The recruitment industry and the process of talent acquisition are ever-changing and if you look into the current scenario everybody is in, you can conclude that it has to become more flexible in terms of accommodating candidates. Last year it was more about hiring candidates for soft skills and potential and now in 2020 amidst this corona virus pandemic, it definitely has to be more about flexible work environments and being more open about pay. In a survey carried out by LinkedIn, it was concluded that recruitment leaders across the world have identified with the above and are willing to create great changes in the workplace.

As a result what candidates can now expect is more accountability, transparency and trust. Mark Lobosco, the Vice President of talent solutions for LinkedIn says what recruiters now need to look for more in the job seekers are not just their technical skills but also their ability to respond creatively, quickly and all collaborative aspects. So here Recruit CRM is presenting you with top 6 lessons from the world’s leading recruitment experts.

1. Lou Adler On Performance-Based Hiring

Lou Adler, in his career spanning over 40 years, is famous for implementing certain radical recruitment marketing philosophies that till today continue to disrupt the entire recruiting scenario. From authoring two Amazon bestsellers to the founding of his own company called The Adler Group, Lou’s simple philosophy in life is performance-based hiring. What he looks forward to is not what skills a candidate has, rather than what job he needs to do. This might sound a bit bogus for you’ll but it truly has been his mantra.

Starting from the pre-internet and pre-job boards era, in his interviews, he keeps on asserting recruiters from all over the world that all you need to ask potential candidates is, “what will you do in order to fill this position?” Lou has been faced with a lot of questions since then starting from how would you understand if he or she is fit for the job without talking about skills and to this Adler’s only answer has been, “Ask the candidate one simple question. Which single project or task would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career so far? The candidate will usually take two to three minutes to answer and then you can use the rest of the time to gain insight into the particulars of how he or she accomplished the project and the obstacles they had faced. Right at this moment, you’ve everything you need to know about whether the candidate is suitable for this position or not.”

2. Rob McIntosh On Data Wonk

Rob Mcintosh in his blog has mentioned that he comes across lots of Talent Acquisition leaders but the most common theme that consistently comes up in conversations is how they’re trying to make improvements around in their organisation. McIntosh, the VP of Recruiting Solutions at PSG Global Solutions says that he can point out hundred and one reasons why a recruiter should hire a data wonk who will be responsible with arming the entire team with lots of actionable and insightful data to enable the change the recruiters are actually looking for. Let’s be more clear about this.

Rob is not willingly asking you to hire someone who will just provide you with reports out of your ATS or CRM  but someone who is actually looking forward to transforming this data to the next level under your nose. The data wonk should be able to commit himself or herself to make this a possible reality. There are times when recruiting leaders themselves suffer from making good sense out of their data which leads to the major roadblock to success. A data wonk person will be able to create the news, be predictive, insightful and someone who challenges the validity of the data. On the other hand, a traditional data person would just bring the reports to your table with little or no validation. So, guess who’s better now?

3. Kyle Lagunas On Moving Past Vanity Metrics

Rob McIntosh has previously spoken about hiring a data wonk for your recruitment agency and Kyle Lagunas, director of Strategy-Beamery is already an established data guy who has been urging talent teams to move past the vanity metrics which only showcase how much work the recruiters are doing. This feel-good metrics will do basically nothing to you as a recruiter. Kyle Lagunas urges teams to segment each stage of the hiring funnel and compare ratios between sourcing strategies and phone screening of a candidate or whether the offer has been extended and accepted.

Kyle in his research has talked about how there’s a serious lack of tracking metrics nowadays in the recruitment agencies. The most significant lesson you can take away from this is that recruiters need to ultimately become more data-driven to be consistent in 2020 and the upcoming years.

4. Josh Bersin On Thriving The Pandemic

Bersin, a global industry analyst and one of the leading recruitment experts, writes in his blog lessons which recruiters must take home from this recent pandemic. There is a massive cultural shift happening in this industry and everyone needs to keep up with it. On your way, you’ll learn a lot and probably that will act as your most crucial lesson but you need to keep this in mind too that focusing on building relationships, care and utmost trust is vital. Quoting Josh completely, “Trust is a combination of competence (doing the right things well), ethics (maintaining fairness and honesty), and listening (constantly being open to feedback and advice)”, you need to build your recruiting agency based off these norms. Everyone working under your belt or whoever you’re working for must be given a sense of flexibility, freedom and an ability to induce fun.

The power of optimism can work wonders and Bersin continually focuses on this aspect. To thrive this pandemic, each and every one of you must learn how to develop a calm and having just a workplace full of motivational posters is not enough.

5. Meghan M. Biro On Better Candidate Experience

Meghan M. Biro, a global
ly recognised Talent Management and HR Tech brand analyst, strategist and speaker, in one of her articles mentions that the most challenging part is engaging with candidates. Candidate experience is more important than ever since everything depends upon how you’re engaging with a potential candidate online and bringing them in for a job interview.

If you have one or two great recruiters in your agency, you’ll probably be serving with amazing candidate experience but however, the issue can be when you need to scale beyond these two best recruiters you already have. It gets difficult to go across that board so you need to scale upon how you treat people. Candidate experience can lead to a better brand image for your organisation. Regardless of whether you rope in that person for the specific job or not, a positive candidate experience can result in better word-of-mouth which in turn is beneficial for your recruiting agency.

6. Jennifer McClure On Grabbing 10 Minutes With Your Leaders

A keynote speaker, coach and Talent Acquisition expert, Jennifer McClure on her platform Unbridled Talent keeps sharing blogs on her personal experiences and ultra-efficient advises. As a recruiter, she mentions the best thing you could do is grabbing 10 minutes with your organisation’s leader. This can be easily done by organising a quick meeting with the heads of your department. It might be a huge problem if there are more than 50,000 employees in your agency but it’s always possible to get in touch with the highest-level managers. A 10-minute quick chat can give you incredibly valuable insights into how you and your branch is functioning.

A thorough critical insight is sometimes all that you need to get that one push into developing better recruitment marketing strategies. Don’t just be a note-taker in your agency but rather be that person who brings about change.

With these top curated lessons in mind drive your own recruitment agency to greatest heights possible. They work as perfect growth lessons if you’re striving towards becoming a top recruitment leader. Let us know in the comments below what are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learnt on your journey!