shift shock. Shift shock is when a newly hired employee finds their position to be significantly different from how it was advertised or sold to them during the hiring process. It can be caused by intentional misdeeds, like a company withholding unfavorable information about a role to get more candidates to apply, or have more benign roots, like a disorganized hiring process. 

Whatever the source, shift shock can lead to increased turnover, poor performance, and low morale. It’s on the rise, especially since the pandemic, so it’s a crucial problem for employers to nip in the bud if they want to prevent negative staffing and operational impacts. 

Why Is Shift Shock on the Rise?

While the term ‘shift shock’ has only emerged within the last decade or so, the phenomenon of new hire disillusionment is nothing new. The rising prevalence of this phenomenon, though, is being driven by several factors that are unique to the present day. 

Evolving workforce expectations 

As of 2023, Millennials make up the largest segment of the workforce. Together with Gen Z employees, they account for close to 40% of all workers globally. These generations have varying ideas about work compared to their older counterparts, and one of the most significant differences lies in their expectations of the employer-employee relationship. 

Millennial and Gen Z workers expect employers to respect and value them. Notably, they view this as a baseline requirement rather than something that’s earned through excellent performance. Workers in these age groups don’t feel the same sense of obligation to their employers that older generations do. If they feel taken for granted at work, they have far fewer qualms about leaving for a better opportunity. 

Post-pandemic mindset shifts

The global pandemic caused massive shifts in people’s views on work, causing millions to reconsider their priorities. Many decided that long commutes and soul-crushing jobs simply weren’t worth it, and some opted to change careers to pursue their passion or left the workforce altogether to focus on family.

In short, workers aren’t as apt as they once were to put up with things like long hours, overwork, or unreasonable demands (see also: the rise of ‘quiet quitting’) and are more likely to leave if faced with these things unexpectedly.

Talent shortages

While the competitive labor market has eased a bit, employers in many sectors are still dealing with persistent talent shortfalls. When companies feel desperate to hire, the added pressure may cause recruiters to oversell the upsides of a position while downplaying the disadvantages to get more candidates in the door. When one of those candidates is hired and the rose-colored glasses eventually come off, it can lead to feelings of having been misled–a.k.a. shift shock. 

Why Is Shift Shock a Problem?

New hire turnover

The biggest impact of shift shock, and perhaps the most obvious in terms of cost, is turnover. Employees who feel shift-shocked have no problem resigning, even if it’s only been a few months. In fact, close to half of workers say they’ve left a job because it wasn’t what they thought it would be, according to HRdive.

If left unchecked, new hire turnover can lead to ballooning hiring costs, reduced productivity, and potentially even service disruptions due to excessive vacancies. 

Reduced engagement

It’s never a good thing when a new hire quits soon after they’ve started, but it may be even worse if an employee hates the job and sticks around anyway. Aside from being poor performers, disengaged employees bring down the entire team’s morale. 

Distrust of leadership

At its worst, shift shock results from deception during the hiring process. This includes lying by omission–i.e., leaving out key details that make a job less desirable. When this happens, new hires feel they’ve had the wool pulled over their eyes, and it’s no surprise they’re subsequently distrustful of company leadership. This results in employees who are difficult to manage and resistant to company directives, which can be detrimental to achieving goals. 

How Employers Can Prevent Shift Shock

Create accurate job descriptions

The first step in preventing shift shock is reviewing your process for drafting job postings. Shift shock results from a fundamental disconnect between expectations and reality, so it’s essential for everyone involved in hiring–HR staff, hiring managers, and recruiters–to be on the same page. 

Have systems in place to ensure job descriptions accurately reflect the duties and requirements of the position. Develop job postings hand in hand with hiring managers and update them frequently. Elaborate on other aspects that factor into new hire satisfaction, like the company culture, office environment, and development opportunities. Use new hire feedback surveys to gather input on where your job descriptions and hiring could improve overall.

Related: Browse Sample Job Descriptions

Set proper expectations throughout hiring

Head off misalignment by calibrating candidate expectations early and often. Have candid conversations about what success looks like for the role and what will be expected in the first 30, 60, or 90 days on the job. Invite questions and provide transparent answers. 

Allow finalists to shadow people currently working in the role. Use pre-hire assessments and supplement your selection process with AI-enabled tools to predict candidates’ likely success. All of these tactics will increase your hiring accuracy and reduce the chance of a poor fit. 

Offer outlets for dissatisfied employees

Even with the best preventative measures in place, shift shock can still happen. When it does, you want quitting to be a last resort. Offer channels for dissatisfied employees to voice their frustrations and find solutions where possible. Additional training may help overwhelmed new hires find their footing or an internal transfer may present an opportunity for an employee to apply their skills more effectively in a different department.

Don’t get blinded by desperation 

When you have an urgent staffing need, desperation can cloud your judgment. Building a talent pipeline allows you to have strong candidates at the ready at all times so that when a need occurs, you don’t have to prioritize speed over quality. We outline how to build a talent pipeline here. 

By streamlining your hiring process and prioritizing clear expectations, you’ll ensure candidates accurately understand the role they’re signing up for. This will reduce turnover and promote employee satisfaction while helping maintain strong engagement. 

The people responsible for delivering that service? Call center agents, and they’re the foundation for a positive relationship with your customers. As shopping patterns continue to shift away from physical storefronts to virtual options, friendly and efficient customer service is more important than ever. 

Here, we’ll explain what you need to know about the modern call center landscape and the most critical things to keep in mind when hiring for this essential business function. 

The Importance of Hiring the Right Talent for Call Center Success

The call center talent you hire impacts your business in a number of ways. 

1. Customer service quality

Customer service agents not only resolve problems but also make customers feel heard. High-quality agents empower your company to deliver fast, efficient service that makes the customer feel like they matter to the organization. This aids in customer retention and boosts customer lifetime value. 

2. Brand reputation

It’s a piece of business wisdom you’ve probably heard repeated many times before: a happy customer keeps it to themself, but an unhappy one will tell anyone who will listen about their negative experience. If you want to preserve a positive brand reputation, you must keep negative interactions to a minimum. This starts with hiring empathetic and resourceful agents. 

3. Turnover

Turnover is a huge challenge in the call center industry, with average annual turnover rates ranging from 30 to 45% (a turnover rate of 10% is considered ideal). Hiring candidates who are a strong fit for the job can minimize resignations, which reduces the cost of hiring and training new agents. 

4. Data collection

Call centers are a massive source of data on customer trends, product issues, and opportunities for innovation–powerful information that can transform your business. Better agents can yield better data, which can be used to produce desirable business outcomes. 

The Breakdown of the call center environment

Call centers are offices dedicated to handling inbound and outbound customer service. Some call centers are owned by or contracted with a particular company, while others provide service to numerous firms. 

Inbound vs outbound call centers

There are two types of call centers: inbound and outbound. Some call centers function as both inbound and outbound service providers. 

Agents at inbound call centers receive hundreds, and perhaps even thousands of calls every day from customers. Issues range from questions about accounts, billing matters, and order placement to technical support inquiries. Representatives assist customers, record calls, and document key information. 

Team members perform marketing activities at outbound call centers by calling customers about promotions and other services. They might try acquiring new customers, upsell existing customers on additional products, collect overdue accounts, conduct feedback surveys, or provide proactive customer notifications. 

Both types of call centers feature a built-in system to track the number of daily calls received, the duration of these calls, and other metrics.

Though there are online schools that provide call center training programs, most call center positions do not require a college degree or previous experience in the field. Many companies offer on-the-job training.

Call center environment

The typical call center is a large space with workers stationed in cubicles, each with a computer and headset. Traditionally, call centers have been known as less-than-appealing workspaces, with little natural light, unexciting decor, and an abundance of screens. The work is fast-paced, and the environment can often be loud and hectic. Thus, it’s no surprise that the physical space itself is an obstacle to attracting and retaining workers. We’ll talk more about overcoming these obstacles a little later on. 

The Outlook of the Call Center Industry

The global call center industry is massive and growing, projected to reach a value of $494.7 billion by the year 2030. It’s growing at a rate of about 6%, which is a bit higher than the average for all industries. With this strong projected growth outlook, companies will need to maintain steady call center hiring in order to keep pace. This means overcoming the staffing challenges that plague the industry. 

Thankfully, technology and other market factors have sparked a transformation in the call center industry in recent years. For example, COVID-19 forced many organizations to adopt remote and hybrid work arrangements that workers found favorable. Artificial intelligence and machine learning increasingly allow agents to offload more tedious support inquiries, which can help reduce burnout. 

Companies looking to keep pace with the call center industry’s continued growth will need to adopt forward-thinking strategies to onboard and retain superior agents. 

The Impact of Technology on the Call Center Industry

Technology is shaking up the call center industry in numerous ways, many beneficial to businesses and employees. 

Remote work

The pandemic forced companies to adopt novel strategies to minimize service disruptions, and one of those strategies was to facilitate working from home. Agents can provide secure, high-quality support remotely with the help of technology like VPNs and cloud-based call center software. 

Remote work opportunities not only promote a greater work-life balance that makes agents happy but also reduce the infrastructure costs associated with maintaining large facilities. Additionally, they can help companies maintain a more diverse team of agents and cover all time zones. 

AI

Artificial intelligence helps agents do their jobs faster and more effectively. Intelligent call routing systems, for example, can route calls to the most appropriate agent on the first attempt, reducing frustration and resulting in better service. AI can also tackle tedious agent tasks, like answering frequently asked questions, and aid in information gathering ahead of a live call to help agents work more efficiently. 

Key Skills and Attributes for Call Center Staff

Here are the top skills and attributes to look for when hiring call center staff.

• Communication. Call center agents communicate daily, both verbally and in writing, making strong communication skills a must. 
• Emotional intelligence. Good agents empathize with a customer’s situation and can tactfully navigate challenging conversations.  
• Problem solving. Agents often encounter complex, frustrating issues. They must be able to quickly assess those issues and determine the most appropriate course of action. 
• Conflict resolution. An effective agent must be able to maintain professionalism even when dealing with difficult customers and should de-escalate the situation when possible. 
• Product knowledge. Strong knowledge of the product or service helps agents answer questions and troubleshoot customer issues more effectively. 
• Adaptability. The topic of conversation can vary dramatically from one support call to the next. The best agents can easily transition from a billing issue to a tech support question. 
• Tech-savvy. Call center agents must navigate various systems and pieces of software to retrieve customer information, resolve issues, and keep records. Being amenable to new technology is essential. 
• Time management. Agents often handle multiple inquiries simultaneously, so strong time management skills are necessary to prioritize tasks and meet performance targets. 
• Attention to detail. Customer service agents must be detail-oriented to keep accurate records of their interactions and comply with the specific rules and regulations that are pertinent to their industry. 
• Resilience. Call center work can be mentally and emotionally draining. Agents who are equipped with healthy coping strategies will be better positioned to succeed. 

Are Virtual Call Centers the Future?

Companies use call centers to manage customer orders, questions, and complaints.  While traditional call centers are housed in central brick-and-mortar locations, a call center trend over recent years has seen many companies implementing virtual agent teams.

According to Liveops, more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are either currently using or planning to use home-based agents. These companies are discovering that the virtual agent business model reduces costs, improves customer service efficiency, and decreases employee turnover.

The virtual agent model is appealing to the business and employees alike.  For the company, it allows them to reduce overhead expenses by eliminating costly office space  while hiring from a greatly expanded candidate pool. For the employees, it allows for s the opportunity to work from home, and the elimination of  commute time and costs, while providing better work-life balance due to flexible working hours.

Today’s work-at-home call center agent model has also grown with expanded training capabilities and improved cloud-based software options. This strategy provides almost no geographic limitations as long as employees can access high-speed Internet at home. Complete virtual call center firms like Arise, Sykes Home, and Working Solutions pioneered this model and have seen great success. Corporate titans like HSN, Enterprise, and Amazon have leveraged the virtual model to coordinate their growth effectively.

The call center industry trend of hiring work-from-home employees is accompanied by a shift in focus from cost containment to a pleasant customer experience. Because of the improved technology, more companies are shifting their call center roles from foreign countries back to the United States. Understandably, consumers tend to get a better customer experience when call centers are staffed by people with whom they can communicate clearly. Keeping technology infrastructure in the United States is more cost-effective.

Retention Challenges and Strategies to Consider

Stressful work 

The stressful nature of call center work is arguably the biggest challenge recruiters face. You can always offer higher pay but can’t make customers any less frustrated. You can, however, alleviate the stress by providing adequate training and empowering agents with cutting-edge technology that makes their work more seamless. 

Recognize agent accomplishments and incentivize high performance. Invest in culture initiatives so workers don’t feel as though they’re disposable. Most importantly, prioritize accurate hiring so that you’re onboarding people who are a strong fit for the unique demands of call center work. 

Nonstandard hours

Some call centers require staffing around the clock, which means agents work nights, weekends, holidays, and every other undesirable time. You can make the nonstandard hours less unpleasant by ensuring there are enough experienced agents on every shift to respond to challenging inquiries and scheduling new agents on shifts that typically have lower volume. Employ transparent scheduling practices and give agents greater control, like using technology that simplifies shift changes and time off requests. 

Unappealing environment 

We talked a lot about the negative aspects of the call center workspace already–cramped cubicles, a bland office, and so on. Adopting remote and hybrid work arrangements can minimize the downsides of working onsite and give agents the increased flexibility they desire. 

Let Us Help You Hire the Best Customer Service Staff

4 Corner Resources (4CR) is an experienced and innovative leader who helps companies like yours find skilled and qualified team members for their vacant positions.

We offer call center staffing solutions for businesses of all sizes – from startups to SMBs and large corporations throughout the United States. Our knowledge and passion for what we do, and our flexible terms and conditions, set us apart in the world of headhunting and recruiting.

We welcome the opportunity to connect if you need help identifying the right candidates for your vacancies! We’re on standby to help you transform your workforce and find the ideal candidate today!

The Tech Hiring Trends Recruiters Should Expect This Year

Job openings grow

Though global economic uncertainties persist, experts forecast strong job growth in the tech industry in 2024. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the IT sector is expected to grow much faster than average, adding around 377,000 jobs a year over the next decade. 

With concerns over a recession waning, companies feel more confident and ramp up hiring, at least slightly. A quarter of recruiters say they’ll have more money to hire tech talent this year than they did in 2023. The outlook for startups is also a bit rosier after a few rough years, with experts favoring the growth of smaller, early-stage startups.

Shifting dynamic between candidates and employers

For nearly a decade, it was an overwhelming candidate market. It was the norm for recruiters to feel like filling technical roles was insurmountable. In 2023, however, layoffs from the likes of Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta sent shockwaves through the field and put hundreds of thousands of people out of work. The result has been a pendulum swing in the other direction, with companies seeing a volume of applicants for tech roles that they haven’t experienced in years. 

While it’s good news for organizations looking to scoop up talented team members, this shift in the candidate-employer dynamic also presents a level of risk. Companies must be careful not to get too comfortable and put employee engagement initiatives on the back burner. Even if a candidate jumps to accept a job today, it won’t be long before they search again if your company culture and employee experience are subpar. 

Technical skills see continuously high demand

If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in the last few years, it’s the demand for technical skills. They drive expansion and innovation, and because of that, recruiters are hunting for them in 2024. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Technology Industry Growth Outlook, companies focused on growth prioritize cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity–and they’re willing to pay for workers with those skills.  

Unfortunately, the skills gap that has plagued the tech industry for years isn’t shrinking. If anything, it’s growing as new technology disrupts the global economy and unprecedentedly changes job requirements. Experts cite lagging education, ineffective hiring methods, and unnecessary barriers to entry as primary reasons for the persistent skills gap. 

One way to overcome these challenges and hire for the necessary skills is to incorporate pre-employment assessments into your tech hiring process rather than relying on resumes and interviews alone. 

Soft skills play a bigger role 

While technical skills are the bread and butter of the IT field, soft skills play an increasingly important role as the lines between traditional industries blur, and every company, in some shape or form, takes on characteristics of a tech company.  

Soft skills are critical for building teams, motivating employees, and forming mutually beneficial external partnerships. In a survey of business executives, 44% said soft skills—not technical skills—were lacking the most in the contemporary workforce. 

Some of the biggest soft skills tech recruiters should be on the hunt for in 2024 are:

• Communication—Technology teams constantly struggle to convey complex topics to customers, colleagues, and the general public. Companies need capable communicators who can convey the message clearly without losing meaning. 
• Problem-solving—The industry’s core value proposition is using technology to solve problems. Employers need creative, results-oriented workers who can discover new avenues to solutions and profits. 
• Critical thinking—As more and more companies move away from top-down management in favor of a more collaborative work style, teams with strong critical thinking skills become even more essential to innovation. 
• Adaptability – In this era of rapid technology adoption, change is one of the only constants. Flexible workers who can adapt in a dynamic landscape will help position organizations for longevity. 

When screening candidates for soft skills, use a mix of behavioral and situational interview questions can help you probe for what you’re looking for. 

AI joins the workforce

There’s a new team member who has shaken up the industry more than any other in the last 24 months, and it does not require a cubicle or health insurance: artificial intelligence. Sixty-seven percent of tech professionals say they use AI to do their jobs (with ChatGPT being a leading tool), and this number is likely to grow in the months ahead. 

What’s noteworthy is that a large portion of workers are optimistic rather than doubtful or fearful of AI’s impact. However, many employers don’t share the same sentiment. Twenty-eight percent of developers, for example, say their company is opposed to employees using AI to assist with their work. 

Forward-thinking companies must look ahead to see how AI will reshape rather than merely replace roles. Successful firms will embrace AI as a tool to help workers do their jobs faster and with greater accuracy and will promote these aspects as selling points when recruiting.

Hybrid roles offer a win-win

Aside from salary, which is always a strong motivator, work-life balance and the ability to work remotely are the top priorities tech candidates consider when looking for a job in 2024. Yet the volume of fully remote roles has declined considerably since its peak in 2022, with more companies requiring workers to be in the office. 

Hybrid roles are an effective compromise, offering employees more of the flexibility they crave while giving companies oversight and the ability to build cohesive teams. Expanding your hybrid job offerings (or offering fully remote roles when you can) can help you reach a wider, more skilled talent pool. Including the option to work from anywhere, some or all of the time, as part of your job listings helps you reach candidates who may not have previously considered a position because of the onsite constraints. 

Rise in upskilling

Modern workplaces critically lack the infrastructure and support systems needed to keep the skills of existing employees on the cutting edge. This is not just a threat to innovation but also puts retention at risk. As many as three-quarters of millennial and Gen Z workers say they will likely quit their jobs next year due to a lack of skill development opportunities. 

Upskilling can help companies keep pace with operational demands while providing important engagement opportunities to workers. 

Upskilling uses structured training programs to arm employees with new skills that will aid them in their work, help the organization stay competitive, and comply with business best practices. PwC, for example, committed $3 billion to its ‘New World, New Skills’ program that gives all 276,000 of the firm’s employees digital skills training and incentivizes the creation of digital tools or time-saving processes. Lincoln Financial is taking a similar approach, offering hundreds of the company’s actuarial employees access to ‘future of work’ training that will improve their mastery of emerging trends like big data and predictive analytics. 

Declining emphasis on college degrees

It no longer takes an engineering degree to break into the tech field—far from it, in fact. Employers increasingly say they’re moving away from using four-year degrees as a be-all, end-all requirement for job seekers. Most recruiters now say they hire tech talent with non-academic backgrounds, which doubled between 2021 and 2022 alone. 

This is on par with trends for the workforce as a whole, as student debt continues to skyrocket and public opinion leans away from higher education as the gold standard for future success. In a Gallup poll of 2,000 Americans, only half said they view having a college degree as ‘very important.’ 

Reducing the emphasis on traditional degrees and focusing instead on skills-based hiring for technical roles can help employers broaden their talent pool and foster more diverse teams. 

Adapt a Hiring Strategy for the Future with Help from 4 Corner Resources 

From evolving technology to new post-pandemic norms, the current recruiting landscape is tough to navigate. With help from the IT hiring experts at 4 Corner Resources, you can stay competitive and show candidates you’re prepared for the new normal. 

Our headhunting professionals will help you attract, screen, and hire the best candidates for your open technology jobs, from developers to engineers to project managers and beyond. Our deep expertise in the industry ensures you’ll find the technical skills you need faster and hire the right candidate the first time, eliminating future headaches and facilitating smoother onboarding. 

Schedule a free consultation with our team today, and let’s discuss how we can help you meet your tech hiring needs for the year ahead.

However, the state of the workforce is rapidly changing. Recruiting in low unemployment continues to be a challenge for companies while finding candidates who are a good “culture fit” is an increasingly important component of hiring processes. This means that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for companies to find employees who meet the criteria they’re looking for — and, most importantly, are actually seeking to make a career move.

The ability to hire employees who align with your needs will become even more critical as senior talent is predicted to become scarcer in the future. In fact, a Boston Consulting Group survey found that 56% of executives foresee “critical gaps” in their ability to fill senior management roles in the coming years.

So, how can your business overcome these modern hiring hurdles to build a workforce that isn’t just aligned with your current needs but also has the ability to scale and adapt to achieve your future goals? We have an idea: hiring for potential, not experience.

What Does Hiring for Potential Mean?

Let’s say you need to hire a graphic designer for a fashion brand. You come across a candidate with an impressive portfolio, but they don’t have any prior experience in fashion or apparel. You have two options: 1) move on to a candidate with more relevant experience, or 2) give them a shot based on the strength of their portfolio and other desirable qualities like drive and creativity. If you choose option 2, you’re hiring for potential. 

Hiring for potential means selecting a candidate based on their aptitude and likely ability to develop the required skills rather than on their proven track record. It may mean hiring a candidate who meets your education requirements but lacks experience, hiring a candidate from a different field with transferable skills, or hiring someone who’s missing a technical requirement but is enthusiastic about learning. 

The Benefits of Hiring for Potential

Hiring for potential can offer several benefits to organizations. 

Expand your talent pool

At a time of persistently low unemployment, hiring for potential can broaden your talent pool. Making an exception to rigid degree requirements, for example, can open the application process to candidates who are capable of doing the job but lack a formal degree. 

Embrace diverse perspectives

Hiring strictly for skills can confine your search to a homogenous pool of applicants–people with the same general career path or professional record. On the other hand, hiring for potential allows you to consider applicants who don’t fit the traditional mold and, therefore, offer unique backgrounds and perspectives. Diverse teams tend to achieve superior performance, which can benefit your productivity and innovation. 

Build a cohesive culture

When you hire for potential, a candidate’s personality, work style, and values play a greater role in your decision than their technical qualifications. Coincidentally, these elements also influence company culture more than skills alone. So, by prioritizing more personal characteristics, you can assemble a team that more closely aligns with your vision for the company’s culture. 

Invest in employees

Today’s top candidates want to work for companies that are invested in their success. Hiring for potential is the ultimate display of that investment. You’re assuming a certain level of risk when you hire for potential, going off your faith that the applicant will wind up fulfilling the vision you have for them. This is a valuable way to show your belief in a candidate and can help you seal the deal with future high performers. 

When You Should Hire for Potential vs. Experience

When you’re growing quickly

Sometimes, the most important thing is getting more hands on deck ASAP. If you’re growing rapidly as a company and the employees you hire will have lots of room to grow as well, hiring for potential is a good way to fulfill your immediate headcount needs while adding great people to your talent base. 

When you already have a strong depth chart

If your bookkeeping is a mess and you’re in desperate need of an accountant to sort things out, hiring for potential is only going to make your problems worse. However, if your books are in good shape and you’ve got a senior accountant who’s already running things smoothly, hiring a more junior team member based on potential who can be trained to support their senior colleagues could be a practical decision. 

When you have the bandwidth for training

This is imperative to understand: when you hire for potential, your new employee’s performance rests heavily on your shoulders. Since they’re not coming in with extensive experience, you’ll be largely responsible for giving them the tools they need to succeed. This means you must have the time and resources to commit to employee development to make your new hire a success. 

When soft skills are paramount

Some skills, like software programming or Microsoft Excel, can be taught. Others, like creativity and adaptability, are less easy to learn from a course or a book. In roles where soft skills are more important than experience, hiring for potential is often the way to go.

Related: How to Assess Soft Skills

How You Can Evaluate Potential 

‘Potential’ isn’t a quality that can be objectively scored. However, there are strategies you can use to identify it. Here are a few ways to tell when a candidate has strong potential. 

Assess preparedness

Even without years of experience, a good candidate will still put in the work to show you that they care about the job. Pay attention to whether they’ve done the basics to get ready for the interview, like researching the company and preparing to answer standard interview questions like ‘What are your strengths?’

Reflect on their background

Instead of focusing on prior jobs and professional achievements, spend the bulk of your time considering the candidate’s background. How might the skills they have be transferable to your position? Are there parallels between jobs they’ve held before and the duties they’d be performing? For example, someone who’s been a nanny might have great organizational skills that would make them a valuable office administrator. 

Ask situational interview questions

Situational questions are open-ended questions that prompt a candidate to describe how they’d react when faced with a scenario. These questions can give you useful insight into a candidate’s character and critical thinking skills. Here are some examples:

• What would you do if one of our customers called to complain?
• How would you handle a mistake in a delivery?
• What if you found out one of your coworkers was stealing?
• How would you react if your boss gave you negative feedback?

Use assessments

Pre-employment assessments aren’t just for technical skills. Modern assessments can gauge diverse aspects of a candidate, from personality to leadership capabilities to teamwork. Assessments have been proven to be a strong predictor of future success, so they’re a great tool when a candidate doesn’t have a long list of experience. 

Ask for their sales pitch

What better way to discover a candidate’s potential than to ask them directly? Prompt them with a question like ‘Why should I hire you?’ and let them make the case. You can ask follow-up questions like ‘How would you overcome your lack of experience?’ or ‘How do you advance your skills?’ to see whether they align with your thoughts on ongoing development. 

Advantages of Hiring for Potential, Not Experience

Here are a few of the primary upsides of hiring for potential over experience.

Ability to shape and mold employees

Workers with more professional experience will naturally have developed their own ways of doing things. They may have preferences about the type of technology they use to do their jobs, for example, or about protocols for interacting with customers. These preexisting preferences can present challenges, especially if they’re quite different from the culture or processes that exist in your organization. 

When you hire for potential, these pre-existing preferences don’t exist. You have more ability to shape and mold employees to your preferred work style and systems. 

Stronger succession planning

Hiring for potential puts you in a great position to develop future company leaders, which is an important aspect of effective succession planning. Companies that practice succession planning experience fewer negative impacts from turnover and are better positioned for longevity than those who don’t actively groom the next generation of leadership.

Supports an adaptable workforce

When you feel that someone has strong potential, one reason is probably that you recognize they’re adaptable. This indicates a willingness to learn and to take a different approach when faced with obstacles. Adaptability is one of the most important qualities for a resilient workforce, so hiring for potential can improve your staff in this key area. 

Is Hiring for Potential Better?

Hiring for potential is a long-term approach. It requires the ability to look strategically at the company’s future and how an individual might bring value to that future picture. It also requires you to take a more holistic view of each candidate, considering the type of person you want to be part of the team rather than focusing solely on the role you need to fill right now. 

Hiring for potential isn’t always better. As we discussed earlier, for example, if you urgently need to cover a highly specific skills gap, hiring for experience is a much more suitable approach.  However, if you can commit the necessary resources to training and development, hiring for potential can be an excellent way to build a strong culture of high performers who are engaged with their work and excited about continuous growth. 

Identify Your Hiring Needs — and Fulfill Them — By Partnering with the Right Staffing Agency

Do you need assistance identifying your immediate or long-term hiring needs? Do you need help weighing the pros and cons of hiring experienced vs inexperienced employees? Have you decided that you’re looking to hire for potential, not experience, but have been struggling to source the best candidates?

There’s no need to figure it all out independently — turning to the right staffing agency or headhunter can help. This is where we will come in to help you figure out these unknowns and develop a strategic hiring strategy that brings you the talent you need.

At 4CR, we’re a professional staffing agency dedicated to recruiting only the best candidates for our clients. We’re here to help you uncover your deeper hiring needs and then apply our years of experience and access to extensive resources and candidates to help you achieve them. Let us connect you with the talent your company is looking for — whether that means a fresh graduate or seasoned candidate.

Ready to get started? Contact one of our professional recruiters today to learn how we can recruit and screen the candidates most aligned with your business needs.

Are you considering poaching talent from a competitor? Maybe you are wondering if it’ll get you in trouble, legal or otherwise? Read on as we explore the ins and outs of employee poaching. 

What is Employee Poaching?

Employee poaching is the term for hiring talent away from a competitor. By some estimates, it accounts for as much as 30% of movement in the labor market. 

Poaching activity is closely tied to the economy; when unemployment is low, like it is now and has been for some time, poaching is more common as recruiters feel an increasing sense of urgency to fill open positions. 

Some industries are more susceptible to poaching than others. In the tech field, for example, it’s not uncommon for a skilled IT employee to be lured away from a company by one of its market rivals who’s willing to pay a premium for their talent. Food and beverage and customer service workers are also more likely to be poached. 

Is Employee Poaching Legal?

First things first: let’s tackle the question that could put your company’s livelihood at risk. Is it legal to poach employees from your competitors? While this is not legal advice, and you should consult an attorney for guidance in your specific situation, the answer in most cases in the United States is that poaching is legal. 

The justice system has taken steps to outlaw arrangements that stop poaching. For example, companies typically break U.S. antitrust laws if they enter into “no-poach” agreements with competitors. Under such an agreement, two or more companies would commit not to solicit or hire the other companies’ employees. This violates antitrust laws designed to ensure healthy competition in the marketplace. 

There are a few cases where the legality of poaching becomes murky, namely non-compete agreements. A non-compete agreement is a contract between a company and an employee that prohibits the employee from working for one of the company’s rivals for a specified time. These non-compete agreements are often unenforceable, but it could take months and legal fees to sort out in court. The risk of legal action alone might make pursuing a candidate with a non-compete agreement impractical. 

Another scenario that could get you into legal trouble is if you’re poaching an employee who’s under contract with their firm. This could result in the company suing the employee or the firm that lured them away for breach of contract. It’s another scenario where the potential upside probably isn’t worth the liability. 

Is Employee Poaching Ethical?

Now for a more nuanced question: is employee poaching ethical? The answer to this question isn’t clear cut and, in most cases, will be, ‘It depends.’ 

Employee poaching that’s conducted above board to fill a legitimate skills need generally does not violate any professional ethics. In the United States (and in most developed nations), employees are free to choose their place of employment. They can base that decision on any factors they deem to be important, from pay to flexibility to enjoyment. Thus, if an employee decides a competitor’s employment offer is more alluring than their current job, it’s well within professional convention for them to accept the better offer. 

Of course, there are cases where poaching is unethical. This is true when poaching is done with unscrupulous intent. For example, it would be highly unethical if a company wanted to hire someone from the competition to gain access to trade secrets or uncover sensitive information about other firm employees. 

A good way to “gut check” whether poaching is ethical is to assess whether you feel the need to hide it beyond the discretion that generally exists in the hiring process. If company leaders, customers, or the general public would find the intent behind your poaching problematic, it’s a good sign that what you’re doing raises ethical concerns. 

Pros and Cons of Employee Poaching

The pros

On the positive side, poaching employees can help:

Access specialized skills

If you need to hire for a niche set of duties, there’s no faster way to do it than to look for someone who’s already performing those duties for another firm. Poaching enables you to hire a professional who has direct experience with the precise job function you’re looking to fill, which can all but guarantee a high level of performance. 

Minimize time to productivity

Someone who’s already worked for one of your competitors will have a good idea of “how the sausage gets made.” This means you won’t need to spend as much time on training, and your new hire can reach full productivity faster than someone who’s being introduced to the field or the role for the first time. 

Entice additional prospects

If you poach a competitor’s employee and word gets around how much they love their new job, some of their former coworkers may be compelled to follow them to your organization. This increases your talent pool and contributes positively to your employer brand. 

Put workers at an advantage

One viewpoint is that the real winners in employee poaching scenarios are employees. Poaching typically involves offering higher salaries, better benefits, or some other captivating perk better than the employee currently has. Additionally, the threat of poaching forces employers to be on top of their game to retain top talent in terms of pay and value, which can lift the tide for all workers. 

Encourage innovation

Some of the most talented business leaders have honed their skills by making moves among a laundry list of top companies. This wouldn’t be possible without some poaching. Poaching encourages knowledge transfer within industries and pushes firms to compete to be “the best,” which drives innovation.  

The cons

In addition to the possible legal downsides we already covered, here are some of the other cons of poaching to consider. 

It could backfire

Getting a poaching candidate to the offer stage doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll accept. There’s always the chance an employee has no intention of actually leaving their job but instead wants to use a competing offer for leverage in their quest for a raise or promotion. If this happens, your efforts (and the risk you’ve taken to engage in poaching) will have been wasted. 

Damage to reputation, relationships

There are benefits to maintaining positive relations with the other companies in your field, even those you consider to be competitors. Becoming known as a habitual poacher could damage your reputation and put those relationships at risk. 

Tips for Employee Poaching

1. Recruit for skills, not secrets

You can ensure your poaching activities remain in good faith by focusing your efforts on skills rather than secrets–trade secrets, sensitive business information, or intellectual property, to be precise. For example, if you’re poaching a talented developer, you can expect them to bring their A-game to code your new app but should NOT expect them to share previously written code already used by their current employer.

Related: How to Conduct a Skill Gap Analysis

2. Keep it positive

Talking badly about others is never a good look, which extends to recruiting. Take the ethical high ground by centering your recruiting message around the value your company can offer candidates rather than pointing out your competitor’s shortcomings. 

3. Don’t be aggressive

Knowing when to back off is one of the most important things in poaching. If a candidate has not responded to your initial outreach or follow-up message, it’s a good sign they’re not interested. Likewise, if they express discomfort with being contacted, it’s time to make a graceful exit from the conversation. 

A Final Word On Poaching

The bottom line is that you can only poach an employee who wants to be poached. Unlike the term suggests, the candidate is not some helpless creature at the mercy of a relentless hunter. Instead, they’re a competent professional capable of assessing all opportunities available to them and making the best decision for their career. Treat them as such, communicating your interest in their skills and the unique value you can offer as an employer, and you’ll experience success with or without poaching. 

Even before the pandemic struck, though, remote work was well on its way to becoming the norm rather than the exception. A pre-pandemic survey by Upwork and Freelancers Union estimated that nearly 50% of the U.S. workforce would consist of remote freelancers by 2027, and we’re on our way to hitting that benchmark; currently, around 39% of the American workforce performs some time of freelance work, while around a quarter of U.S. adults work remotely at least some of the time. 

Another survey by the Pew Research Center found that employees are embracing the remote work trend. It reported that 64% of teleworkers say location flexibility has made it easier to balance work-life and professional life. In comparison, 44% say completing their work and meeting deadlines is easier.

With so many potential upsides, switching to a remote workforce is a valid consideration that could save your business money, improve productivity, and boost employee satisfaction. But is it the right move for your business? Let’s take a closer look.

Is a Permanent Switch to Remote Work Right For Your Business?

A growing number of major corporations, including Facebook, Twitter, and Slack, have started offering the option to work remotely, and more SMBs are considering it, too. It’s a situation that can have numerous advantages and potential concerns for employers. 

We’re breaking down some of the biggest pros and cons to consider. 

The advantages of being a part of a remote workforce as an employee are pretty obvious: flexible scheduling, access to employers outside of a commuting distance, greater independence, higher job satisfaction, cost and time savings (gas, wear and tear on vehicles, commute time, etc.), and the potential for greater productivity. 

But what are the advantages of telecommuting for employers? Here are 10 of the biggest ones.

Related: The Great Debate on In-Person vs. Remote Employees

10 Advantages of Employing a Remote Working for Employers

1. Cost savings

A virtual workforce is more cost-effective than providing physical space and office supplies and covering other costs for an onsite team. According to Global Workplace Analytics³, which studies trends and forecasts surrounding work in America, a typical employer can save an average of $11,000 per employee per year by going remote for just 50% of workdays. The average employee would save between $2,000 and $7,000. 

2. Bigger talent pool

Making virtual positions available increases your access to a more talented pool of candidates who live outside of commuting distance (or even internationally, for that matter). This can be a great advantage if you’re looking to compete at the global level or if you need to fill niche positions. 

3. Ability to collaborate

Collaboration among team members undoubtedly breeds greater creativity, inclusion, and innovation. However, collaboration can still be accomplished virtually, thanks to the plethora of widely available video and audio conferencing services. Teleconferencing may even expand your ability to collaborate, like with team members from other locations across the country who wouldn’t normally be included in in-person meetings. 

4. Higher morale

If you want happier employees, let them work from home. When asked to rate their happiness level on a scale of 1 to 10, 42% of remote workers rated themselves at 8 or above. That contrasts sharply with just 21% of in-office workers who answered similarly. 

5. Lower turnover

Offering remote work opportunities leads to reduced employee turnover and attrition. Improving your stats in this area can also contribute to significant cost savings for your organization. 

6. Fewer meetings

Employees who work remotely have fewer unnecessary meetings. According to Doodle’s State of Meetings report, poorly organized meetings cost U.S. companies nearly $400 billion annually in lost time and productivity.

7. Increased productivity

Believe it or not, many companies find that employees get more done working from home. A whopping 91% of employees who work a hybrid model say they feel as productive or more productive than they did when they worked full-time in the office. With 79% saying their teams are more effective when working remotely or hybrid, managers tend to agree. 

8. More independent workers

Since remote workers don’t have a manager constantly looking over their shoulder, they’re forced to be more independent in their work. This can be a plus since micromanaging tends to hurt morale. 

9. Reduced absenteeism

Unscheduled absences are a significant expense for employers, costing companies about $1,800 per employee, per year. For the whole country, that adds up to about $300 billion. The Global Workforce Analytics study we mentioned earlier found that telecommuting programs reduce unscheduled absences by 63%.

10. Environmental benefits

Employing a virtual workforce that doesn’t have to drive to work contributes to making a company more eco-friendly. In fact, it’s one of the most effective things a company can do to reduce its carbon footprint. If workers in America with a remote-work compatible job worked from home just half the time, the reduction in emissions would be the equivalent of taking New York State’s entire workforce off the road.

5 Disadvantages of Employing a Remote Workforce

Although having a partial or full-fledged remote workforce has numerous benefits for employers, it also has some potential drawbacks to consider.

1. Loss of oversight

In a move to remote work, management may worry about a lack of accountability because employees are not as “visible” (although technology offers plenty of ways to track worker activity).

2. Lack of human element

There’s definitely something to be said about the energy of being in a room full of like-minded people working toward a common goal, and that’s an element you can’t quite replicate over a video call. Management may have concerns about reduced collaboration or creativity due to staff not being able to meet face-to-face regularly. 

3. Not suitable for all employees

Some employees simply work better in a physical workplace. To manage the switch to remote work successfully, you’ll need to invest in giving employees the tools, coaching, and resources they need to succeed when they’re not a few cubicles away from their colleagues or boss. 

4. Perceived unfairness/favoritism

Another factor of remote work we haven’t touched on yet is that not all jobs can be done offsite. If you move to a partially remote workforce, there are risks of jealousy or perceived favoritism among the employees who have to remain onsite out of necessity. 

5. Infrastructure costs

While remote work comes with long-term cost savings, there is an upfront investment. You may need to make potentially expensive updates to your IT infrastructure, security, and technology to support virtual work opportunities.

An Example of a Successful Virtual Workforce Integration

As a recruiting and staffing agency for small, medium, and large businesses, 4 Corner Resources (4CR) has worked with clients across various industries around the United States. As such, we have been privileged to participate in many successful remote workforce integrations. Here is one such example:

One client, a public e-learning school that serves K-12 students throughout Florida (and elsewhere) through online content, decided to develop their own Learning Management System (LMS) in 2017. This multi-million dollar project required additional employees to plan, design, and execute company-wide. The skill sets the school sought in employees for the project were part of a small niche — which placed the organization in a position of having a limited candidate pool to select from in the immediate area.

By embracing a remote workforce, the educational company expanded its candidate pool. It gained access to a more extensive network of candidates who lived outside a daily commute distance. The company enjoyed great success finding the talent they needed to complete a successful project and has since followed a remote working module.

As the preference for working remotely continues to gain traction among candidates, allowing offsite work some or all of the time for some or all of your employees can be a useful way to differentiate yourself from other employers and better compete for the best talent.

Related: Tips for Building a High-Performing Remote Team

The Future of Remote Work for Employers

In the months ahead, employers will continue to capitalize on remote work thanks to its potential to reduce costs, broaden the talent pool, and, perhaps most significantly, offer top candidates the flexibility they demand. 

Hybrid work arrangements will become more common as employers seek ways to find a practical middle ground that gives employees greater work-life balance while allowing face-to-face collaboration. The most popular hybrid model is three days in the office and two days remote. 

Maintaining alignment with candidate desires will be key for employers who want to stay on the cutting edge. These desires are shifting, and candidates are making major career decisions based on them. 

One noteworthy trend is the need for more clarity between what employers and employees want regarding work location. About two-thirds of workers must be in the office full-time, but only 22% say this is their preferred arrangement (compared to a remote or hybrid model). When such misalignment occurs, employers suffer; one in three workers say they would start looking for a new job if forced to return to the office full-time, while 6% say they’d quit immediately. 

Looking ahead to the future of remote work, technology will also be a critical component in employers; success. Unfortunately, many companies are still lacking in giving workers the tools they need to do their jobs as effectively as possible when working out of the office. It’s also important to utilize technology to facilitate remote hiring and virtual onboarding, creating a more seamless candidate and new hire experience when building a remote workforce. 

Hire Accountable, Independent Remote Employees with 4 Corner Resources

It takes the right type of employee to work from home successfully. It requires diligence, organization, accountability, and a strong work ethic. Let 4 Corner Resources identify these qualities in candidates for your open role by choosing us as your staffing partner. 

We help employers of all sizes fill their remote staffing needs with talented employees with the right mix of technical skills and real-world experience. From full-time to part-time, permanent to temporary, we can help you source, screen, and hire the type of employees that will help your company thrive while working remotely. Start the conversation with our team of staffing experts by scheduling your free consultation now. 

Here, we’ll talk about some of the biggest ways technology is already shaping the future of recruiting in the medical field, from time-saving tools to artificial intelligence, and what to expect in the years ahead. But first, to fully understand the implications of emerging technologies, we must address another persistent issue in the healthcare field.

The Healthcare Staffing Crisis

Though the healthcare staffing crisis has subsided slightly since its peak during the pandemic, demand for qualified clinicians is still expected to outweigh supply by a sizable margin for years to come. 

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. could see a shortage of as many as 124,000 physicians by 2024, with shortfalls in both primary and specialty care. Nursing turnover is a particularly challenging area; 31% of respondents in a recent survey of nurses said they were likely to leave their jobs in patient care in the near future. 

To put it plainly, the staffing shortage in the medical field isn’t likely to be resolved any time soon. Add to that a faster-than-average growth in demand for physician assistants, pharmacy techs, physical therapists, and administrative support staff. You’ve got one of the hottest candidate job markets in the nation.

All of this means that your healthcare recruitment efforts must be sharper than ever. Investing in recruiting technology will help you keep pace with the industry’s massive growth, win top talent in a highly crowded landscape, and save time, which seems to be a more valuable resource than ever.

Ways Technology Will Impact the Future of Healthcare Recruiting

From sourcing candidates to retaining top performers, here are seven ways healthcare recruitment technology can strengthen your approach to staffing.

1. Widens the candidate pool more than ever before

Tech tools have removed geographical barriers in sourcing and screening talent for clinical and technical healthcare jobs.

VoIP services and video conferencing make it possible to conduct interviews from opposite sides of the country or anywhere around the world, with quality rivaling (and sometimes exceeding) that of an ordinary phone call. We’re fans of Skype for international calls and Join.me for video conferencing that does not require a software download.

Digital applications for screen recording and playback are helpful when reviewing and narrowing down candidates after the fact. These tools can also be useful for sharing interviews with multiple parties in the decision-making process, and most video conferencing platforms have the feature built-in.

Employing these and other virtual interviewing applications can trim recruiting travel budgets, allocating to both your hiring team and the candidates you’re considering.

2. Use search engines to your advantage

We talk about a wide variety of recruiting strategies, both traditional and contemporary, but one of the most underutilized strategies is search engine optimization. You can post on social media and recruit at job fairs until you’re blue in the face, but if you’re not taking advantage of SEO, you’re missing out on a slew of candidates who are searching for the exact roles you’re trying to fill. It’s low-cost, too.

Healthcare recruitment technology can help us create optimized, more engaging job descriptions that will place higher in search results and capture more active job seekers. Crazy Egg, for example, is one such tool that will help you optimize your individual job listings, craft a search-friendly careers page, improve your website URLs for search engines, and gain backlinks from the right job listing sites.

Try a free tool like Yoast to optimize job listing components like titles and descriptions. When you enter your job listing content, it’ll provide real-time recommendations for making it stand out in search results.

3. Predict which candidates are best for the job

Artificial intelligence is one of the most promising technology sectors for healthcare recruiting and business in general. According to McKinsey, 55% of companies have now implemented some form of AI, and 40% of firms plan to increase their investment in the technology. 

Through machine learning, applicant tracking systems can match candidates’ skills to the job requirements with a high degree of accuracy, saving time, especially in roles with a high volume of applicants. This can free up hiring staff for more meaningful tasks like conducting interviews, building relationships, and having conversations with references

Now, emerging platforms can also draw upon unprecedented data points to predict culture fit, which has long been the X factor differentiating a good candidate from a fantastic one. Intelligent chatbots can answer candidate questions instantly, while AI can also be used to remove unintentional bias from the hiring process. It opens a whole new world of healthcare recruiting possibilities.

4. Save time by automating repetitive processes

No matter how much you optimize your hiring funnel, certain parts of the process are repetitive and mundane. Still, they must be done. Technology can help us automate recurring tasks like scheduling interviews, coordinating skills assessments, sending status update letters, and gathering candidate feedback.

5. Improve the overall candidate experience

These days, there’s no excuse for a poor application process, yet we still see companies with clunky, redundant, and buggy online application systems. Technology can improve your application process on the user end while streamlining data collection and hiring processes on the back end.

A smooth application process contributes to a positive candidate experience, which is good for attracting and retaining the best workers. In a Career Builder survey, 78% of candidates said their experience when interviewing with a company indicates how the company treats its people.

Still, your candidate experience probably isn’t as strong as you think it is. Only 47% of candidates said employers did a good job of setting expectations and communication during the hiring process. Technology—for example, automation of hiring status updates like we mentioned above—can help improve on this.

Your candidate experience is an important component of your employer brand, which, in a competitive healthcare recruiting market, can make or break your chances of winning an in-demand candidate.

6. Enhance analytics and reporting

Another area where AI has far-reaching implications is in analytics. 

By leveraging automation, recruiters can now gather and aggregate vast amounts of data on candidates, job openings, and market trends in a fraction of the time it would take to compile the data manually. Then, using artificial intelligence, they can use that data to forecast future staffing needs, predict candidate availability, and anticipate market trends before they happen. Visualization increases usability by turning complex data into easy-to-understand visual models.

Imagine how much easier your job would be if you knew that in six months, a change in the market would cause ten team members in your pediatrics unit to resign for jobs elsewhere. Instead of being blindsided by the turnover, you could step up retention efforts by making your salaries more lucrative, get a head start on backfilling those roles, or take other proactive measures to keep staffing challenges from hindering your operations. Enhanced analytics make it possible. 

7. Optimize your existing workforce

Until now, we’ve been discussing technology as a tool for attracting and winning new talent. Still, in a market with a staffing shortage, retaining and maximizing the talent you already have is equally important. Technology can help you analyze the efficiency of your existing workforce and identify resource leaks. This will reduce the impact of staffing gaps until vacant positions can be filled.

For example, a healthcare analytics application like Tableau can help you analyze how much time your staff members spend on various tasks and how those tasks translate into revenue. This can uncover opportunities to maximize staffing efficiency while also improving cash flow.

Optimizing your existing workforce also includes ensuring your employees are satisfied so that the best ones will stick around for the long haul. Take advantage of technology that breeds employee satisfaction, like collaborative apps, employee appreciation programs, and continued education resources.

Best Healthcare Recruitment Technology to Make Hiring More Efficient 

Applicant tracking systems

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) help manage and automate the entire recruiting process, from job posting to new hire onboarding. They also aid in candidate relationship management, which is an essential differentiator in a ruthlessly competitive market. 

Look for an ATS system with a healthcare-specific suite of tools (Bullhorn is one such option), which will give you access to features for verifying clinician credentials, managing licenses, and maintaining compliance with healthcare industry regulations. 

ChatGPT

You probably know ChatGPT can write articles and complete research, but did you know it can also help you develop stronger recruiting materials? The natural language processing tool allows healthcare recruiters to input a series of criteria and receive a highly tailored output that might include candidate outreach emails, recruiter phone scripts, lists of interview questions, and more. 

Here are just a few examples of prompts you could use for a ChatGPT query:

• Develop a set of five interview questions to ask a nursing assistant candidate
• Create a 100-word email a recruiter can use to reconnect with a candidate who applied for a job two or more years ago
• Draft a short phone script a recruiter can use when screening applicants for a pharmacy technician role

ChatGPT isn’t limited to creating recruiting materials. You can also use the tool to help you brainstorm new and creative recruiting ideas, asking about topics like how to use social media to connect with new graduates or ideas to generate more applications in rural areas. 

Related: How to Create a Job Description With ChatGPT

Chatbots

At a time when we’re all striving to do more with less, chatbots are a cost-effective way to offer round-the-clock candidate engagement. They can complete time-consuming pre-screening activities by asking candidates a series of questions before passing them through to complete an application, saving recruiters valuable time. And they can expedite other pre-hire tasks like scheduling interviews and following up with candidates with incomplete applications. 

Another feature of chatbots that’s particularly interesting for the competitive healthcare market is their ability to facilitate multilingual recruiting. If your application materials are available in one language, but you’re looking for bilingual candidates, you can use a smart chatbot that offers support in the language the candidate is most comfortable in. 

Analytics tools

Analytics technology is a powerful healthcare recruitment technology for saving time, enhancing efficiency, and boosting hiring accuracy. A platform like HireEZ allows you to track your candidate outreach in real-time and easily analyze the results of your efforts. This gives you a comprehensive understanding of which recruiting channels and methods yield the most success so you can best determine where to target future efforts. 

Analytics technology can also help with candidate selection. Advanced analytics tools can leverage data from candidates’ resumes to determine which characteristics are most closely tied to strong performance and then help you screen for those traits. 

Credentialing and compliance tools

In healthcare, verifying candidates’ professional credentials is a legal and ethical necessity, adding complexity to this already challenging recruiting area. A tool like Checkr can automate the process of confirming applicants’ licenses and maintaining compliance with all regulatory mandates. This not only saves you time but ensures patient safety. 

Harness The Healthcare Recruitment Technology With 4 Corner Resources

While adopting new healthcare recruitment technology can be daunting, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to assemble the best medical staff in the business. Why not let an expert lead the charge? 4 Corner Resources works tirelessly to stay on the cutting edge of staffing technology, giving companies like yours access to proprietary applications that will help you locate, attract, and hire top professionals in the healthcare field.

We specialize in healthcare recruiting, filling positions like claims specialists, customer care representatives, medical coders, pharmacy technicians, and more. Our network of thousands of healthcare professionals spans the nation and ranges from entry-level to the C-suite. Whether you’re looking for direct hire recruiting for a hard-to-fill role, contract-to-hire services for periods of rapid growth, or temporary staffing services to cover seasonal gaps, we have a solution to fit your needs. We also offer convenient payrolling services to help you streamline your payroll and benefits operations.

See why the top names in healthcare have trusted 4 Corner Resources with their staffing needs for 15 years. Get in touch with a healthcare staffing specialist by contacting us now.

All the way back in 1908, the Boy Scouts began gamifying skills like first aid and carpentry by rewarding scouts with merit badges. In the 1960s, multi-colored stamp books swept the nation as retail chains gamified grocery shopping.

Though the idea has been around for centuries (or longer), the gamification of business operations is picking up steam in an exciting way, and nowhere are the implications more promising than in the recruiting field.

We’ll explore the pros and cons of gamification in recruiting and explain some ways to incorporate it into your hiring process to engage candidates better and improve the quality of your hires. 

What is Gamification?

In a business setting, gamification refers to incorporating game elements, such as competition and achievement, into non-gaming processes like marketing, hiring, or talent management. This method is not merely about adding a touch of entertainment. At its heart, gamification aims to foster engagement, a crucial factor in everything from customer loyalty to employee retention and can serve as a pivotal business strategy.

This concept of instilling game elements into business operations gained traction around 2009, notably with the advent of Foursquare. This platform introduced gaming components into local search behavior, sparking excitement among users as they vied for titles like “mayor” of their favored locales. Since then, gamification has found applications across diverse fields. From employee training to revolutionizing how companies evaluate candidates, manage job applications, and drive the selection process.

Gamification has been a tool to introduce healthy competition among job seekers, motivate people in a training environment, and facilitate a smoother job application experience.

What are the Benefits of Gamification in Recruitment?

1. Assess candidates

Interviews are the richest source of information a hiring manager has when assessing a candidate. Still, they have one fatal flaw: most of what the candidate says in an interview has been rehearsed beforehand. While that is often just the nature of interviews, it also completely neglects to assess how a candidate acts and reacts in the moment, which is a major determining factor of job success. Gamification can instantly gauge how candidates would react in situations they’d likely face in their new role.

Rolls Royce took advantage of this capability by gamifying a situational judgment test. Via a simulated inbox, the company assessed how its interns and apprentices would manage the incoming message load of a fictitious manager. The result was a robust picture of the individual’s social, organizational, and decision-making skills.

2. Gamification can screen for specific skills

Any good hiring manager or recruiter knows that candidates aren’t the best assessors of their own skills. Underqualified candidates may overestimate their aptitude in certain areas, while completely qualified candidates may struggle to communicate their skills in a 30-second answer to an interview question. Gamification addresses both of these problems by allowing candidates to demonstrate their skills actively.

UK business services provider KPMG used gamification to attract and screen new college graduates for internships. Candidates were tasked with racing a virtual hot air balloon worldwide, stopping along the way to “refuel” by completing relevant challenges. The candidate who completed the journey in the shortest amount of time successfully won the internship.

Companies seeking to hire can use similar gamification channels to test a candidate’s skills, from hard skills like programming or data entry to soft skills like communication.

3. Reduce hiring bias

One of the biggest selling points of artificial intelligence in staffing and recruiting is its ability to remove human bias—intentional or unintentional—that can creep into the hiring process. But, believe it or not, AI can develop its own biases. In one fascinating example, Amazon documented how its AI recruiting tool had developed a bias against female applicants, assigning lower scores to candidates whose resume used the word ‘women’s,’ as in ‘women’s college’ or ‘women’s chess club.’

Recruitment games have an exciting amount of potential to take some of the onus for removing bias off of humans and artificial intelligence. Hacker Rank demonstrated this with its platform for taking a neutral assessment of a candidate’s coding skills.

As Hacker Rank CEO Vivek Ravisankar explained, recruiting in the coding world is particularly susceptible to machine learning bias because many of the best candidates didn’t go to college and haven’t worked for big-name companies—something AI tools often “learn” to look for. So, Ravisankar and his team built a gamification platform through which companies can evaluate applicants’ coding skills with assessments, challenges, hackathons, and more. This results in a truly blind assessment of a candidate’s coding capabilities, apart from what’s on their resume or what they look like.

4. Improve the candidate experience

A positive candidate experience correlates with better quality talent, more seamless onboarding, and a strong employer brand, all of which are good for business.

Gamification can enhance this in several important ways. It creates an all-important engagement between a candidate and a company lacking in your standard website ‘careers’ page experience. It can also help a candidate learn more about the company and the role during the application process, which is valuable in helping them make an informed decision about joining your organization.

The key to creating a great candidate experience (and not one that’s viewed as overly juvenile) is to know your market and tap into your company culture. Suppose you aim to reach upper-level financial professionals who will succeed in a buttoned-up corporate culture. A quiz might be a better gamification option than the hot air balloon ride simulation we mentioned earlier. Conversely, suppose you’re looking for creatives who will thrive in a quirky, progressive environment. In that case, a Farmville-style assessment game might be the differentiating factor you need to put your company on its shortlist.

Example of success

Accounting and consulting firm PwC introduced gamification to engage job applicants more fully (the average candidate spent 10 minutes or less on the company’s website). They devised a game called Multipoly that placed prospective candidates on teams and presented them with scenarios similar to those they’d face on the job.

After introducing the game, candidates spent as much as 90 minutes on the platform. The firm reported that its candidate pool grew by 190%, and users reporting interest in learning more about working at PwC increased by 78%.

Candidates, for their part, seem to enjoy—or at least not be deterred by—gamification in the recruiting process. Assessment solution provider AON cites one applicant feedback study that asked candidates to compare a new gamified assessment with a previous, non-gamified version. 91% reported that it gave the same or better impression of the company, while 94% said it was the same or better at engaging them.

5. More engaging onboarding and training process

New hire onboarding doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being a thrilling event. This is particularly unfortunate since an employee’s first few days on the job are so crucial for delivering a positive new hire experience.

Gamification can help organizations make the onboarding process more engaging, providing memorable and enjoyable interactions that also communicate important new hire details. 

The same goes for training. Research has shown that people learn more when they’re involved in active learning (like taking part in an activity) versus passive learning (like viewing a PowerPoint or listening to a lecture). Gamification can provide the active component of training that helps employees retain and internalize more of the material. 

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Cons of Using Gamification in Your Hiring Process

• Requires More Hands-On Time: Gamification isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It takes time to get right, especially in the early stages when changes may need to be completed on the fly. It also requires an ongoing commitment to activities like analyzing results and monitoring for new biases algorithms.  
• Branding Mismatches: It offers many benefits, but it’s not a fit for every brand or every stage of growth. Some situations, for example, may call for a more hands-on approach with a heavy emphasis on personal interactions. If you choose to deploy gamification in recruitment, you must first consider how it works with other components of your employer brand. If you fail to do so, it can cause confusion and even distrust among prospective candidates. 
• Accessibility Challenges: Some types of gamification aren’t accessible to all candidates, like those who are hearing or visually impaired or have difficulty processing information presented in a certain format.
• Technical Difficulties: Like any digital application, it is susceptible to technical difficulties. Nothing will turn a candidate away faster than a recruitment interaction that’s billed as ‘fun!’ and ‘engaging!’ that fails to work as expected. 

How to Implement Gamification in Your Recruitment Process

1. Choose the right games for your objective

Just as different recruiting channels can help you reach different types of candidates, different games are best suited to certain results. Here are a few examples of different games and what they can help you assess:

• Quizzes – subject matter knowledge
• Challenges – technical aptitude, creativity 
• Puzzles – problem-solving skills
• Races – speed, efficiency  
• Maze – problem-solving, critical thinking
• Avatar-based – situational behavior (i.e., dealing with a difficult customer)
• Team-based – communication, the ability to interact with others 

2. Choose reliable games

When used correctly in recruitment, gamification can significantly enhance candidate engagement and deliver deeper insights into their skills, abilities, and behavioral traits. However, the success of this strategy largely hinges on the choice of games used. Here’s a guide to help you choose the right ones:

• Research-Backed: As you pointed out, robust research should ideally underpin any game you choose to incorporate. It ensures the accuracy and validity of the results and interpretations derived from the game.
• Reputable Vendors: Partnering with a reliable vendor cannot be stressed enough. These vendors should have a track record of success and be able to provide case studies or testimonials that showcase the efficacy of their games in the recruitment process.
• Relevance to Role: Not all games will be suitable for every role. Choose games that are relevant to the job in question. For instance, a game measuring numerical agility might be more pertinent for a financial analyst role than for a graphic designer.
• Engaging & Immersive Experience: The game should captivate the candidates, ensuring they remain engaged throughout the process. An immersive experience will also ensure more accurate results as candidates will likely put in their best efforts.
• Cost-Effectiveness: While investing in reliable games is essential, it’s equally crucial to ensure that they are cost-effective. Analyze the return on investment by weighing the costs against the benefits received in terms of improved recruitment outcomes.

3. Keep it simple

Gamification’s primary goal in recruitment is to heighten engagement and enhance the assessment process, not introduce unnecessary complexities. Candidates should immediately understand a game’s objective and mechanics. Any confusion might deter potential hires and give a misguided impression of the organization’s operations. It’s essential to center the games around evaluating core competencies, ensuring precision without needless distractions. Furthermore, a straightforward game design minimizes technical issues and fosters a smoother user experience. Ultimately, simplicity in gamified recruitment ensures a seamless, efficient, and genuinely engaging process for candidates.

4. Be transparent

Incorporating gamification into recruitment offers a fresh approach to evaluating potential hires. Yet, it’s essential that candidates don’t feel they’re merely partaking in a frivolous activity. Transparency is paramount. Clearly conveying the purpose behind these games builds trust and ensures candidates engage more earnestly. By explaining the game’s objectives and the skills being assessed, you respect the candidate’s investment of time and effort.

Furthermore, this candid approach not only allays any potential apprehensions but also strengthens your reputation in the job market. While gamified processes intrigue, their purpose should never be obscured; clarity amplifies their effectiveness and enriches the recruitment experience.

5. Evolve continuously

While innovative and engaging, gamification in recruitment isn’t a static strategy. As with any tool or process in the dynamic talent acquisition landscape, it demands continuous evolution.

The benefits of gamification can only be sustained when there’s a commitment to regular assessment and refinement. Regularly measuring outcomes is not just about keeping track of successful hires but also about understanding the nuances of candidate engagement, the effectiveness of skill assessment, and the overall candidate experience.

By paying attention to feedback, both from hired candidates and those who didn’t make the cut, you gather invaluable insights. These insights can spotlight aspects of the games that might be outdated, too complex, or not adequately aligned with the job roles.

Moreover, as technology progresses and newer game mechanics become available, there’s an opportunity to integrate these advancements to ensure your recruitment games remain state-of-the-art. This consistent evolution ensures that you’re attracting top talent and providing them with an experience that resonates with current trends and preferences.

Do Games Really Work in Recruitment?

Absolutely! Games have proven to be quite effective in the recruitment process, introducing a dynamic approach that benefits both employers and candidates alike. Gamification in recruitment, or “Recruitainment,” offers a unique blend of assessment and engagement, providing insights into a candidate’s skills, personality, and decision-making process in a more interactive manner. It facilitates a deeper understanding of candidates beyond their resumes, allowing recruiters to identify those who are not only qualified but also culturally aligned with the company’s values and goals.

Using games also enhances the candidate experience, making the process enjoyable and engaging rather than stressful and tedious. Games designed for recruitment purposes are structured to be objective and unbiased, reducing the likelihood of unconscious bias affecting hiring decisions. Additionally, it enables candidates to demonstrate their abilities and potential in real-world scenarios, which traditional recruitment methods might not accurately capture. With these advantages, gamification in recruitment is not just a fleeting trend but a transformative approach that’s reshaping talent acquisition practices for the better.

How to Set Goals for Gamification in Recruiting

While gamification in recruiting has many merits, the concept isn’t without its potential pitfalls. To employ recruitment games that are actually effective and not just a novelty, begin by setting goals.

What are you hoping to achieve by adding gamification to your recruiting strategy? Is it more eyes on your careers page (check out the MyMarriottHotel case study for a great success story in this area)? A wider pool of applicants? To weed out unqualified candidates? Once you’ve established your goals, it will be much easier to identify what kind of gamification suits your purpose.

As with any new recruitment tool, tracking your progress consistently and analyzing the results regularly is paramount. Set key performance indicators that you’ll use to assess the effectiveness of your recruitment games. Some of these might include:

• Your overall number of applicants
• Time spent on your website, repeat visits to career page
• Percentage of candidates that pass the screening phase
• Percentage of candidates offered an interview
• Offer rate, offer acceptance rate
  

Additionally, compare these metrics to those of your other recruiting channels to get an idea of how this fits into your overall hiring picture and how it stacks up against other means of attracting, qualifying, and hiring candidates.

Fine-Tune Your Recruiting Process With 4 Corner Resources

From recruitainment ideas to cutting-edge recruiting technology, 4 Corner Resources has the strategies you need to develop the most effective hiring funnel in your field. By combining our proprietary sourcing tools with our deep talent network from coast to coast, we’ll give you access to the top candidates your industry has to offer.

We attract, screen, and place candidates for various positions, from technology to customer service and beyond. Our staffing solutions include direct hire staffing, contract hiring, temporary recruiting, and payrolling services to streamline your onboarding process.

FAQs

When choosing between hiring experienced vs inexperienced employees, what are the differences in each type of professional? And, what are the advantages or drawbacks of hiring one over the other?

Benefits of Hiring Experienced Employees

Greater expertise

The most obvious benefit of hiring experienced employees is that they know their stuff. They’ve had time to hone their skills and learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ that enable them to work more efficiently and produce better results. Experienced employees can innovate based on the solid foundation of knowledge they possess. 

Higher productivity

Seasoned employees take less time to reach their full potential in a role. Rather than learning a job from scratch, they’re more likely to build upon an existing skill set or bring their expertise to a new setting. They can also complete tasks in less time because they’ve had years of practice. 

Less training

Experienced employees already know how to use the tools and software required to do a job or at least have experience with similar ones. This contributes to lower training costs and less time invested in education. 

Knowledge of professional norms

A seasoned workforce member has experience in their skill area and in a professional environment in general. They understand expectations in a business setting, know how to interact with clients and possess professional etiquette that can be lacking in new employees. 

Broader perspective

A certain point of view comes with experience–it’s only gained by putting in the years, and there’s no shortcut. Since they’ve been in the field longer, experienced employees have had time to witness trends and observe customer behavior, which can bring a valuable level of insight to an employer. 

Resilience

Experienced employees have been through the challenges the job can pose. They know that one setback doesn’t equal failure, which can make them more resilient in the face of future difficulties. 

Disadvantages of Hiring Experienced Employees 

• Cost: Experienced employees are more costly to hire than their less experienced peers. If you’re on a tight budget, you’ll need to carefully weigh your skill needs against your financial constraints when deciding whether to hire experienced vs inexperienced employees.
• Competition: In addition to being more expensive to hire, seasoned employees are also more difficult to land. Their skill set gives them more leverage when negotiating with prospective employers, which means experienced candidates may have a lower offer acceptance rate than entry-level ones. 
• Not ‘moldable’: Because experienced workers have already achieved some level of success, they’re more likely to be set in their ways than someone who’s just starting. This could lead to challenges with coaching and the adoption of new technology. 
• Disillusionment: Unfortunately, the longer a person is in the workforce, the longer they’ve had to become jaded by the tedious aspects of their profession. It can be harder to engage more tenured workers who no longer feel the same ‘spark’ as when the job was fresh and new.

Benefits of Hiring Inexperienced Employees

Coachability

One of the primary benefits of hiring inexperienced employees is that they don’t come with the baggage or bad habits of their more experienced colleagues. Because you’re starting with a blank slate, you can train them in your systems and processes so the job is done exactly to your company’s standards. 

Fresh Perspective

Employees who are new to the workforce offer fresh perspectives and creative ideas that can contribute to a company’s performance. Since many inexperienced workers will be fresh out of college, they may also have experience with cutting-edge technology that the company has yet to adopt. 

Affordability

Entry-level employees are cheaper to hire than more experienced ones. This can be an asset, especially in positions where the number of workers makes a greater impact than their knowledge level.

Engagement

Inexperienced workers are enthusiastic and eager to please. They’re often willing to take on additional responsibilities to gain experience and prove themselves in the company.  

Disadvantages of Hiring Inexperienced Employees 

• Longer time-to-productivity: Inexperienced employees naturally require more training and take longer to accomplish tasks until they fully learn the ropes. This also means more mistakes and more hand-holding required, which can burden managers more. 
• Lack of workplace knowledge: Training for an inexperienced employee isn’t limited to position-specific skills. There’s also a learning curve when it comes to workplace behavior. It can take some practice for new employees to be able to work on a team successfully, communicate with clients, and understand office culture.
• Increased demands: Generally speaking, the youngest segment of the workforce comes with more demands than their older peers did at the same phase of their careers. They emphasize flexibility, diversity, and social responsibility and will expect their employer to prioritize these things. 
• Turnover risk: Less experienced workers tend to be younger, and younger workers are less worried about job-hopping than their more tenured peers. They’re also looking for ways to climb the ladder quickly. Both of these things contribute to a higher risk of turnover among inexperienced employees. 

Impact of Experienced vs Inexperienced Employees on Company Culture

Choosing between hiring with little to no experience or vast experience is a big decision that can ultimately impact the culture within your organization. Are you looking for employees who will bring change or adapt to your culture?

Inexperienced employees may bring exciting energy and curiosity that challenge your more experienced workers. New employees can either mold themselves to your company culture or bring about change. With some more experienced workers, they may be used to operating a certain way and be resistant to adapting to your corporate culture.

Either way, it’s imperative when reviewing job applications to ensure that each employee is either a good cultural fit or has ideas for improving your existing culture.

So Should You Hire Experienced or Inexperienced Employees?

Here are some aspects to consider when hiring experienced vs. inexperienced employees.

Budget

Assess how your recruiting budget aligns with your talent needs. 

Sometimes, saving money and going with an inexperienced worker might make sense. An example would be if you’re supplementing a large team with a solid knowledge base, and more experienced workers can provide coaching. In other cases, like when you’re looking to fulfill a critical business need, paying for someone with prior experience is an excellent investment.  

Skill Needs

If you need more specialized skills, you’ll also need more experienced workers. Conducting a skill gap analysis can help you decide where your hiring budget would be best spent to ensure operational needs are met.  

Training Capacity

This goes beyond budget. Do team members have the bandwidth and resources to provide adequate training? Are systems in place to support workers with little experience? Without these things, hiring inexperienced workers will create more problems than it solves. 

Culture

Finally, consider how both types of workers will mesh with (or change) your company culture. Are you traditional or disruptive? Creative or conventional? Serious or laid-back? These core elements of your culture will affect your ability to successfully attract and retain experienced versus inexperienced workers. 

Get the Best Candidates By Partnering with the Right Staffing Agency

There are many benefits of hiring experienced employees; there also are advantages for those who choose to hire and train new employees. What it ultimately boils down to, when choosing between hiring experienced vs inexperienced employees, is determining which option is the best for your business and its needs. This means having access to the right candidates and applicants, which requires a strategic plan in this candidate’s job market.

4 Corner Resources (4CR) is a professional staffing agency dedicated to recruiting the best candidates for our clients. With years of experience and access to extensive resources and candidates, we are here to connect you with the experienced or new talent your company needs.

If you’re still scratching your head over what blockchain is and how it’s used, don’t worry. We’ll break it down in simple terms and share some use cases where blockchain can be applied directly to the recruitment process to increase security, efficiency, and transparency. 

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a decentralized ledger, which is a fancy word for a record-keeping system. It stores the records of many transactions across a decentralized network of computers. 

Blockchain records are the ‘blocks,’ and the blocks are linked together in a chronological ‘chain.’ You can’t change one piece of data without also changing every piece of data that comes after it in the chain, making blockchain records incredibly difficult to tamper with. 

Key Features of Blockchain 

Decentralization

Unique traditional, centralized systems where records are stored in one physical location, blockchain operates on a decentralized network of computers known as nodes. Each node has a copy of the entire blockchain, meaning that a single failure point will not compromise the entire system. 

Also, blockchain does not have a central authority (like when a company controls ownership of its entire database). Instead, control is distributed among the system’s users. 

It’s important to note that there are private blockchains, like those used by employers. To participate in a private blockchain, users must receive an invitation or comply with a rule-set created by a system administrator. 

Security

Blockchain records are unique in that they’re very difficult to alter. To edit a blockchain database, all subsequent records must also be altered, and the network must agree on the changes. 

Think of it like keeping score in a tennis game. If only one person were watching and keeping score, it would be very easy for that person to alter the records for malicious purposes like influencing sports bets. 

But imagine a tennis game where everyone in the stands was also watching and keeping score, then comparing those records against one another. If one person tried to create a false record, it would very obviously stand out. 

This characteristic makes blockchain a highly secure and fraud-resistant system of recording data.

Transparency

All participants can see all transactions on a blockchain in the network. This means that every transaction can be tracked and verified by anyone. 

Additionally, each transaction contains a precise date and time stamp, which allows participants to see how events occurred in chronological order and adds another level of transparency.

Blockchain in the real world

All of the features above sound great in theory, but it can be hard to wrap your head around how this technology would be useful in a real-world setting. To help illustrate, here are a few examples. 

Jewelry trade

In the diamond industry, sustainability and traceability are important values. The De Beers Group deployed Blockchain to create an immutable and secure digital trail for high-value stones from the diamond mine to the cutter and polisher and eventually into the hands of jewelers. This use case can help minimize the trade of conflict diamonds and increase trust in the provenance of valuable stones.  

Logistics

Grocery giant Walmart moves massive perishable goods across international borders, time zones, and climates. Every load shipped requires hundreds of data tracking points, including stop locations, fuel levels, truck temperature, etc. If any one of these data points is incorrectly logged or recorded, it can result in a time-consuming reconciliation process and an extended payment delay for the supplier.  

Walmart and its partners created a Blockchain network that automatically and consistently gathers information at every step in the distribution process, from the farm where the produce is harvested to the delivery and approval for payment. Before using this system, an estimated 70% of supplier invoices were disputed over possible discrepancies. Today, fewer than 1% of invoices have discrepancies, and those that occur are easily flagged and resolved. 

Music industry

With the prevalence of streaming services, distributing royalties to musicians for the music they’ve created has become incredibly complex. Blockchain allows artists to bypass many of the intermediaries in the traditional music ecosystem and collect royalties directly, in real time, using smart contracts that anyone can scrutinize and review. With widespread use, this system could prevent another Taylor Swift music rights fiasco from ever happening again. 

Blockchain recruitment use cases

Now, on to our main concern: blockchain for recruitment. 

You’re here because you’re looking to utilize every tool available to make hiring easier, faster, and more cost-effective, so let’s look at some ways blockchain can be applied in a recruiting setting.

Resume verification

One of the biggest problems in recruiting is that candidates can put whatever they want on their resume. Sure, we have ways to identify discrepancies by checking references and verifying educational credentials, but that’s a labor-intensive process. 

Blockchain can be used to securely store and verify a candidate’s professional and educational credentials, like their degrees, technical certifications, and work history, reducing the incidence of falsified resumes and increasing our ability to hire with confidence. 

Identity verification

Gathering identification documents is a tedious step in the new-hire process. Blockchain-based identity verification offers a tamper-proof way to confirm candidates’ identities and automate background checks, which can take days off your hiring timeline. 

Privacy

The volume of personal data turns off some candidates they’re asked to provide during the job search. How can we help guarantee that their sensitive data is in good hands? With Blockchain. 

Using Blockchain to store candidate data can greatly enhance privacy and security, giving candidates greater control over who can access their information and for what purpose. 

Feedback

Feedback is invaluable in creating a good candidate experience. Still, it’s difficult to get candidates to speak freely amid concerns that it will hurt their chances of a job in the future or reflect negatively on them as a professional. 

Blockchain-based review systems can give candidates a reliable and secure way to leave feedback after the recruitment process, which can aid in providing a more enjoyable and transparent candidate experience. 

Gig workers

One aspect of Blockchain that we haven’t covered yet is smart contracts. These digital contracts stored on a Blockchain are automatically fulfilled once certain conditions are met. All participants in the contract can be immediately certain of the outcome (like the terms and payment) without the need for any intermediary or third party. 

This feature can be applied to streamline hiring and paying contract workers, which can be an asset to your workforce. 

Onboarding

The benefits of Blockchain don’t end with hiring. The principles can be used to streamline and accelerate new hire onboarding. Blockchain enables employers to have necessary new hire information, like an applicant’s driver’s license, banking details, and tax forms, available instantly.  

This cuts down on administrative work and maintains strong momentum between the offer and the new hire’s first day on the job. 

Blockchain holds incredible promise for enhancing and transforming the recruiting world, which could be key in solving some of the biggest hiring challenges we face. Suppose you’re not ready to dive into applying Blockchain right this minute. In that case, that’s okay–simply arming yourself with an understanding of the technology and staying open to the possibilities puts you at a great advantage in the competitive talent landscape we’re living in.