Dive Brief:

• Improving quality of hire ranked as the most frequently cited recruiting priority in a survey of 817 U.S. recruiters by applicant tracking platform Jobvite, ahead of other tasks such as improving time-to-hire and increasing retention rates.
• Most respondents said they expected recruiting budgets to increase over the next 6 to 12 months, indicating broader financial support for recruiting among organizations, Jobvite said. More than half of respondents, 51%, said social media was their biggest recruitment investment focus, while more than one-third said employee referrals were their biggest focus.
• A third of recruiters said they were worried about the impact of on-site or in-office work requirements on finding quality talent, though this concern was shared by fewer respondents compared to other issues, such as competition from other employers and a lack of skilled candidates, Jobvite found.

Dive Insight:

Talent scarcity in the broader market continues to complicate employers' efforts to fill key roles. Though the situation improved slightly last month, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, observers cite the impact of the delta variant and other issues on the Great Resignation.

One notable finding from Jobvite's report is that significantly fewer recruiters listed growing their talent pipelines as a priority for the next year. In 2021, the figure stood at 25%, compared to 52% in 2017.

Executives across several industries have been calling on needy employers to do just that, however, with speakers at a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation event relaying the success of programs that connect with future workers at the high school level and below. Even within industries that rely on in-person labor, employers have connected with their local communities to build talent through apprenticeship programs, educational partnerships and other workforce development models.

Another legacy of the pandemic may come in the form of recruiters' broader shift to virtual formats, particularly video-based platforms. Sixty-one percent of respondents to Jobvite said their hiring processes would be a combination of virtual and in-person methods moving forward, and slightly more respondents said that video interviews were the most effective way to interview compared to last year.

That trend is reflected in some survey data; Indeed found in a survey published last month that 82% of employer respondents adopted virtual candidate interviews due to the pandemic, and 93% said they would continue the practice in the future. Earlier this year, the hiring platform added a video interview option to direct job postings at no additional cost.