2019 CPG Recruitment Trends

Adrian Dixon

December 5, 2018

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Have you been wondering what the CPG recruitment trends for 2019 will be?

Let us tell you the truth

Amazon has an outsized influence on much of modern business (and day-to-day life for many), and it’s no different in consumer packaged goods (CPG) recruitment. Amazon’s shifted the way recruiters think about filling CPG roles:

CPG manufacturers are focusing more of their resources on enhancing the overall mobile commerce experience. This is accomplished through bolstering brand engagement, simplified ordering and enhancing overall convenience. Since most modern customers want effortless mobile experiences, they are demanding advanced search capabilities along with simple checkout options. CPG companies are also integrating loyalty card programs and coupons to promote brand engagement and gaining valuable feedback from their customers in the process.

More recruiters are now tasked with looking for:

  • Mobile expertise
  • E-comm expertise
  • Brand managers
  • Full-stack engineers
  • E-comm developers
  • Search experts
  • Loyalty managers
  • Customer feedback managers
  • Data scientists

That’s a lot of different roles to source and screen and interview and bring in, but for a CPG brand to compete for more than just shelf space — to compete with an Amazon, for example — they need best of breed in these different types of roles.

Human time constraints — and potential for error — get in the way of this process, though, so you need tools for screening, tools for communication, tools for finding previous applicants within your system, and the ability to integrate with pre-existing systems.

Tech is about making things easier, right? Right. But unfortunately we still often over-complicate the hiring process, and when you over-complicate something, it’s going to be hard to compete with Amazon, which is one of the simplest, easiest-to-use brands in human history. One click and dog food is headed your way!

The answer is…

Now, of the above, finding previous applicants within your system might be the most crucial. Conventional Applicant Tracking Systems are “dumb” technology. They are good for storing records, but once that search is over, there’s essentially no way to go back and find qualified people when a similar role opens.

The math on this is ridiculous. For ease of numbers, let’s say you had a job with 100 applicants. Usually 80% of job applicants aren’t qualified, sadly, so let’s say 20 were qualified. You get that down to 2-3 top choices and pick one. Well, now you have 19 qualified applicants who didn’t get the job, and 1-2 top-choice applicants also available.

If you’re growing fast, you will probably open a similar role in the next six-12 months. How will you start? With a new job ad process? Why wouldn’t you go start with those 19 qualified applicants whose info is already in your system?

Now you’re also reducing candidate acquisition costs! And reduction in cost is a big deal. It’s what some businesses are inherently based on.

So, what can you do?

The benefit of Ideal is that it automatically checks whether there’s a strong past candidate who would be a great fit. You have to do essentially nothing. The process of finding the “old gold” in your system happens automatically. Nice, right?

If you want to compete in a crowded marketplace and compete against giants at the same time, you need to be efficient. Saving time and money is efficient. Finding the most qualified people whose data you already have is efficient. That’s why candidate rediscovery makes a huge amount of sense as a 2019 CPG trend to focus on.