Recruiters try intranets, social media ads as talent market thins

Dive Brief:

In an online Monster survey of 400 recruiters, 62% of respondents said their jobs are harder today than they were just a year ago. Monster said the results demonstrate a continued trend: Recruiting is getting more difficult. A majority (67%) of recruiters said their jobs are more difficult today than five years ago, and 59% of respondents said attracting qualified candidates is harder to do now than a year ago.
The number of job openings are at a 17-year high, according to Monster, and most recruiters (59%) in the survey said there's a shortage in skilled labor; more than half reported competition for talent as a major challenge. Despite these difficulties, 83% of respondents said they're taking a multiprong approach to recruiting, including direct outreach to candidates (89%), job ads (88%), intranets and career websites (84%), and social media advertising (83%).
Monster recommends that recruiters include marketing strategies in their core recruiting efforts, balance the use of digital tools with the human touch, and optimize recruiting efforts with data and analytics.

Dive Insight:

Recruiters know that the traditional ways of attracting candidates alone are no longer enough, especially in a tight labor market, with record-low unemployment rates. Multiple strategies are necessary to compete successfully for high-quality talent.

Although recruiting has become more challenging, technology has revolutionized and streamlined the process, offering multiple tools for connecting with jobseekers, while personalizing their experience to make it more human and therefore more engaging.

Technology also helps recruiters do what marketing professionals have always done: promote their organization, its products or services, its mission and its values. Recruiters have the opportunity to sell potential candidates on what their organization has to offer in pay, benefits, career development and other advantages, which, in short, make up an organization's brand.

Data and analytics can help recruiters make more precise hiring decisions. Machine learning tools and "Big Data" are also streamlining the recruiting process and helping employers identify and hire people with hard-to-find skills. This capability can also position organizations as strong competitors in the search for talent.