What will be the hottest topics, events, trends in the world of recruitment? We asked recruiting and sourcing gurus to share their predictions about what we should wait for in 2019.

“2019 will be the year of peacocking”

Activities that scale well are perennial topics, and I don’t see 2019 being very different on that front. Everyone wants to do more with less, see outsized ROI, get rich quick, or take off early on Friday. Last year laid some solid groundwork for ‘automation’ and ‘growth hacking’ to return as top picks for 2019.

I think, sadly, people will continue talking about AI a lot. A word to the wise, though: when you see a spate of HR.com articles about the Singularity? Sell, sell, sell!
You know, I was going to make a SourceCoin joke here, but I see I’ve been sleeping on this one. Anyone holding TCOIN out there? How’s it doing?
I’ve been talking, and hearing others talk, about audience segmentation recently. Not a new concept, but one underutilized in the Sourcing and Recruitment spaces. A nice, personalized message is a great thing, but you can approximate it pretty well through templates and good segmentation.

Oh, and peacocking. My big (not entirely tongue-in-cheek) prediction is 2019 will be the year of peacocking. That is, using increasingly outrageous behavior and presentation to generate responses and garner attention in a world where mindshare is frequently the key to market share.

“The main focus should go on how to improve communication with talents”

Bringing quality people to the company will be the key essence for all the companies and there is nothing new in that compared to previous years. I believe that this year the main focus for all companies should go on how to improve their communication with talents – how you are talking to them. It’s not about you, it’s about them- what do they seek and what you can offer them.

In general, I would say that there are 3 main topics that will be discussed this year:

• Cold calls/messages – how to gather more intel and how to build communication so people will be genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
• More efficient AI solutions/tools around this topic.
• Sourcing and recruitment- separate or combined role?

Regarding recruiting conferences in 2019,  SOSU events around the world – including SOSUEE – definitely will be the most popular!

“LinkedIn is no longer the answer to your sourcing challenges”

Sourcing is not a stepping stone to recruitment. Great sourcers are passionate and happy to be the best sourcers they can be and constantly take sourcing to higher levels. Sourcers should get more involved in the company’s business, insist on joining company roadmap meetings.

Source for candidates who will also be culturally fit and not only for the ones with the best professional skills.  When engaging with potential candidates you must know why this role in this company is a fit for the particular candidate. If you don’t have an idea on how to answer that, don’t email them. If you need to mass mail, be intelligent about it.

LinkedIn is no longer the answer to your sourcing challenges. If you are using only LinkedIn to source and recruit, you have no competitive advantages. Everyone else is conducting the same searches you are, so allocate time to learn about how technologies are changing the landscape of your industry and your job. Productivity is about getting better results with less effort. It’s ok to pay for professional sourcing tools and browser plugins.  

Incorporate chatbots & advanced assessment tools to filter and qualify potential candidates.

Creativity will always be the name of the game! Do not be afraid to suggest new ways to source! Start measuring your results as well. Gone are the days of working on a “hunch”.

Stop resisting the changes the industry is going through. You need to enhance and augment your skills and capabilities.

“Applying for jobs in a standard way will decrease”

I believe that the number of people showing an interest in applying for jobs in a standard way will decrease, as more and more companies are creating or expanding their internal sourcing teams. This should decrease the number of people coming from agencies as well. It is due to the hideous experience candidates receive while dealing with agencies. I believe it will be more about networking and having unofficial conversations that will count.

I would say, that sourcing will be targeting specific communities, where the talent lives, rather than just doing the search on LinkedIn. Events and live networking would play a big part in it.

“The trend toward candidate engagement is becoming a larger focus”

The trend towards candidate engagement is becoming a larger focus. Messaging to candidates/prospects is starting to be more critical to the success of fulfilling requests. Communities within social networks are becoming the newest target to yield successful search results.

“Relocation packages are becoming an integral part of HR policies”

Relocation packages are becoming an integral part of HR policies and onboarding processes for companies recruiting globally.  Among the most common relocation perks offered are work visa sponsorship, flight coverage, on-site assistance, and financial aid.

Software engineers with 3-5 years of experience are the “sweet spot.” In order to maintain a balance in company salaries and the balance of powers in a team, companies are increasingly willing to hire talent with 3-5 years of experience. Mid and Senior level developers will expect salaries well above the minimum base salary for relocation.

Long-distance relocation is now a more attractive option. The further you expand beyond your local market, the larger the talent pool is. Today, there are a lot of companies that are actively hiring staff from overseas.

Applicants are becoming more selective. Increasingly, candidates are considering three and more countries for their next work destination. You need to be ready to compete with companies from other countries to get the attention of the best tech workers and tell them about the benefits of moving to your country, amongst other things.