Recruiting professionals, hold on to your hats; 2021 is the year your jobs evolve and specialize in four key areas. Your position will take on aspects of other disciplines and specialties in the year to come. Here are the top 4 recruiting trends to plan for in 2021.

1.  HR departments flex their marketing muscle

It’s a candidate’s job marketing in 2021, and will continue to be so. With job seekers having more of the power, hiring professionals need to take a page from the marketing playbook. Here are three areas to focus on in 2021. Tap a marketing colleague for help, outsource to a talent marketing agency, or hire a specialist in these areas.

1. Employer branding. Do applicants within your community or industry recognize your company as “the place to work”? Take time to develop your employer brand to attract the top talent.
2. Candidate personas. Have you created a spec of your “ideal candidate” for a specific role? Marketers use buyer personas to ensure they use the right messaging, in the right channels to attract ideal customers. Recruiters should do the same and develop candidate personas to attract ideal employees.
3. Inbound marketing. Do you have a robust online presence and content about what it’s like to work for your company? Develop a branded careers page, a social media presence for HR, and consider developing a blog or video channel (or both!) dedicated to what it’s like to work for your company. Use inbound marketing — or inbound recruiting — to grab more potential applicants in 2021

2. Recruitment professionals work on their tech game

Technology is changing everything in modern society. Recruitment is no different. Job seekers want to work for organizations that use current technologies throughout their operations. Some top tech recruiters should consider for 2021 include:

1. Chatbots. Chatbots can help pre-screen and pre-qualify applicants. The right chatbot can reduce the number of applications you have to review and ensure you only see the cream of the crop.
2. Gamification. What if recruitment were fun? Leading companies have begun to use gamification in hiring. Candidates can play games that are actually skills tests. Gamifying the process can take some of the stress out of the process for you and the applicant.
3. Applicant Tracking Systems. An applicant tracking system (ATS) can help you manage recruitment through the onboarding process. Think of an ATS as your candidate relationship management solution. Not only does an ATS help improve your efficiency and productivity, but it also supports your efforts with marketing, candidate experience, screening, and more.

3. HR embraces User Experience (UX)

Since job seekers can be a little more selective these days, recruiters and other human resources professionals need to think through “user experience” issues. Making the work environment pleasant and rewarding for both current and potential employees will go a long way in hiring (and retention) success.

1. Corporate culture. According to a survey by the Association for Talent Development, a strong company culture accounts for the 40 percent difference between high- and low-performance teams. The right culture is one where the majority of team members share a unified vision, understand individual roles, and feel a sense of purpose and commitment.
2. Candidate user experience. Ready to think like a user experience (UX) pro? UX professionals take great care to ensure that system (think software) works well for those who interact with it. What is your company’s candidate UX like? Are your job descriptions clear and easy to understand? What is your interview process like? If you were trying to get a job with your company, would you be pleased with the recruiting process?
3. Employee referrals. Employee referrals aren’t necessarily new. However, you may want to reimagine how you use them. Maybe you gamify the experience. Perhaps there are different perks instead of money for successful hiring based on a referral? Think creatively about what will incentivize your best employees to refer other top-notch workers.

4.  Recruiters change their perceptions of (and approaches to) talent

Recruiters faced many challenges in 2020 when it came to having to let people go, as well as the role technology plays in hiring. moving forward. Here are three areas to pay attention to in 2021.

1. Self-employed workers and freelancers. A 2017 study by Upwork predicts that 50 percent of the U.S. workforce will be self-employed by 2027.  The majority of these people will freelance by choice, not by necessity. Hiring managers will need to learn how to either make jobs more desirable to lure people out of self-employment or adjust hiring expectations to welcome freelance and self-employed contractors.
2. Hiring for high robotics quotients. Robotics quotient is the measure of an organization’s or a person’s capacity and ability to work effectively with AI and robots. With automation and machine learning growing at a rapid pace, people and businesses must be prepared for the dramatic shifts coming.
3. Passive talent pools. With all the changes and challenges ahead, smart companies will create and nurture passive talent pools. With an applicant tracking system like TAM, you can create a database of passive candidates. With a little ongoing maintenance, you’ll have a robust set of potential applicants to reach out to when a job opens in your organization.

Are You Ready for Recruiting in 2021?

Talent acquisition is already a high-stakes game, and things won’t necessarily get any easier in 2021. Take steps to ensure your success by staying ahead of the trends we’ve identified above. Brush up on marketing, upgrade your applicant tracking system, think about user experience, and think about the ways to best address changes in employee attitudes and behaviors.

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