CEO’s, hiring executives, and recruiting teams are adapting to changing times. Successful growth-oriented companies are tracking on three significant trends that are improving their ability to attract, select, and retain top talent.
Trend 1 – Recognize that recruiting is complex & embrace it
Posting jobs and hoping that top talent will apply simply does not work for executive level hiring. Recruiting is not just a numbers game; it’s also not just about relationships. Generating a healthy talent ecosystem requires a robust candidate cultivation and recruitment effort.
Even with improved tools such as LinkedIn, hiring executives must juggle competing priorities and often find it challenging to invest enough time throughout the process. The common inclination is to reduce the process to something more humanly digestible, which means high-stakes decisions are too often made without the benefit of the full picture. Even with a 3rd party executive search firm leading the recruitment, a significant amount of time and energy is required to employ a thoughtful and comprehensive selection process.
Developing selection expertise is the single most important skillset required for building successful leadership teams. The next trend shows how hiring executives and recruiters are taking a more scientific approach to selection.
Trend 2 – Think like a behavioral scientist
Hiring executives and recruiters can’t operate in a vacuum. To be their best, they must pay attention to the latest findings and research from the outside world, especially from the behavioral sciences and what it says about decision-making.
Viewing the world through a behavioral science lens enables hiring executives and recruiters to evaluate candidates with more accuracy. For instance, behavioral scientists agree that our intuitions and instincts don’t always deserve the confidence we place in them. Forward thinking companies utilize leadership assessments such as the Hogan and train hiring executives on de-biasing techniques in pursuit of equitable practices. One of our favorite resources on the matter is an extensive report, written specifically for hiring professionals by the Behavioural Insights Team, an organization of renowned applied behavioral economists.
It’s true that by embracing recruiting’s complexity and by taking a more evidence-based approach to search and selection, little time will be left for the mechanics of recruiting. So, there’s one more trend we see happening.
TREND 3 – INVEST IN TECHNOLOGY
With so little time, the prospect of acquiring and learning new technologies sometimes seems unfathomable. The good news is that these tools are getting more and more effective over time.
Algorithms and artificial intelligence (A.I.) are now allowing hiring teams and recruiters an opportunity to catch their breath. LinkedIn has amplified their AI technology over the last 5 years. Harver is creating engaging simulation type tests to assess candidates on tasks they’ll have to do on the job.
For many companies, the process of adapting to change is taxing. However, we believe that committing to these advancing trends will lead to a more efficient and strategic hiring platform.
