With a wrap on 2017, are you finding yourself planning for the year ahead? If your organization will be recruiting in 2018, be aware that hiring trends continue to shift. What once focused on a candidate’s resume has now taken a sharp turn toward digital. According to the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), “the recruiting function will finally begin to shift away from a decision model based on past practices and intuition and toward data-driven decisions”. But even more important, and especially at the executive level –  hiring these days also involves your own employee brand and how outsiders perceive your organization. Are you a company people want to work for? And, don’t forget that once the right candidate does onboard, a focus must remain on retention.

Below we outline some of the top hiring trends to be aware of as you plan for the coming year.

Sophisticated Data Analytics in Recruiting

As it did in 2017, recruiting will continue to shift away from a decision-based model to take more of a data-driven approach. For example, advanced searching on LinkedIn is in fact taking Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics and applying those to the LinkedIn database. It is believed that data-driven recruitment transforms candidate sourcing and facilitates the creation of a high impact hiring process that delivers candidates that better match the technical requirements of a job. High-quality analytics programs have already been applied to customer data to help businesses make better strategic decisions. Candidate information will increasingly get the “big-data treatment” so recruiters can quickly and easily locate the candidates with skills that appear to be a fit.

AI and data analytics are certainly a trend at the entry and junior levels. At the more senior levels these methods are also certainly helping to speed the process by allowing skilled executive search consultants to more easily get their arms around and identify the right group of initial candidates. However, these methods cannot determine the best cultural fit. It is up to those elite search consultants to take this more easily identifiable group of candidates and go through the paces of interview and assessment to determine the best cultural fit. Incidentally, the best approach for this is to use competency and values-based behavioral interviewing.

Company Brands that Make an Impact

These days hiring companies are not the only ones conducting an evaluation during the hiring process. Savvy candidates will do their research and evaluate company brands before accepting a job – many before even applying. As such, your company website should be a strong tool for engaging talent. A well-designed website should deliver a cohesive brand image that clearly reflects who the company is and what its people stand for. Company mission, vision and values are all things candidates want to understand so they can determine if they will be a cultural fit. Long gone are the days of taking a job solely for the paycheck. Millennials want jobs of interest and will move on if they find themselves in a role that isn’t personally fulfilling.

Focus on Retention

Ongoing high departure levels among new hires is one of the biggest challenges expected in 2018. It was a 2017 trend that is expected to continue into the new year. Companies must focus on retention levels by offering flexible working options, providing “well-being” perks and on-the-job training opportunities. Organizations must be competitive in their compensation package offerings in order to retain quality employees long-term.

These are just a sampling of some of the expected hiring trends we will see in 2018. We will continue to highlight emerging trends in executive search on our blog so be sure to check Pass the Torch regularly!