The large majority of respondents expect at least moderate change in talent acquisition methods, technologies and online sources of talent over the next two years
Talent acquisition is a fast-evolving HR function. Most respondents are expecting changes in talent acquisition methods, technologies, and online sources over the next two years.
The area most likely to see change is in talent acquisition technologies and tools, cited by 88% of respondents. That is, nearly half of the respondents (49%) say they expect great change and a further 39% expect a moderate change. Eighty-two percent also say they expect a moderate or great change in talent acquisition methods and practices.
Respondents are most likely to want technologies that do a better job of finding and filtering in qualified candidates
Nearly all respondents (97%) want more from their future TA technologies and services. The most cited feature respondents would like to see from future technologies is being better at finding top candidates (65%). This is closely followed by the related goal of improving the filtering in those qualified candidates (62%). In other words, the top priority is creating a strong candidate pool. However, simply finding candidates isn’t enough; respondents also want to their technologies to be better at matching job titles with searches.
Respondents would also like to see the recruiting process become more efficient. Half wish for better integration with other systems, and 45% want their technologies and services to be better at analyzing process bottlenecks.
Since technologies are constantly evolving, talent acquisition leaders should keep an eye on whether new or upgraded products will address their wish list of needs.
Nearly three-quarters (71%) agree or strongly agree that there will be greater emphasis on hiring diverse candidates over the next two years
What can we expect in talent acquisition over the next two years? The majority agree or strongly agree that:
- technologies will become more useful (76%)
- there will be greater emphasis on hiring diverse candidates (71%)
These two points can feed off each other. Having robust technologies could enable organizations to focus more successfully on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues. For example, technologies such as resume anonymization can be used to weed out unconscious bias and provide a more equitable hiring process.
Few say that hiring will slow down. In fact, 44% agree that hiring will focus more on remote workers. Nearly half (47%) say hiring will be more automated, which could potentially free up talent acquisition professionals to focus on more strategic or high-touch work.
