Top 8 Recruitment Marketing Trends for 2020 and Beyond

Recruitment marketing is a rapidly evolving space, attracting fresh interest and increasing investments. So, what does this mean for HR and hiring managers in 2020? We delve deeper into our roundup of the top eight recruitment marketing trends for the new year.

Employers need every advantage that they can get to stand out in this hiring landscape. The average tenure of young professionals at a single company is continually shrinking. As the demand for skills such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and leadership continues to grow, it’s harder than ever before to attract and retain top tier talent.

Recruitment marketing has, as a result, become popular over the last decade as essential for every company. So, what are the recruitment marketing trends that you should keep an eye on as we approach 2020? Interestingly, several trends from previous years are gaining momentum and are poised to go mainstream. A handful of other trends will lose their relevance as candidate expectations evolve.

Learn More: 8 Steps to an Effective Recruitment Marketing StrategyOpens a new window

8 Recruitment Marketing Trends That Will Reshape Hiring in 2020

The goal of recruitment marketingOpens a new window is to position your company as a “preferred employer,” increasing the number of applicants you receive for any role. And because this is an ongoing process, keeping up with the latest recruitment marketing trends is vital to staying ahead of the competition.

As we head into 2020, these are the trends that are expected to dominate the recruitment marketing space:

1. The employer brand will be at the heart of every candidate communication

As you look at differentiating your value proposition in a crowded hiring landscape, identifying a clear employer brand will be the first step. SmashFly’s 2019 Recruitment Marketing Benchmarks ReportOpens a new window finds that between 2017 and 2018, the share of companies with a clear employer brand increased by 3%. This makes having a branding strategy one of the top recruitment marketing trends for the foreseeable future.

2. AI will take charge of candidate communications

As AI technology becomes more sophisticated, it will go beyond candidate screeningOpens a new window and assessment to impact the marketing stage as well. For instance, recruitmentOpens a new window bots placed on your career website can improve engagement with visitors. The AI bot, Mya, is one such recruitment technologyOpens a new window you can use to keep up with this recruitment marketing trend.  

3. The shareability of candidate experiences will take center stage

By delivering a positive candidate experienceOpens a new window , you significantly boost candidates’ probability of choosing to join your company. Now, inspiring candidates to share their experiences on social platforms like Glassdoor will be a vital trend for your recruitment marketing strategies. Also, research suggests that there is a clear correlation between your recruitment marketing efforts and where your company stands on these social platforms.

4. The focus will be less on job alerts and more on targeted content

The practice of having candidates sign up for job alerts and sharing notifications whenever there is a vacancy is on its way out. It’s more advisable to position the employer brand and its value proposition – instead of the job role – to the candidate as the key draw. That’s why the number of job alerts has steadily fallen since 2016, as suggested in the aforementioned SmashFly report, making this a trend to keep in mind for recruitment marketing in 2020.

5. Recruiters will have to brush up on their social media skills

Organizations must acknowledge where candidates hang out and connect with them on a platform of their choice. Social media ranks on the top of this list, with leading employees now operating active social handles on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram. A whopping 90%Opens a new window of recruiters agree that social media skills are now a must-have for the industry.

Learn More: 12 Marketing Mistakes Your Recruitment Business Needs to AvoidOpens a new window

6. Predictive analytics will help meet dynamic candidate expectations

When it comes to recruitment marketing trends, predictive analytics is among the top technologies to watch out for. As the future of work becomes a present reality, hiring too will become more future-focused. And to achieve this target, predictive insights based on advanced data analytics are critical. Predictive analytics will be able to highlight the most effective hiring channels, communication formats, and engagement methods with potential candidates, indicating the way forward in 2020 and beyond.

7. Email will continue to be a recruitment marketing staple

Despite the introduction of so many new communication platforms, email is still a marketing favorite when reaching out to a broad audience. HR can leverage this recruitment marketing trend to establish a regular line of communication with targeted talent demographics. In 2020, email marketingOpens a new window will be combined with automation (to enable personalization at scale) and AI (to suggest the ideal content for every candidate) to gain fresh momentum.

8. Employee stories will be an essential recruitment marketing content format

Recruitment marketing is all about improving and cementing the perception of your employer brand. And nothing does this better than employee stories – digital storiesOpens a new window told through videos and blogs about current employees, coupled with the email-based recruitment marketing trend to help job seekers emotionally connect with your employer brand. The SmashFly report reveals that 75% of organizations invested in employee stories in 2018, up from 50% in 2015. And this trend is expected to gain further momentum in 2020 and beyond.

So, how do you ensure that your recruitment marketing strategy is effective, impactful, and efficient in the long run? Here, cutting-edge tech platforms would have a significant role to play.

Learn More: 6 Recruitment Marketing Tips to Attract International EmployeesOpens a new window

Investing in Recruitment Marketing Platforms: The Way Forward

While investment in recruitment marketing is expected to reach $2 billion by 2020, adoption rates have surprisingly remained stagnant in the last couple of years.

This recruitment marketing trend is poised to change in 2020 and beyond, as tech platforms become more accessible and it becomes easier to deploy via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models. In fact, there are several affordable recruitment marketing platforms you need to invest in for 2020Opens a new window , staying ahead of competitors and capturing the best talent available with ease.

As hiring becomes an increasingly candidate-focused process, lessons from marketing will prove crucial. That’s why recruitment marketing is poised to become an HR must-have in 2020, aided by the strategic use of technology and a clear understanding of the top recruitment marketing trends.

Do you believe there’s another recruitment marketing trend that belongs on this list? Tell us on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We would benefit from learning your insights!