It’s hard to believe there are only 42 days left of 2019. This time of year is complicated for me as I begin closing out the last minute year-end projects while also begin planning for what we should accomplish in 2020. Part of the planning process is identifying the top recruiting trends and the tools I want to use to maximize our talent acquisition strategy. Here are the top 3 recruiting trends for 2020. (My list at least!)

Candidate Engagement

According to a recent LinkedIn Survey, 70 percent of the global workforce is made up of passive job seekers. Engaging the passive job market has always been tough but low unemployment rates have created a candidate driven market. If your primary recruiting strategy is to post and pray, you will not survive in 2020. For those of us who go out and find the right candidates, keeping their attention has become even harder with all of the noise of competitors.

Leveraging tools like Jobvite and similar platforms to grow and maintain your passive candidate marketing efforts will be vital to success in 2020. Human Resource departments around the country that have internal marketing teams solely focused on internal communications and engagement will have to shift to focus on how to engage external candidates with content.

I recently shared a post discussing influencer marketing in Talent Acquisition. Companies like Adidas and Nike have leveraged influencers to market their brand and expand their reach. This strategy provides a more authentic approach to marketing and consumer engagement. I foresee leaders in talent acquisition exploring this tactic and others in 2020 to engage the passive candidates, grow an audience and build pipelines.

Candidate Management

One of the most frustrating parts of talent acquisition is finding the perfect candidate but not having the perfect role for them. Striking gold is hard in this market so what do you do when you find that perfect candidate who isn’t right for the current search but great for your company?

Managing a candidate pipeline will become even more critical in 2020, especially in the high demand talent areas like software developers and data scientist. Half (51%) of the recruiting professionals surveyed by LinkedIn said these tools would have a big impact in the future, while 43% are currently using them.  Ideally, you should have a tool that not only manages prospective candidates but also provides you a method to keep them engaged.

There are a number of great candidate relationship management (CRM) systems on the market. Platforms like Bullhorn, TalentLyft and my favorite, Avature offer recruiters the ability to pipeline and engage talent. If you are considering a CRM, be sure to measure its ability to build talent pools, rank talent and nurture your prospects.

Data, Data, Data

My poor team…

This year has been all about my obsession with data and I have to say that 2020 will bring more of the same. I’ve shared some thoughts on why data analytics is important in talent acquisition in earlier posts and I’m not alone. When asked about the future of recruiting, 43% of respondents said that leveraging data effectively will be a priority. Other surveys show 84% believe that analyzing talent data to drive decisions is becoming an increasingly important skill for recruiters to master. 

I’ve reviewed a couple of tools this year on the blog including Visier and Emsi. Data analytic tools are becoming a hot commodity in talent acquisition. Recruiters must leverage data to better understand the market, where candidates are hiding and what it will take to get them to make a move.

Visier’s recruiting metrics dashboard provides insight for both your internal and external candidate flow and trends while offering some pretty unreal insights to your labor force. If you pair this information with the market analysis Emsi does leveraging the powerhouse of information regarding the labor market, you can create a more well-informed and realistic talent strategy in 2020.

Talent Acquisition leaders and team must become fluent in the language of data to remain relevant and competitive in 2020.

Final Thoughts

I’m excited about what 2020 will bring!

The talent acquisition is one that requires constant evolution which is one of the reasons I love the industry. Be sure to take the time to begin preparing for the new year by exploring how you will master candidate engagement, candidate management and the influx of talent data.

If you’d like some help evaluating tools and metrics, here are a couple of other posts to get you started!

Recruiting Metrics, Measure What Counts– Learn what metrics really matter in your talent acquisition strategy

Data Analytics and Recruiting-How Data will transform how we do talent acquisition.

Visier’s Talent Analytics Add-On-A Must for the new age of data driven talent acquisition

3 Reasons why relying on your ATS to develop a strategy is a mistake-Helpful insights from Visier.

Emsi – A powerful tool for labor market insights.