Recruitment resolutions to make in 2018

January 19th, 2018 | Industry News

We’ve been looking around at industry predictions and reviewing 2017’s highs and lows to come up with some recruitment resolutions that will help your organisation in 2018.

1. Recruit/Promote/Replace – be visionary about growth

According to a survey of nearly 1,000 recruiters, 76% of managers are planning to promote staff, while 24% are intending to replace departing staff with technology that will perform their functions. At a time when recruitment is booming in certain industries, finding suitable consultants can be time-consuming. Chatbots that handle the first stages of candidate filtering are becoming commonplace. Even simple recruitment software now offers sophisticated applicant tracking systems that reduce the time spent on administration and give consultants more time to do the really important human tasks such as building trust and understanding client needs.

In many organisations, promotion has been a way of getting removed from the day to day running of a consultancy but increasingly promotion means balancing the high level strategic decision making that senior partners/consultants supply alongside hands-on activity with major clients. Web based recruitment software gives big hitters the chance to stay in touch whilst developing the relationships that provide stability in recruitment.

2. Think big

The New Year’s Honours List recognised the services of several big hitters in recruitment: Teresa Scott was given on OBE for her services to employability and Anita Durbin, director of Civil Service Talent received a CBE for her work promoting diversity in the senior ranks of the civil service. Having a broad vision and a big horizon can help any organisation move forward, so whether it’s focusing on charitable or community commitments, setting targets to double turnover or taking on a new sector, aiming higher can give your team both focus and reasons to strive for success. And which sectors are booming in 2018? The video games market is growing rapidly following a period where studio closures created more chaos than clarity. Recruitment software that has the sophistication to handle specialist skills identification is vital to succeed in this industry. After Carillion’s collapse, construction is looking like a much less secure growth area, but engineering, with its ageing workforce (half engineering’s senior staff are expected to retire or leave to set up consultancies between now and 2025) and the effect of Brexit migration coupled with under-investment in training over the past decade means that over 100,000 mid-level recruits are going to be required for 2018-2025.

3. Make friends with the gig economy

Three quarters of British recruitment consultancies believe that the gig economy could be a force for good, but nearly a quarter also see it as a potential threat. Gig platforms are definitely removing the simpler contractor roles from the marketplace, leaving more complex contracts and sectors to be exploited by the recruitment sector. IT, senior healthcare and legal are all spheres in which recruitment is likely to see growth rather than contraction. A recruitment software database that is powerful enough to stream candidates who are both in and out of the gig economy will be a real benefit in 2018, so perhaps one resolution should be to find the right employment software to help your organisation grow?