6 Things Recruiters Loved About 2018 (Well, Sort Of)

The start of the holiday season is upon us. Oh, happy days! After the tricks and treats of Halloween comes Thanksgiving: A day for family, friends, food and gratitude. For most of us (tech recruiters included), this is an opportunity to pause and reflect on the past year with delight—and a touch of sarcasm. Folks, it’s time to count our real blessings.

That Tight Job Market

Yep, nothing like record low unemployment, huh? For most workers, that 3.7 percent unemployment rate is cause for celebration. But for recruiters, every time that number drops another fraction of a percentage point, the work becomes more competitive. If it hits 1 percent, we’re going to be fighting over candidates like we’re in a “Mad Max” film. No, seriously: how do you track down that perfect new hire when nobody’s looking for another job? Short answer: guerilla warfare (we weren’t kidding with that “Mad Max” comparison). With fewer active candidates out there, you have to start trying to lure passive talent away from their current employers—and that’s not awkward at all. Season of giving? Hah! Recruiters have never heard of it.

Overly Helpful Hiring Managers

Let’s hear it for those eager beavers we call hiring managers. Nothing compares to the time and effort they take to supply astute, practical and relevant information about the positions they need to fill… right after we find the perfect person for the role. Yep, there’s never a dull moment with our hiring managers, especially the ones who are so keen on making our jobs feel like a never-ending game of “Guess Who?” Shout out to their unmatched level of patience, appreciation and recognition of the long hours we put in, despite that aforementioned tight job market. Sigh, where would we be without them? They are every recruiter’s best friend.

Reliable Candidates

If there’s one thing we know for sure, 2018 was the year of ghosting. This long-storied social faux pas became a very real talent acquisition nightmare, with candidates blowing off interviews left and right. Even emails went unanswered. Feeling dejected, like a teenager on the receiving end of a breakup, recruiters engaged in a lot of soul searching. We dug deep, trying to find where we went wrong and how we could shape the candidate experience better. From now on, we’re going to confirm, re-confirm and maybe even show up at the candidate’s house to hand-deliver them to the organization. After all, we’ve got all the time in the world… and the car’s right over there.

Integrations Upon Integrations

We would be remiss to overlook all of the swell technological advancements we’ve seen this year. We’re always thrilled to add another “solution” to the mix; and rather than take the time to understand our own successes and how this new tool might help, we just go ahead and integrate it. Of course, we’ll figure out how it works later—when we’re not on the phone actually talking to candidates.

Key Metrics

Some of us have been recruiting for a long time—a very long time. But who knew that, without key metrics, we might never know our own success? Sure, each department manager wants to see something different (whether it’s cost-per-hire, candidate drop-off rate, net promoter score, or something else entirely), and can you blame them? It’s not like our job ads or recruitment-marketing strategies get people into the building or anything. Our hires never help drive the bottom line. According to those key metrics, recruiting should undoubtedly prove its value across the organization at every opportunity possible. We would never feel pressured without the threat of constant validation. Nope. Never.

Another Year in the Books

Okay, this job wouldn’t be fun if we couldn’t laugh about it now and then. But all joking aside, recruiting affords us the chance to connect with people inside and outside of our organizations, and effect change in a variety of different ways. From offering students their first full-time job to completing a massive call for seasonal workers, recruiting is always dynamic… and for that, we’re very grateful. Ryan Leary helps create the processes, ideas and innovation that drive RecruitingDaily. He’s RecruitingDaily’s in-house expert for anything related to sourcing, tools or technology. A lead generation and brand buzz building machine, he has built superior funnel systems for some of the industry’s top HR Tech and Recruitment brands. He is a veteran of the online community and a partner at RecruitingDaily.