Soccialy

6 Latest Recruitment Trends

The Coronavirus pandemic has impacted our lives in many ways. One of the most important sectors has been completely transformed by the pandemic – Recruitment. But let’s take a look at what has changed and what the current recruitment trends are.

• Virtual Recruitment is the most highlighted trend of 2021

Virtual recruitment is implemented in almost every industry, and it seems like it is here to stay. It does not matter if you are a traditional organisation, a corporate, or a start-up. But what happens if you operate in the education sector? As in every other sector, you need to adapt and offer people the flexibility of having a remote interview and a remote recruiting process. A few years ago, schools would not even consider interviewing teachers online, but now it is a very normal process to follow.

Soccialy has adapted this new trend and recruited people virtually. We have also implemented remote working during the pandemic, and some of us have not met in real life yet!

• Social Media Recruitment

If you want to target the top talent, you need to be where these people are. The role of social media is constantly evolving over the years. Nowadays, posting jobs on social media and attracting potential candidates through different social media platforms are essential.

Data shows that teachers spend an average of 2.5 hours per day on social media. The average age of a teacher in the UK is 39 (millennials have turned 40 this year). Only 18% of the teachers are aged 50+.

On the other side, 70% of recruiters say they have successfully used social media to attract new talent and hire them, with applications from social media channels voted as having the highest quality of candidates compared with others from job boards or recruitment agencies. At Soccialy, we believe social media platforms, combined with the right expertise and eagerness to stay in touch with everything new, are a powerful tool to achieve great things in the Recruitment Industry. On average, our adverts receive 11x more clicks to apply than the top job board used in the education system.  

See below what Daniel, headteacher at Witchford Village College, says:  

”Social media is an effective channel for us to connect with prospective candidates, but we didn’t have the experience, understanding, or time to make all the right social media channels work effectively for us. When we were recommended to use Talented Teacher Jobs (now soccialy) they made it simple to use and risk-free. Their solution is clever and allows us to reach all the teachers in the market we want to target so that we no longer have to hope and wait for teachers to apply on job boards or use recruitment agencies.” 

• Upskilling staff

Business needs are changing rapidly, and so is the way recruiters are hiring. In the education sector, more and more schools are investing in upskilling their staff in new areas. Putting digital skills to use more than ever before, schools are spending more time upskilling their teams, and teachers are learning how to adapt their approach for a new type of classroom. Headteachers know that developing talent from within is often more beneficial and cost-effective than replacing existing employees with new ones.

• Outsourcing recruitment

There has been a long discussion about outsourcing recruitment and if it can bring the right people. An outsource recruitment company is not part of the company itself, and as a consequence, maybe not sharing the same company spirit or vision for the future.  

Many and many businesses have moved from an in-house HR department to an RPO organisation. This decision could bring in a cost reduction. But also, HR outsourcing can improve the hiring process – as a dedicated hiring service. Although agencies seem to have worked perfectly fine for other sectors, this is not the case in the education system. Schools generally struggle with budgets, and agencies are not an affordable choice for many schools. This is why many schools choose other cost-effective solutions like Soccialy.  

• Recruiting will lead businesses to be accountable for diversity 

Supporting different causes is not enough. Schools should be accountable for diversity. There are approximately 451,000 teachers in the state sector in England, including 24,281 principals. Of the total number of principals, approximately 277 are of BAME heritage. Only 30 black headteachers in England.  

Being accountable for diversity does not mean recruiters will be somehow obliged to deliver a diverse pipeline of candidates but supporting them and hold hiring managers accountable for moving those candidates through the process. Creating diverse interview panels is one of the very first steps the recruitment sector will take. 

• Recruiters are leading the transition to remote working

Before the pandemic, only a few people had the chance to work from home. But now that almost everyone got a taste of what it’s like, we can undoubtedly see an increasing demand for remote work possibilities. This is the main reason why recruiters are the ones leading the transition to remote working. In the education sector, something else is trending – remote learning. Teachers should be prepared and technically ready to teach remotely in the same effective way as they do in physical classrooms.

As we all know, everything has changed dramatically in these two last years. We can only anticipate more changes are on the way for the recruitment industry. 

Comment below the changes your company has made with their recruitment process!