Hiring Trends We’re Thankful For

We have a lot to be thankful for in our professional lives this Thanksgiving. In the spirit of the holiday, we’ve decided to look at the hiring trends we’re thankful for and consider how they could shape recruitment in the years to come.

Diversity And Inclusion

Diversity was this year’s hiring buzzword, and we couldn’t be happier. For too long, inclusion has been put on the back burner, as businesses proclaimed their support for diversity initiatives while relying on outdated recruiting models that resulted in the same old.

But the same old is detrimental in today’s globalized market. Research continues to remind us diversity drives innovation and performance, and companies are taking note. Silicon Valley has made diversity reports a rite of passage, and companies like Slack are pulling ahead. We have a ways to go, but 2018 feels like the year things may have finally turned around.

AI Comes To The Recruitment Process

While not yet a ubiquitous driving force in recruitment, artificial intelligence has entered the conversation with promises of a bright future.

Cognitive biases, such as the first-impression bias and in-group bias, often play out beneath our conscious understanding, leading recruiters to make hiring decisions based on emotional resonance, not logical assessment. Enter AI. These innovative algorithms aim to promote diversity and inclusion by limiting how cognitive biases affect the recruitment process.

There are hurdles to overcome—for example, we need to ensure the code and data input by humans don’t transplant our biases into the binary. So, maybe it’s too early to say we are thankful for AI, but it’s definitely something we’re excited to see play out.

Experimenting With Innovative Techniques

While we wait for the AI revolution, we can still be thankful for new recruitment techniques. For too long, recruiters have relied on the face-to-face interview as their best means to gauge an applicant. While interviews are necessary to the process, they leave something to be desired (re: first-impression bias, et al) and don’t provide much opportunity to fully know an applicant.

Thankfully, 2018 saw many creative techniques gain traction. Job auditions allow businesses to see how an employee will perform on the job before providing an offer. Some are using virtual reality to give candidates the experience of working at their company. Both may very well help limit bad hires.

Even old-fashioned interviews are getting a makeover. The mass proliferation of video-making and video-editing software has led some companies to include a video submission as part of the application package, allowing them to get first-impressions out of the way before scheduling a more formal—and time-consuming—interview.

The Gig Economy Rising

It’s an open debate whether the gig economy is a major driving force or an overblown trend that’s more myth than substance. We’ll have to wait to find out. Until then, we’re still thankful it’s entered the cultural consciousness as a viable path for businesses and employees alike.

Through the gig economy, business models that don’t require a standard workforce can still find employees. Similarly, employees who need more flexible work, or simply a smaller side gig, can find industries in need of their skills. And, of course, technology has made it easier for these businesses and employees to find each other.

The gig economy may not overthrow more traditional business-employee relations, but normalizing the concept in our culture will certainly benefit those businesses and employees who need it.  

And those are the hiring trends we are thankful for in 2018! Take some time this Thanksgiving to think about what you’re thankful for, both personally and professionally.