By Stephanie Sparks, Content Marketing Manager
There isn’t a single industry unscathed by the changing labor market, rising inflation, and the corresponding salary wars. With job seeker demands for flexibility and higher compensation, candidates are firmly in control of the market. Right now, there are nearly two job openings for every job seeker and employers are scrambling to keep up with filling their open positions.
So what is one of the most sought-after positions? It might surprise you. According to SHRM, it’s recruiters. In fact, job listings for recruiters tripled between January 2019 and January 2022, outpacing overall growth in the job market. This is because companies are realizing they need recruiters now more than ever.
While their value is apparent today, during the start of the global pandemic, recruiters were one of the hardest hit roles when it came to layoffs. Employers that let go of their hiring teams now find themselves looking for recruiters and recruitment services like never before. This ‘Golden Age of Talent Acquisition’ has recruiters in hot demand.
“Recruiters are always the first to be laid off in an economic downturn and the last to be hired back once things even out. Unfortunately, recruiters who were laid off are getting called back, and it’s too late. They’ve already moved on to another company that values them in the moment.
Stability in recruiter positions creates stability in hiring. This is why there’s such an apparent loss of talent right now. Recruiting isn’t a light switch. It can take 3 to 6 months to get a recruiter up to speed with a new company, perhaps more for a more junior recruiter. But during that time, you’re losing out on top talent.”
– Terry Terhark, President, NXTThing RPO
As companies seek to hire more this year, recruiters are working harder than ever to find the best-qualified talent as quickly as possible, leading to recruiter burnout. Recruiters were listed as one of the most likely positions to quit their jobs even back in 2019 and are 115% more likely than the average worker to explore a new job opportunity. In 2022, a senior recruiter’s average tenure is only 1 to 2 years.
Given the high level of burnout and stress, companies are eager to change the recruiter experience and retain them in the business. This means programs specifically targeted at recruiters, including total rewards, increased base salaries, additional training and development opportunities, and flexible and remote work arrangements. By making these changes, companies hope to create an attractive environment for recruiting talent, and that helps them retain those individuals for the long term.
What Recruiters Want From Employers
On top of competitive benefits, remote work, and better compensation, recruiters are looking for employers to step up their talent acquisition technology to help them quickly expand teams with qualified employees.
The Right Talent Acquisition Technology
In today’s competitive labor market, simply having an applicant tracking system or a few other point solutions is no longer enough to help recruiting teams find and hire top talent. Recruiters need a fully integrated, end-to-end talent acquisition suite that allows them to optimize and automate their hiring process. This suite should offer automated job postings, candidate screening, interview scheduling, and onboarding.
Without these capabilities, recruiters will be forced to waste time on tedious tasks that could be automated. As a result, they will be less productive and more likely to leave your company in pursuit of a better tech stack. Investing in a unified talent acquisition suite can give your recruiters the tools they need to be successful and keep them happy at your company. In short, if they don’t have great technology with your company, they’ll find a place that does.
Short & Effective Feedback Loops
Talent teams are essential in every business, and recruiters need quick and effective communication from leadership, hiring managers, and internal teams to hire the right employees. Delaying any stage of the hiring process can result in losing valuable candidates that recruiters have spent hours, days, and weeks attracting to the role.
Investing in technologies that allow for easier, instant communication between hiring managers and recruiters is one of the most important decisions to empower recruiters. Shortening the feedback loop helps recruiters relay information and updates quickly to candidates throughout the recruiting process. Technology is half the battle, but investing in hiring manager training and creating space for them to do their job and weigh in on important candidate feedback is also crucial.
Analytics to Improve the Recruiting Process
As the talent landscape continues to evolve, recruiting teams have had to get even more agile and learn how to analyze key recruiting metrics to improve the hiring process. As challenges arise, talent teams need to adjust the recruiting process — and a robust analytics platform that automatically reports on key metrics to stakeholders helps teams make data-driven decisions in real-time.
Gather feedback from hiring managers, recruiters, and candidates about crucial steps in the hiring process to improve the overall experience. If your recruitment team doesn’t know the analytics crucial to their role, they cannot work effectively. By understanding which metrics matter most and tracking them accordingly, you can make informed decisions that will help streamline your hiring process and improve the quality of your hires.
Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Candidates are increasingly interested in a company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In fact, 49% of recruiters reported that job seekers asked about the company’s DEI program, and 44% of candidates said they would turn down a job or interview offer if a company lacked a commitment to DEI, according to the latest Recruiter Nation Report.
As talent acquisition leaders strive to build more inclusive workplaces, they must commit to DEI initiatives themselves. By doing so, they can attract top talent and set the tone for more inclusive hiring practices within their organizations. In other words, the commitment to DEI is just as crucial for recruiters as it is for candidates. When talent acquisition leaders get it right, everyone benefits.
Take Your Recruiting to the Next Level with NXTThing RPO
NXTThing is a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) company that is creating differentiated RPO services to change how companies hire talent into their organization by using the ultimate blend of technology and service. We educate companies on the talent challenges surrounding their company and rebuild their talent acquisition process from the ground up with innovation and technology.
We have decades of experience solving recruitment challenges for companies of all sizes across all industries. And we understand how vital it is to find a partner who can work with your in-house recruiting teams to attract and hire game-changing talent. A good RPO provider understands that every organization is different. At NXTThing RPO, we listen to your challenges and goals, then build a tailored recruitment solution for your unique situation.
Working with an RPO provider is a partnership. At NXTThing, we serve as an extension of your internal talent team — not a replacement. We have a wealth of knowledge, experience, and scalability to elevate the efforts of your in-house talent team. With our unique combination of service, personal connection, and technology, we can make hiring more efficient so your team has more time to execute key business initiatives.
The secret behind the approach from NXTThing is its ability to scale up or down. When you work with NXTThing RPO, you can move the wheels quickly. In fact, we can design and deploy a custom solution in a matter of days or choose our NXTDay launch capabilities to get your services solution in place with just a 24-hour implementation time. This on-demand accelerated model enables flexibility and confidence that your company can scale up or down depending on overall need, without the fixed price tag attached.
Learn More about NXTThing RPO
Even during an unprecedented hiring market, NXTThing RPO helps your enterprise retain and hire back top talent in recruiting. Contact us today to learn more about our solutions and next-day implementation. We’d love to start a conversation about how NXTThing can help you drive more successful hiring outcomes.
This blog is a feature from our eBook “The Year of the Recruiter: Why Recruiters Are More Important Now Than Ever.” Download now to gain insights into one of the most vital roles in business today.
