By Luke Doubler
In the last 15 years, we’ve seen a radical change within the recruitment industry. Now more than ever, we’re witnessing a digital revolution. We’ve become more reliant on technology, like A.I. and data mining and especially social media, and have even changed our own strategies, protocols, and procedures because of it.
We can even see how the social channels have changed the way job seekers become aware of companies, and then connect and engage with them. Customer experience matters more than ever because people listen when others speak. With the emergence of employer review sites like Glass Door, Vault, and Indeed, what is said about working or interacting with a company is heard louder than some marketing campaigns. This is why it’s so important to build relationships with candidates.
As the paradigm shifts to focusing more on the candidate, it’s crucial that recruiters stay on top of today’s trends, have insight on what’s coming next, and know how and where to find talent.
“According to research…, the current job market is 90% candidate driven. That means you don’t pick talent anymore. Talent picks you. Consequently, finding and hiring ideal job candidates, especially those with in-demand skills, has become extremely hard, expensive and time-consuming.”
With the skills required to work today drastically changing, we have found that the old standard recruiting methods are no longer working. To keep up with the ever-changing market, we must evolve too. Therefore, recruiters now have to be able to adapt, think creatively, and innovate competitively when they are hunting for candidates. A recruiter not only finds purple unicorns, but they also have to be one.
Where to Look for Innovation
In order to keep growing, developing, and moving forward within the recruiting market, recruiters will need to get savvy on where to look for new ideas, methods, and other innovations, especially if they want to stay ahead of the competition.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Talk and stay in touch with both hiring companies and candidates
- Collaborate with your internal teams and colleagues
- Start challenging the status quo when it comes to your recruiting methods and techniques
- Research other industries and find out how you can adopt or evolve ideas to work in the recruiting world
- Invite people from different sectors and/or people who naturally have an entrepreneurial spirit to speak with you
- Always keep analyzing and evaluating your processes, procedures, and systems and be honest about where improvements could help if they were implemented
- Often innovators are rebels, noncorporate types, people who run a business. Innovators often start their own business, take risks, fail but learn. To be inspired by “out of the box thinking” listen to people who live “outside the box’
- This was a big one for me personally and this is super important. Make sure your mentors are mentoring you for success. I’ve found that some of my most impactful mentors come from different industries. Don’t settle for ‘safe’ mentors. Find someone who has truly been successful, both personally and professionally because I feel they go hand in hand. My goal has always been to surround myself with people who are better than me, and it’s never proven me wrong.
How Leaders Produce Innovative Success for the Long-Term
Innovative thinkers are a dime a dozen. Where you and your company can stand out amongst the competition is how you implement and stay motivated to continually carry out your new ideas, plans, and strategies. It’s one thing to come up with a new way to find and recruit candidates for your clients, but it can be quite challenging to constantly administer new approaches and techniques.
This is where you need to recruit your own team to help with the everyday innovation and let it become part of your company culture. People need to be inspired to help create this type of company culture where everyone embraces a positive mindset around change, gets excited to push the boundaries and question old methods, and becomes ruthless in your pursuit of delivering high-quality service to your talent and hiring companies.
“For this to happen the working environment needs to be one where creativity is welcomed, people feel like they can share an innovative idea and be listened to, and more importantly, feel like they have the autonomy and resources to deliver it.”
When fostering a culture of innovation, leaders should keep in mind:
- Small wins can lead to big wins
- Encourage people to speak up and present their big ideas
- Consistently work at innovation daily, weekly, and monthly
- Integrate discussions about innovation in meetings and one-on-one conversations
- Be persistent even when ideas fail by cheering on their teams and encouraging them to try again
- Challenge people to think more innovatively and always be on the lookout for ways to improve things
- Make sure the right people are in the right positions
- Meet the demands of the client by understanding their needs
Do you have a department solely dedicated to research, development, and innovation? If not, you may want to seriously rethink how you approach new trends and methods in this industry. It would highly be in your favor to create such a department and help add value to your company and your overall recruiting efforts.
This is such an exciting time to be a recruiter. There is so much potential at your fingertips and a space that yearns for innovation and creativity. There has never been a better time to re-imagine your approach and methods.
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