The HR trends of 2024 are forcing the Human Resources function to face up to new recruitment challenges, which are in fact an extension of those of previous years. The question of salaries, the importance of people skills, digitalisation and, in particular, the place of talent in the recruitment process are all raising a number of concerns.
Human Resources teams will need to find clear answers to these if companies are to meet all the commercial, organisational, structural, competitive and collaborative challenges they face.
We invite you to take a look at 5 key recruitment issues for 2024.
1 – Attracting real talent in 2024
This challenge is not really specific to the year 2024, but it takes on a whole new meaning when we consider the shortage of talented candidates that is becoming more and more acute and the difficulty of recognising the talent that will be able to help the company grow.
It’s at this point that we recognise the value of psychometric tests in recruitment. These are new tools used by recruitment agencies to identify particular character traits in future employees. These tests are formidable tools for meeting this recruitment challenge.
Psychometric tests were originally designed to identify children with superior intelligence. In recent years, they have been adapted to optimise the recruitment process.
The main aim of such tests is to identify a candidate’s character traits, abilities, aptitudes, values, skills and even aspirations. They provide recruiters with relevant indicators that cannot be assessed on a CV.
By using a logic test for recruitment, for example, it becomes easier to determine a candidate’s capacity for reasoning, their critical and moral sense, as well as their ability to identify and solve problems.
These are essential indicators for identifying real talent on the job market today, and therefore for dealing with the recruitment challenge, which is crucial in managing applications.
2 – Knowing how to attract talent
This is a challenge that takes on its full meaning in 2024, because in the age of social networks, candidates are also evaluating the company they want to work for. The main players in recruitment must therefore ensure that the company makes itself attractive in the eyes of these participants.
In 2023, job offers must be comparable to commercial offers. Companies will have to promote themselves and the job to candidates in the same way as they would promote their products to potential customers.
Being able to deal with this recruitment challenge will enable recruiters to attract the rarest talent. They will also be able to stand out from the competition and hope to secure quality profiles to keep companies happy.
But how can this be accomplished? Some players use inbound recruiting by analogy with inbound marketing to attract target candidates. Others have turned to gamification of recruitment to offer an innovative experience and stand out from the competition.
3 – Placing people at the heart of the recruitment process
Today, the main players in recruitment in 2023 – human resources departments, recruitment agencies and temporary employment agencies – need to take this recruitment challenge very seriously.
Putting human values at the heart of recruitment not only contributes to the search for the ideal candidate, but also enables companies to strengthen the cohesion of their teams, hire employees who are motivated by more than just financial gain, and adopt innovative management practices.
But how can this be successfully achieved?
Personality tests
In the temporary agency recruitment process, for example, personality tests are used to assess some of the candidate’s character traits. Recruiters have made it an essential part of the recruitment process that they no longer rely only on technical competence and instinct.
With these tests, they can now gather reliable, quantifiable data to assess not only the candidate’s performance, but more importantly his or her values. What’s more, these tests are a way of personalising the candidate’s experience and therefore really taking into consideration the profile they have facing them.
Quizzes and personality tests: the way they work in recruitment is very simple. In general, the recruiter asks the candidate to reply to a pre-established questionnaire. Depending on the type of test, the questions may be closed or open-ended and cover a range of topics.
The PAPI (Personality and Preference Inventory) is the personality test preferred by recruiters. It takes two forms. The first consists of a selection between two statements. The candidate has to decide which of the statements best characterises him or her.
The statements might be: “At work, I like everybody” or “I work faster than the other people”. The second form is a grid of scores (in the form of statements) that the candidate must give to questions put to him or her. For example, “Do you approve, strongly approve or disapprove of the following statement?
While there are several models available, it is recommended that recruiters create a personality test that most closely reflects their expectations. The test should enable them to identify the candidate’s profile as accurately as possible.
By creating its own personality test, the human resources department, for example, can let the candidate know that the company is seriously interested in him or her.
The company’s human values
Apart from personality tests, another way of dealing with the challenge of human recruitment is to highlight the human values of the brand in a different way. To do this, the company can, for example, get its current employees to give testimonials on social networks or on the company website.
They can talk to potential candidates about the benefits of joining the company, but also about all the values it demonstrates towards its employees. The company can also encourage recruiters to have a presence on social networks so that they can more effectively interact with candidates.
It may also be beneficial to put transparency at the heart of the process to succeed in this recruitment challenge. Recruiters need to be honest in the job advert, disclosing all the constraints associated with the position to be filled, salary ranges, etc.
In this way, the candidate feels confident and understands that the company is serious about establishing a healthy relationship with its employees.
4 – Improving HR ROI (Return On Investment): not exactly a new recruitment challenge
Improving recruitment performance is not a new recruitment issue as such. However, it is important to look at HR ROI in a different way and to take account of what’s new in 2023. For example, this year recruiters can count on predictive recruitment to enhance their performance.
This type of recruitment involves using an algorithm to better identify candidates for a given position. Among other things, it makes the following possible:
Reduce the number of steps in the recruitment process;
Save time and money;
Reduce staff turnover (because recruitment is a long-term process);
Increase the performance of new employees by around 15%;
Increase candidates’ chances (because the system favours everyone).
Predictive recruitment also reconciles soft skills and HR ROI. Thanks to the operating principle of this type of process, players can tackle a major recruitment challenge. They can select profiles capable of improving the customer experience without jeopardising ROI.
5 – Taking the customer experience into consideration when recruiting
Recruitment itself is a strategic challenge for companies. It can be used as a means of improving certain growth parameters, such as the customer experience.
If we consider that a good customer experience is based on certain important qualities in employees, it is possible to optimise this parameter by looking for profiles with these qualities from the beginning.
This is where soft skills come into the game. Why rely on soft skills for your recruitment? Quite simply because they are an excellent indicator of interpersonal know-how. From the very start, they tell you whether the candidate will fit in well with your company and develop to the full.
What’s more, it shows whether they have the basic qualities required to deliver a quality customer experience (listening skills, empathy, responsiveness, etc.). If you want to deal more effectively with this recruitment challenge, you can carry out a few tests.
In short, in 2023, you’re going to face a number of recruitment challenges. This article summarises the main challenges you’ll be facing, but there are many more.
ERAI TURKEY is expert in the recruitment challenges facing the HR function. Do not hesitate to visit our bebsite and contact us.
