Six hypotheses on the future of recruiting

For recruiters, factors like globalization and digitalization are changing things. What can be done when competitive pressure is growing and clients and candidates are placing higher expectations on recruiters? The following hypotheses show the direction in which the industry could develop in the future.

1. Recruiters with a focus on one industry and occupational group are most successful

HR departments will increasingly search for and approach candidates with basic and intermediate education themselves. When looking for specialists or candidates for management positions, they will have to rely more on external help. And it is not only industry expertise that is in demand. The BPM study shows that HR managers differentiate very precisely between HR consultants: 82% of HR managers prefer consultants who specialize in specific occupational groups. Successful HR consultancies therefore position themselves in an industry, for example insurance and finance, and a functional area, for example sales and marketing. For HR managers, these recruiters are the first and usually only point of contact when it comes to finding a specialist or manager with industry expertise.

2. Recruiters become fully-fledged HR consultants

In addition to candidate identification, direct contact and pre-selection, recruiters will be increasingly deployed in related HR consulting fields and will accompany the entire recruiting process - from the development of a requirements profile or job description to candidate contact, personnel suitability diagnostics, contract negotiations and onboarding. They support their HR contacts in translating the corporate strategy into a recruiting strategy and in identifying possible courses of action for attracting qualified employees to the company. To this end, they study the market conditions in the industry and draw useful conclusions for their clients. This requires a holistic consulting approach, which, in addition to the actual core business, focuses much more on additional consulting content related to human resources. In order to find the right candidates for a company, HR consultants pay more attention to personal and cultural skills in addition to professional suitability and use digital tools for this purpose. Successful HR consultants speak the language of their industry, cooperate with strategic service partners and expand their interdisciplinary team by employing experts who have a connection to the industry. These include, for example, change managers, PR and communications specialists, and experts in leadership or executive consulting.

3. Career coach, advisor, guide, decision maker

Qualified specialists and executives are difficult to find or convince in social media, because they receive countless offers from other recruiters. That’s why interesting candidates should not be approached only when there is a concrete vacancy. Rather, the focus is on prospects and career opportunities for the candidate. This is where a paradigm shift occurs, because recruiting has been commission-based up to now and is thus designed for short-term success. But this is too short-sighted: It is much more important to know the top candidates in their industry and to make them the right offer at the right moment. A new type of manager is emerging. In the coming years, young, well-educated managers will take the helm who are extremely well connected and have grown up with digital channels. They know very well what their options are and what skills are in demand. The new role of HR consultants is similar to that of player advisors in professional sports. Their task will be to professionally accompany candidates in their decision-making process, to coach them, and to point out career paths.

4. Data protection becomes an important benchmark for recruiting professionalism

Personal data can no longer be stored without the candidate’s consent. For this reason, recruiting processes must be documented in greater detail and be traceable on demand. The planned e-privacy regulation also has an impact on the way candidates are approached, such as stricter requirements for contacting them by phone, tracking activity data on the website or in the company’s own job portals. HR consultancies are forced to introduce transparent, fully digital and standardized processes. This is a major challenge for many consulting companies, but also a differentiator from other providers if data protection is implemented professionally and seriously.

5. HR departments expect flexible recruiting “just in time”.

Interim management, project-based employment, but also increased fluctuation in some industries are leading to more speed. A survey by StepStone shows that only 17% of the 20,000 specialists and managers surveyed in Germany are still sure that they will still be employed by the same employer in five years’ time. But corporate strategy decisions such as the implementation of digitalization are also a top priority in many companies and are causing greater pressure on HR departments to take action. They need more support to fill the necessary positions quickly and appropriately.

6. Digital and intelligent technologies make recruiting more efficient

Digital technologies will take over standardized tasks and processes in recruiting and make them more efficient through automation. Artificial intelligence will deliver candidates that are a perfect fit, with decisions based on complex analysis of multiple data streams. Combining technical skills with information from resumes, social media, virtual personality tests, video pitches or e-assessments to form a holistic picture of the candidate can no longer be done manually due to the volume of data and information. The recruiter’s job will be to deal with the results that the intelligent machine selects for them. This requires technical and industry-specific expertise and a feel for the corporate culture in order to find the right match. Artificial intelligence cannot accomplish this, because it requires the empathy of the recruiter, which will also be important in the future.