The success of one company always depends on its ability to recruit and keep engaged a pool of skilled, talented, and well-motivated workers. Without these critical assets, all investments we make into infrastructure, business tools, and other important areas will soon be rendered useless.

Well, this fact is very important to keep in mind since the labor market is undergoing tectonic changes that may forever change how we look at recruitment. First, the United States is going through a massive labor shortage that, as of today, leaves more than 11.2 million job vacancies.

Second, much like all other business areas, recruitment is undergoing a lightning-fast digital revolution that threatens to completely change its very core.

How will these trends affect the recruitment process of tomorrow and what are the changes we can already see taking full swing? Let us try to find out.

Greater focus on soft skills

Up until recently, hard or technical skills made the absolute focus of any recruitment process. And while proficiency in some job areas still remains one of the highest priorities in industries like coding and design we have to point out that the modern business world is very fluid. These new circumstances require labor that does not necessarily excel in any particular work area but instead shows the ability to quickly master new professional skills and techniques. Therefore, as time goes by we will see a much greater focus on candidates who are fast learners than the ones who possess certain tech proficiency.

The rise of artificial intelligence

These days, the development of AI has reached such a scale that any sort of business activity can't be imagined without AI assistance. Of course, this development has its implications for the recruitment process. First, the evolution of AI makes a lot of job positions obsolete and puts a greater emphasis on digital and maintenance skills. Second, the recruitment process is going through a massive shift as well and a growing number of assessment, data processing, and interviewing duties are being handled by bots. The role of HR professionals gradually shifts toward monitoring, screening, and final evaluation.

Recruitment outsourcing

As we've mentioned earlier, the modern business landscape is very fast-paced and requires a great level of mobility. This doesn't only apply to the workforce that needs to be able to quickly adapt to the new business circumstances – the companies need to conjure up the same level of nimbleness as well. With that in mind, it is very easy to understand why a growing number of businesses opt for professional RPO services instead of developing this department in-house. This trend is only sped up by the development of digital technology that makes communication and workflow integration as streamlined as they get.

Contingent and hybrid workforces

The various variations of remote working were brewing on the horizon for quite some time. However, it looks like it took the outbreak of COVID-19 to really demonstrate the value of such models and push them into the mainstream. Be that as it may, the contemporary demands for higher workforce mobility as well as the developed tech infrastructure that allows effortless remote collaboration are keeping this trend going ahead at full speed. Because of that, recruitment agencies will have to put a much higher focus on global recruitment strategies, employer of record services, and other hybrid workforce-related duties.

Growing social media relevance

Social media plays an incredibly important part in modern society. So, it was only expected that this giant sway would eventually translate to the recruitment sector. This trend started with dedicated platforms like LinkedIn that served the exact purpose of connecting employers and job applicants. But, no one can deny that all other influential sites give recruiters an entirely new perspective on the candidates, their habits, their personality, their ability to keep up with industry-relevant trends, and more. Thanks to tech like ML, sorting out this pile of data and drawing sensible conclusions becomes easier with each passing day.

A gradual decline of resumes

A rock-solid resume always made a good starting point for landing the desired job. However, things in the recruitment industry are moving in the direction where these documents will soon go extinct. First, the demand for soft skills and workplace mobility we have mentioned earlier are gradually pushing academic accomplishments and previous work experience in the second plan. Second, the data we are able to harness about the candidates by the means of social media, big data, AI, and other tools will make this form of records obsolete and eventually replaced by more detailed global candidate pools.

We hope these few examples gave you a general idea about the direction modern recruitment is going and presented a couple of strategies you can use to make use of these developments and help your company get the best workforce on the market. As we can see the constant development of digital tech is slowly erasing countless organizational obstacles we had to deal with in recent years and allowing companies to reach an unprecedented level of efficiency and nimbleness. Organizations that try to stay ahead of the curve and turn these trends to their advantage will certainly take a very favorable market position.