In the modern market, organisations are competing for the same pools of top talent that, if not actively shrinking, are not expanding at the rates required by employers. Candidates have a range of options to them which makes finding and recruiting the needed talent considerably harder and leads employers to question how they can stand out from the crowd. The 23rd iteration of the Resourcing and Talent Planning Report, compiled in partnership with the CIPD, provides critical insight into hiring and talent planning needs and has revealed a series of trends around organisational selection processes, and how employers are using talent selection methods to ensure they have the best choice of candidates.

 

No one size fits all

One of the key findings from the report is that there is clearly no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach when it comes to talent selection. Instead, employers are using a range of methods. Most use previous work history and experience (77% of respondents), followed by CV and application screening (61%) and education qualifications (59%) while competency based interviews also proved popular, despite their use dropping year-on-year and by a significant 25% from the height of the pandemic. Around three in 10 use value and strength based interviews, largely the same from the past two years.

 

Technology grows but not ubiquitous

The vast majority of responding employers reported that their use of technology in recruitment has increased from the pandemic, however just one-fifth use online induction processes, online tests and assessments and only 8% are adopting the use of AI and machine learning systems. The report highlights the considerable benefits of using rec-tech, but shows that employers are being held back by a lack of resources, skills and knowledge. The most widely used is various forms of interviewing technology with around 50% of firms using video interviews. Despite growth, only one-fifth are using online induction processes, online tests and assessments and applicant tracking systems. The adoption of technology is, perhaps unsurprisingly, considerably more common in larger, more well-resourced firms, with only 6% of SMEs using machine learning and AI in their hiring programmes. However, this figure has gone up by 3% year-on-year suggesting that hiring teams are beginning to convince their employers about the benefits of technology adoption in recruitment.

More broadly, this trend is likely to become more common as firms across the board report a considerable number of benefits from using some form of hiring technology in the recruitment process. The most commonly listed is increased accessibility, with nearly three-quarters saying that tech has enabled them to expand talent pools with traditionally harder-to-reach demographics. Just over 50% said that technology has enabled them to screen unsuitable candidates, up from 40% last year. The majority also say that it has improved the candidate experience while 72% said it sped up hiring processes. A broader benefit reported by a large group of firms was that the use of technology leads to reductions in unconscious bias and improved understanding of jobseeker behaviour.

 

Candidate challenges

The report also looked into candidate behaviour within the hiring process, finding that the majority of respondents say that behaviour is generally positive. Around four-fifths believe that candidates mostly or always behaved with sincerity while interacting with their organisation, while 86% said that they arrived promptly for interviews. However, the more vacancies an organisation had to fill, the more they experienced some degree of negative behaviour from applicants.

This included 58% of firms that said candidates accepted and then subsequently declined offers while about 50% looked to renegotiate their offers. This trend was considerably more common in the private sector with only 42% of employers saying this was rarely or never the case. In the public sector, where salary bands are in place, there was a much higher proportion of employers saying that candidates had realistic salary expectations, with 79% compared to 59% in the private sector and 65% for not-for-profits. In perhaps the most shocking trend, one in 10 employers reported that candidates mostly or always did not arrive to work on their first day, a considerable increase from the 1% reported in 2020 when this question was first asked. While professionals have more options available to them as a result of increased demand and shrinking talent pools, this shift could equally be attributed to the growth in sickness-related absences across the workforce.

While it’s challenging for all firms, particularly smaller ones, to take full advantage of the opportunities available to them in the talent selection process, it’s clear that our report has identified significant trends across a range of sectors and industries. More employers are increasingly adopting technology to aid their hiring, while others across the public, private and not-for-profit fields are using a combination of approaches to get recruits across the line. To find out more about trends in talent selection in 2022, take a look at the Resourcing and Talent Planning Report 2022 or to gain an insight into how we can support your selection practice contact one of our team enquries@omnirms.com.