Career Development
What are recruiters doing to recruit in the millennial+ age and what should you be prepared for as you embark on your job search? In the first of five blogposts for UCSB Career Services's Gaucho Blog, Diana Seder explains how recruiters are harnessing new technologies to expand the scope, nature, and reach of recruiting. Read on to learn more!
This is the first entry in a series of 5 blog posts for Gaucho Blog reviewing trends in recruiting for 2020. The blogs will highlight how employers are changing recruiting processes to be attractive to millennials and Gen Z'ers while also keeping an eye on cost effectiveness and productivity.
Millennials make up over 50% of the workforce with their Gen Z brethren right on their tails, and they are driving most of the trends in recruiting. So what are recruiters doing to recruit in the millennial+ age and what should you be prepared for as you embark on your job search?
Recruiting is going Mobile: Mobile technology is the millennial-favored method of pretty much everything. Mobile devices are often more powerful than a computer or notebook, and everyone has a phone and is usually on it. Students don't want it any other way.
From being sourced via text, to 'discussing' employment options with a chatbot, to taking an interview or completing an online assessment while walking to class, many firms and most students find mobile phones are now the preferred method of connecting and communicating throughout the recruiting process.
Trend 1: Text Recruiting
Text is the preferred mode of communication-short, succinct, and expedient. Whole recruiting systems are now based on text recruiting which can be completely automated, affording recruiters the ability reach out and respond to applicants quickly with detailed and personalized messages. This makes for a fast, informative and personalized process which is key in recruiting these days.
Why text vs email recruiting?
- 98% of texts are opened compared to 20% of email
- Response time is 3 minutes via text vs 47 minutes via email
- Recruiters saw a 56% increase in response rate with text campaigns vs email
- No spam filter to block texts means there is a high level of confidence the message was received
Trend 2: Chatbot surge
Chatbots are now used by almost all firms for top-of-funnel tasks:
- sourcing and connecting with candidates
- answering simple questions about the firm or recruiting process
- providing company information
- engaging candidates in back and forth 'dialogue'
Studies suggest that within 5 years, 85% of customer interaction will occur through the use of AI chatbots, which can exist on pretty much any kind of platform. Applicants should be prepared to be sourced and engaged by bots!
Trend 3: Video interviewing
While students indicate they do not enjoy video interviewing, it won't be going away any time soon. Video interviews allow firms to:
- screen candidates 3X faster
- increase the scale of recruiting programs
- bring geographic and socio-economic diversity into the process
- share results within and between people/departments
- significantly decrease costs
Video interviewing is a valuable addition to recruiting processes and students need to learn to take them comfortably.
Trend 4: Online Assessments
Students are so used to taking tests online it feels like a natural extension of the University experience to use them in recruiting. Additionally, online testing is:
- sharable
- scalable
- flexible
- cost effective
- secure
Assessments are objective and can be used to provide comparative data to determine best-fit candidates. Online assessments can be taken pretty much on any computer or mobile device.
Engaging with recruiters and applying for jobs via a mobile device is becoming ubiquitous and students need to be aware and prepared to engage this way. From finding and starting conversations with candidates, to scheduling and taking interviews, to assessing skills and fit, the entire process can be done via mobile technology.
There should still be some level of personal interaction in the application process, however. Final interviews and offers, for example, are still most often done in person or by phone and it would be highly suspicious if the application/interview process was completed without an in-person experience. But it is clear that the vast majority of the candidate experience is currently, and will be increasingly, facilitated through technology-and mobile technology at that. So be sure to keep your mobile devices charged and ready!