Talent acquisition leaders around the world face many of the same challenges: how to attract better candidates, how to optimize their hiring processes, and how to best employ technology to help their teams. But each country has a slightly different focus given its economic trends. 

The United Kingdom has faced unique challenges over the last several years: Brexit, runaway inflation, and a volatile economy that tilted from boom to recession almost overnight. To better understand talent acquisition trends in the UK, I sat down with Paul Marchant, Regional Vice President of Northern Europe at SmartRecruiters. 

“During the great resignation, it was so hard to hire that TA leaders were nearly always given the tools they needed,” Paul said. When the economy turned, he continued, “the pendulum swung back, and companies became more focused on cost and efficiency again.”

Brexit’s effect on immigration means that UK companies are competing harder for hourly talent. “The tightening of our border controls post-Brexit means that a lot of industries can’t get the labour they previously had access to,” Paul explained. Retail, hospitality, and transportation roles have been particularly hard hit. Despite the recent rise in cost-cutting, C-Suite awareness of the importance of talent acquisition hasn’t gone away. “Now everyone understands the strategic nature of TA,” he said. “However, this understanding brings a whole new layer of pressure and scrutiny to the practice.” 

Paul spoke about the need for greater cooperation between executive leadership and talent acquisition, particularly when it comes to technology decisions. “We’ve seen TA leadership in companies ready to sign a contract with SmartRecruiters, only to find out at the last minute that their leadership had already signed off on an ERP,” he said. “This level of internal disconnect is unsustainable.” With such immense capability differences between ERP recruiting modules and standalone solutions like SmartRecruiters, it’s crucial that TA leaders consistently demonstrate the business impact of their preferred solutions so that they can influence decisions.

A flexible foundation for hiring keeps companies agile

The ability to influence technology decisions becomes even more important in volatile times. Paul said, “You can start the year with huge hiring goals and be doing layoffs by the end.” With that kind of unpredictability, companies need a talent acquisition suite that can help them adapt quickly, whether that’s adjusting core processes or integrating with point solutions. 

“SmartRecruiters provides a core TA technology foundation that helps companies change, adapt, reshape, redeploy, add to, and control,” Paul said. “Our customers can do that themselves, at the speed they want, without dependence on us.” While customers can adjust their configurations without the involvement of IT or SmartRecruiters, we provide implementation support, ongoing customer service, and access to a community of peers. Combining these self-sufficient tools and best-in-class services enables our customers to achieve powerful outcomes. Our success stories with UK companies Frasers, CityFibre, and Colliers EMEA showcase their achievements. 

Keeping up with innovation in talent acquisition

With decades of experience in HR tech, Paul has seen waves of technology evolution. “There’s constant innovation in talent acquisition,” he said. “The cosmopolitan, global nature of the UK is reflected in the vendor marketplace.” For some, the amount of TA tech can be overwhelming, but Smartrecruiters’ commitment to its partner marketplace can help leaders narrow their decisions. “Not only do we have an R&D team focused solely on talent acquisition,” Paul said, “we have an alliances team that’s constantly researching the marketplace, taking feedback from customers, and looking at market trends so we can make the best functionality available in our ecosystem. Our goal is to help customers differentiate fads from the impactful new tools they should be considering.”

As a geographically small country, the UK offers many opportunities for TA leaders to come together and share best practices. Paul spoke appreciatively of the RL 100, an organization that promotes excellence in resourcing, the British word for talent acquisition. RL 100 members set the example, Paul said, “of being savvy, knowledgeable, and sophisticated at managing their internal relationships so that they get the resources they need to be successful.” Managing those relationships is the key to maintaining a seat at the table and being included in technology decisions that impact recruiting. 

The waves of change aren’t going to stop. “We don’t know what the future is,” Paul said. “But if you’ve got a flexible technology operating system with an ecosystem around it, you’ve taken a step toward future-proofing. SmartRecruiters makes it easier to deal with the unexpected.”

Staying on top of current hiring trends is one of the best ways to craft a successful hiring strategy. This is particularly relevant at the moment, as the US and global economies are trending towards an uncertain future.

The hiring landscape is constantly changing. At the same time, a range of external factors are impacting the U.S. economy and businesses’ ability to recruit. As a result, there’s more pressure on employers and staffing agencies to be on top of their game when it comes to sourcing top talent.  

A huge part of this is understanding the key trends that are shaping the market; and adapting your hiring practices accordingly. In this article, we’ll take you through what some of these trends look like, offering clear insight on how to maximize them to achieve the best results. 

1. Change in Working Patterns 

Gone are the days of the traditional 9-5; especially right now when more people are working from home than ever before due to social distancing measures. At the same time, according to the American Staffing Association, 16 million temporary and contract employees are hired throughout the course of the year; so clearly, temporary workers make up a big part of the U.S. workforce. 

There are a number of reasons why temporary staffing is getting more popular. For the most part, people want more flexibility and working part-time or on a contractual basis gives them the freedom to balance their personal and professional lives effectively. 

Alongside this, according to a study from TrueBlue and Emsi, the main reason why people take on gig work is to earn extra income; followed by a desire to get their foot in the door with a company. 

Additionally, findings from Staffing Industry Analysts show that an estimated 53 million people took on gig work in the U.S. in 2018, with 34% of all U.S. workers performing gig/contingent work last year. 

Clearly, the gig economy represents a shift in employment around the world. Professionals are opting to work on a contractual basis out of necessity and choice. Particularly as there’s little job security in the current economy. 

But what does it mean for your hiring efforts? Well, if you’re finding it difficult to hire full-time employees, it may be worth looking for gig workers instead. It all depends on what your company’s needs are. 

2. Data-Driven Recruitment 

Another trend that hiring professionals need to keep on top of is data-driven recruitment. With more pressure to hire the right people, both cost and time-effectively, many organizations have turned to data to help them make smarter hiring decisions; and avoid unconscious bias. 

It’s particularly useful if you’re working towards key metrics. For example, you may want to measure your hiring velocity to see how efficient your hiring process is; alternatively, you might look at your hiring budget to ensure that you’re not overspending on your hiring campaigns. 

Whichever metric you track, you’ll need to start gathering and analyzing data in order to do it effectively. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) make this easy to do, but there are other tools you can use such as Google Analytics. 

The type of data you might capture includes: how long it takes for people to complete your application forms, how many clicks on your job adverts convert to applications, how long it takes for your offers to be expected, how much ROI you’re getting on your recruitment tools and so on. 

Once you’ve gathered this data, you can then use it to make informed decisions. For example, if it’s taking too long for people to complete applications (or they’re abandoning them altogether), perhaps you need to cut the form down or re-consider the questions you’re asking. 

Ultimately, you’ll want to use data to make informed decisions, save time and money, and of course, to make sure you’re making quality hires. 

3. Candidate Experience 

Candidates have held the power in the U.S. job market for some time now, and considering the most recent economic data on the labor market, the candidate experience remains more important than ever.  

After all, people are more likely to accept your offers if they have a positive route to hire; and reputation matters in the current market. For that reason, this is a key hiring trend you need to be on top of. 

This is especially true as there are more avenues for candidates to air their views online than ever before. Whether it’s social media, or employee review sites; people aren’t afraid to share any negative experiences with other prospective candidates, potentially putting them off applying to your jobs, attending interviews, or accepting your job offers. 

So, what makes a positive candidate experience? Well, it all starts with your job advert. You need to write this with the candidate in mind; what do they want to know? What would make them want to apply? Use engaging language and break the copy up with bullet points so it’s easy to read. If your advert is poorly-written or doesn’t make sense, you’ll fall at the first hurdle. 

You then need to think about the application process and next steps. If they have to jump through a number of hoops just to show their interest in the role, they’ll probably abandon it altogether. Similarly, if there’s far too many rounds of interviews, they may lose interest and go with another employer who’s willing to offer them the job quicker. 

Ultimately, communication is key. See it as a relationship-building exercise. In order to get candidates interested in the role and brand, you need to put the work in. Acknowledge applications, keep them up to date throughout the hiring process and don’t wait too long to offer the job. This will speed up your hiring process and improve their experience; it’s a win-win. 

4. Machine Learning & Automation 

We couldn’t talk about hiring trends without mentioning machine learning and automaton. Both have picked up across many industries in recent years, helping to take over some of the more menial tasks and improving the overall user experience. 

In the staffing industry, machine learning may not be something you implement yourself. Indeed, it’s something that industry suppliers are investing in to improve results for users. At Resume-Library, we’ve used machine learning to improve the relevancy of job matches for candidates, ultimately driving more applications to our clients’ vacancies. 

To do this, we manually rated the relevancy of hundreds of thousands of job postings against specific search terms, before feeding this information into a “machine.” The machine is then able to apply this logic to all jobs on our site, ensuring candidates are presented with the most relevant results. 

Another popular way that companies use machine learning and automation in their hiring practices is through resume screening. There are lots of areas of the hiring process that take up time and effort; with screening being one of them. ATS’s like SmartRecruiters are great for this and can help you to make effective, data-driven hiring decisions. 

There are plenty of other areas that can be automated or that can benefit from machine learning. For example, assessment tools can help you understand how well someone will fit in your company and team, and whether they have the ability to do the job. 

Alongside this, there are tools that can help with candidate engagement efforts. Chatbots, for example, are useful for answering any questions applicants might have and/or keeping them up to date on the progress of their application. Interview scheduling tools can help too and save a lot of back and forth between employers and candidates. 

It’s worth considering what areas of your process need streamlining and how you can do this; it might require you to invest in some new technologies. 

Stay on Top of These Trends 

Unfortunately, there are a range of external factors impacting companies’ ability to hire right now. But that’s why it’s more important than ever to stay on top of the latest trends and ensure your hiring process is fit for purpose. 

Take this time to look at its efficiency; are there areas that are slowing it down? Are you spending too much, or too little money? What do candidate say about your brand online and how can you improve this? These are all questions you should be asking yourself. 

Alongside this, it’s worth speaking to your suppliers to see whether they’re staying on top of these trends and how they can help you meet your goals. At Resume-Library, we work in partnership with SmartRecruiters to enable its users to post jobs onto our site directly from their platform; and we’re launching a Resume Search integration very soon.  

Both help to streamline the process and make it a lot smoother for candidates and hiring professionals. 

Discover the most recent developer hiring trends based on real customer data.

The demand for software developers is rapidly increasing, with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting a 24 percent growth in the need for these skills between 2016-2026. Globally, developer positions are the fourth hardest to fill, and the problem isn’t just quantity – it’s quality. With HACKERNOON reporting, “The software engineering shortage is not a lack of individuals calling themselves ‘engineers’, the shortage is one of quality – a lack of well-studied, experienced engineers with a formal and deep understanding of software engineering.”

According to Stack Overflow, 90 percent of developers are employed at least part-time, with about 77 percent employed full time. And, only five percent of developers are unemployed and actively looking for work. So, how are top companies engaging with these in-demand candidates to get the right skills onboard? It’s hard to know if you are an internal recruiter, that’s where Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019 comes in. This developer screening platform has gathered data from 112,654 coding tests from developers in 121 countries within the last year, in order to bring talent acquisition (TA) practitioners the latest in best-practice and trends for technical recruiting.

This report unique in that it doesn’t rely on self-reporting surveys. All the data flows directly from real tests. So, let’s break down our findings into five actionable takeaways teams need to know now!

1. It takes an average of three days for a developer to take a coding test  

Developers wait on average 2.88 days or approximately 69 hours to take a coding test. Tests sent on Tuesdays tend to get the fastest response, while those sent on Wednesdays usually take the longest to be completed. This probably means that devs prefer to keep their weekend free for other projects and leisure, rather than recruitment.

Here’s a graph of the Monday to Friday data with the average wait in days.

2. Candidates tend to take the coding tests recruiters send 

Tech recruiters fear candidates will drop out of the hiring process if asked to complete coding tests. Some technical interview techniques do receive negative backlash – whiteboard tests, anyone?

But…

We found those concerns may be inflated, as 73 percent of candidates do take the coding tests sent to them. Coding test completion rates are the highest for Latvia, Armenia, New Zealand, Denmark, and the UK.

3. The overwhelming majority of candidates complete a coding test once started

Ninety-two percent of all candidates who started their coding test on our platform took the time to finish it.

Here is a breakdown of the finish rate by continent: Europe leads the pack with 93 percent, followed by Oceania 92 percent, Africa 91 percent, and North America 91 percent.

4. 70 percent of companies worldwide are looking for JavaScript developers

JavaScript is the most sought after technical competency from companies across the board. JavaScript also has the most integration capabilities. Interestingly, when we look at tech stack tested together, we’ve found that most developers get a database technical skills assessment, regardless of their main focus. This means that for both front end and back end roles, database skills are clearly very important.

5. Java is by far the most tested language

Although most companies are looking for JavaScript skills, Java is the number-one language tested on our platform based on test invites, with 37 percent of companies testing for Java.

Bonus Findings:

• Top three drivers of international technical hiring: The US, Poland, and the UK
• Highest average scores on coding tests: New Zealand
• The most high-scoring candidates:  Serbian companies
• Most selective companies: Singapore

For more information, check out the online version of the report with interactive geographical insights: Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019.