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Technological advances are nothing new to the staffing industry trends discussion. We've had a digital transformation from rolodexes to spreadsheets to high-powered applicant tracking systems. We are implementing recruitment and marketing automation staffing trends, , like watchdogs and automated matching and parsing. The once traditional industry of staffing and recruiting has now evolved with these major technological booms. The staffing industry is becoming ... dare I say it, cool. And, while these advancements certainly benefit the recruiters who are saving buckets of time, there’s more. Staffing firm leadership is able to improve operations and their business’s bottom line. Candidates and clients are benefiting as well from these staffing trends. With better processes, segmentation, and matching, recruiters are able to create better experiences for candidates. They are able to better match candidates to open job requirements. And, when clients and candidates are happy and successful with using staffing firms, that’s good for all of us. So what trends are on deck for the global staffing industry in 2021? These are the five global staffing industry trends that our staffing industry analysts believe are going to have a major impact throughout 2021, as the technology expansion caused by COVID-19 plays a big role in all of them. Staffing Industry Trend #1 - Better Recruiting Processes According to G2, "68% of recruiting professionals say that the best way to improve recruiting performance over the next five years is by investing in new recruiting technology." So, how does recruiting technology help staffing professionals improve their recruiting processes and in turn, their business performance? Here is the long and the short of it… Recruiting and staffing companies need to be able to source, engage, and nurture candidates throughout the entire recruitment process, at scale. Whether the candidate experience is virtual recruiting or in person, a business needs to keep its candidates actively involved. This can be a lot of work, especially when you are dealing with several dozen (or hundred) candidates. Additionally, everything these days is faster. That means making placements more quickly (aka lower time-to-fill). But, How? How to Streamline Your Recruiting Processes. Map out your firm's ideal recruitment process. From sourcing to a job posting to interviewing and beyond. Every step needs a map or process. Build out your processes in a digital format, ideally with an advanced recruitment software or recruitment ATS/CRM. Use templates, sequences, automation, and other support tools to complete as many tasks in each process as possible. Personalize with candidate, recruiter, job, and company data using dynamic fields in email and text templates. Add personal phone touch points in your workflow or communication sequences for recruiter phone calls or sales donut drops. By communicating effectively and consistently, you’ll provide a better candidate (or client) experience. And remember — just because a candidate isn’t the right fit now doesn’t mean they won’t be perfect for an opening next month. So, be sure to include a re-engagement process for candidates in your process build. Examples of Staffing Processes to Streamline (and Automate). Automate Sourcing with Watchdogs and Automated Matching Use an Integrated ATS that Allows Custom Workflows Automate Resume Parsing Build Automated Email Sequences for Nurturing, Interviewing, Onboarding, Etc Candidate Re-Engagement Sequence for Unplaced Talent For more examples of how to streamline your recruitment process and layer in automation to save your recruiters (and entire time) loads of time, schedule a Tracker demo with one of our staffing trends consultants here. Staffing Industry Trend #2 - Social Media Social media provides the opportunity to position your company as an authority in your specific field, and to develop the personal brands of your recruiters, which is a powerful way to gain awareness and create authority for your firm. As the COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for more online options for communication and staffing for a business, social media is a great way to start. As business closures continue, be sure to get your company’s name out there as much as possible. Obviously, it can be a great way to reach potential clients as well as candidates. In fact, 92% of recruiters report using social media to aid in candidate acquisition. The majority of hirers (96%) are on at least one of the “big three” social media sites. 77% of recruiters are on LinkedIn, and 63% are using Facebook. But there are other platforms out there that can be helpful in your recruiting efforts. In our own survey conducted on staffing companies, 69% of respondents said they plan to use Social Media as a recruitment tactic in 2021. If you’re on the hunt for developers, sites like Github and Stack Overflow can be great resources. Looking for healthcare professionals? Try AllNurses or the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network. By sharing quality content on these sites (including your job postings!) and by participating in discussions, prospects will see that you have your finger on the pulse of the staffing trends of the industry. And they will see you. Examples of Things to Post on Social Media. Blog articles that offer career/interviewing/salary advice to job seekers in your industry Your job openings with snazzy local-ish photos and differentiated descriptions Testimonials and quotes from placed candidates and happy clients Recruiter highlights profiling your on-hand staffing industry analysts Videos of recruiters giving tips, your interview processes, and more! Become a go-to for your candidates and prospects by being helpful, consistent, and insightful. While you are at it, consider putting some money behind those posts and using targeting to make sure your hard work gets seen. Staffing Industry Trend #3 - Remote Life Before we even had to deal with the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was already a movement toward a “gig economy” in the staffing trends of many industries. This is both good and bad for us in the staffing and recruiting industry. In a staffing firm survey conducted by us, over 75% plan to keep the majority of their employees remote. Which, is kind of mind-blowing for our industry. Certainly now during COVID-19, there is a definite shift in the nature of work to one of more independence. But, there are many reasons remote work has become more appealing to both employers and employees. On the staffing side, employers face a much larger candidate pool when they’re not limited to the company’s immediate location. Plus, there can be significant cost savings with remote work or a flexible workforce. Staffing and recruiting firms can rent less office space for fewer onsite recruiters and sales folks. And, oftentimes, they can pay lower salaries by hiring staff from more affordable markets. It may also reduce turnover. 76% of workers say that flexible hours would make them more likely to stay with their current employer. And for your recruiters and internal employees? Remote workers report that they can work with more focus and fewer interruptions when they work from home. 86% say remote work reduces stress, and 50% report taking fewer sick days. Great workflow and communication tools are making it easier than ever for remote recruiting and to work with people halfway around the world. So expect to widen the staffing net of possible candidates to cities, states, and even countries you may not have thought of before. How to Make Remote Work... Work. Implement an internal chat software. TrackerChat is a great option for inbuilt sharing and tagging of records and @mentions. Utilize video interviewing, video resumes, and other virtual video tools More tips on managing a remote recruitment team Bottom line is, that the forced working-from-home arrangement brought on by the pandemic of 2020/2021 will continue to have lasting impressions on staffing and recruiting firms. Many leadership teams are finding production to be just as good or better than when everyone was in the office. And, according to insight from Flexjobs, “businesses lose $600 billion a year to workplace distractions, and remote workers are 35% to 40% more productive than their in-office counterparts.” Staffing Industry Trend #4 - Sales CRM Integration with ATS When your sales CRM is integrated with your candidate CRM and ATS (without having to buy and manage dozens of semi-connected applications) your processes are inherently more effective and easier to use. Further, with sales and marketing automation integrated into your business's CRM, staffing firms are able to expertly match open job requirements to candidates, as well as implement automation sequences and drip campaigns to nurture sales leads as well as existing clients. What Can an Integrated Sales CRM Do? Integrate Activity Management Link and Connect All Candidate, Job, Company, and Placements Records Automatically Match Candidates to Jobs (Auto Match) Pipeline Visibility and Control And, More When all of your records can connect and talk with each other, you are able to get a complete picture of your operations and your pipeline. Candidate records that link to each of the jobs (and companies) they've been associated with. Placement records that easily tracked to the client and the candidate. These are just simple connections that should truly be standard. Don't settle for a disjointed ATS/CRM. Staffing Industry Trend #5 - Marketing Strategy As a staffing firm in 2021, your firm must be enabled to do marketing. The competition is too fierce, and the market is tight. But, we get it. It can be a big investment. By the time you buy a marketing platform, automation tools, parsing software, ad budget... not to mention the team, it can definitely add up. So, this is where the staffing strategy part comes in. As well as the importance of using a recruitment software tool that has integrated and in-build marketing functionality. ????♀️ 5 Quick Steps to Creating a Staffing Firm Marketing Strategy. Hire or empower a marketing person Map out your marketing footprint and tactics Pin down a starting budget (use tracking to finesse and improve spending in high ROI areas) Implement an integrated marketing platform OR use an ATS/CRM that has marketing functionality built-in Automate and template as much as you can Speaking of automating. Marketing automation not only helps your entire organization increase engagement and conversions, but it also helps you build more personalized communication paths for your client and candidates, and smarter segmentation. Keeping these strategies integrated with your ATS/CRM is critical. See how Tracker does it here. Examples of Recruitment Marketing Automation. Personalized Mass Communications for Job Openings Automated Data Updates with Integrated Web Forms Drip Nurturing Campaigns (Sequences) Integrated Job Board and Social Media Posting And, More Now more than ever, it is important to focus on staffing tools and trends to make sure you don’t fall behind the competition. One of the biggest staffing industry trends that your firm should adopt is the use of recruitment marketing. Staffing Industry Trend #6 - Data-Driven Staffing As staffing and recruiting is a part of the industry that is typically done through relationship management and personal connection, data-driven staffing may seem like a stark contrast to what we know. What is important to remember is that in the majority of circumstances, numbers and data do not lie. Here are some ways to incorporate data-driven staffing into your business: Rather than being siloed, focus your efforts on data and analytics that have company-wide value. When you use data that works for every aspect of the business, better results will likely follow. If the organization is restructuring, consider that the organization’s structure would typically benefit from a structure that puts emphasis on the realization of business value. Make sure business and information technology teams can work with one another. The separation of business and IT functions are not helpful. Business and IT teams need to work together in order for the best problem solving to be possible. Agile technology development. Following an agile, minimum viable product (MVP) based approach aligned to data technology vision and overall enterprise architecture is critical.¹ Continuous data transformation. Becoming a data-driven organization is not a one-time activity but a continuous journey. What works today may not work tomorrow. Hence, an unquenchable thirst for transformation is desired to remain successful.¹ Staffing Industry Trend #7 Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion (DEI) The acknowledgment and commitment to diversity and inclusion at all levels of an organization is a great way to communicate to potential employees that your company cares. Candidates are now more likely than ever to make the choice of where they want to work based on more than pay alone. In many cases, candidates genuinely care about a potential employer’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The past two years have undeniably shed a spotlight on many different inequalities and inequities within the workforce. Because of this, many in the staffing and recruitment industry are doing their part to address DEI issues with the creation of diversity initiatives within their organizations. While DEI in your business is the right thing to do, there are also benefits that come from doing so. Research shows that in many cases, diversity within a workforce increases success in that business. Staffing Industry Trend #8 Webinars Since job fairs aren’t as easy to come by these days, a newer alternative is becoming an increasingly popular option for many organizations. Webinars are popping up much more often. Although webinars aren’t new, they are being utilized much more now as a result of the pandemic. With a webinar, a business can recruit new talent and expand their brand’s awareness all from the home. Some more trends for many organizations include shifting to new technology and machine learning services, as well as offering new client services. About Tracker Tracker helps recruiting and staffing firms build better relationships, workflows, and boost revenue with our integrated Recruitment ATS and CRM.

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