Top Pre-Screening and Recruiting Predictions for 2021

The time is finally here for companies to make a paradigm shift in the ways they pre-screen and recruit employees. As the actual pandemic ends during 2021, the economic and social ramifications will last many more years to come. Companies need to be in a position to find, engage, and hire the best talent possible because one thing that never changes is that a better “marriage” between employee and employer is good for everyone. People are still the most important asset a company has and ultimately determines how successful a company will be.

Video-based applications will continue to gain popularity

Bringing in the best employees needs to start from second one of the recruiting/hiring process. Technology is available that transforms the traditional text-based, one-way information gathering process into a process that candidates appreciate and enjoy going through. Tomorrow’s candidates (i.e., the Millennial Generation) are different, and have different expectations compared to previous generations. They want an Internet experience that is video-based, that is interactive, that provides relevant information, all in a very short period of time. They want the application and hiring process to be like everything else they use the Internet for.

For example, before buying a car an individual does research on the car, knows the price they should pay, looks at pictures and videos, and then decides whether they will speak to the salesperson or not. Applying for a job will be no different, the candidate wants information that is relevant to them, wants to interact with video, and decide whether it’s worth their time to go to the next step. Any application process that doesn’t meet this need will cause candidates to abandon the process.

Job applicants will continue to demand feedback during the process

One measure of the “candidate friendliness” quotient of an application process is the drop out rate. Most companies have a very cumbersome process to apply to a job that involves finding a careers page, finding an open job, reading about the job, registering for the applicant tracking system, applying for the specific job, uploading a resume, and then answering a bunch of application questions. At the end of this process the applicant gets a standard email response and then follow-up occurs weeks later (if it even occurs at all). As companies keep with this current process the dropout rate of truly qualified applicants will begin to skyrocket. And if a qualified candidate drops out of the hiring process there is a zero chance the company has of bringing that top performer onboard. We predict as this becomes a more visible problem for companies that they will finally start to shift the process to cater more to the needs of the candidates. In other words, they will start treating their candidates like their customers versus “just an applicant.”

Companies will change their hiring processes

Today’s application processes do not meet the needs of the organization’s applicants. Therefore, as companies continue to lose good candidates through their hiring process, we predict that they will finally be ready to change. There is a disruption in the hiring process that allow early adopters to win the war for talent and if companies are waiting until the end of 2021 to move, they will already have lost.