The need for talent has been perennial and will always be there irrespective of the economic scenario. However, with the ongoing evolution in the recruitment function, organizations need to keep abreast with changes. The key driver for Indian organizations to grow in a global landscape would be innovation. As a result of the easy access to abundant information available online, there is and will be a greater shift in the employer-recruiter partnership as well. The talent service partnerships that organizations will require in the coming times will be such that it can effectively leverage technologies like social media, mobile and analytics to bring about a transformation in hiring for business performance. The talent partnerships will mostly revolve around one key driver of performance and the ability to leverage talent and technology for business success. If recruiters don’t adapt and the partnerships don’t move up the value chain, the disruptive technologies will soon disintermediate the recruiters.

Hiring for attitude and analytical abilities

The nature of hiring has become very dynamic with a complete turnaround in the outlook of organizations and recruiters towards talent. Companies are now looking for people who can not only do the job but bring in fresh ideas to the table and have the ability to connect the dots using the vast pool of information, available knowledge and data in order to take complex business decisions. With organizations becoming increasingly adaptive and responsive to the technological advancements, the recruiters are also moving from standard assessments to an outlook for people who can bring new ideas, think analytically and are on their toes to get things done; people who would be problem solvers, talent that can fit into various roles and bring value to the organization as opposed to talent for a certain job role.

A recent trend in the recruitment industry is that organizations are engaging talent very early on. This means organizations and recruiters tap future talent right from the time they enter college or are just about to complete their graduation. Through numerous engagement drives either social media enabled or real-time campus events/campaigns involving contests, games etc., organizations are selecting and engaging with potential candidates as early as they can. This builds the potential talent pool, long-term relationship which can ultimately drive down the recruitment costs.

Organizations today are more keen on hiring candidates for their behaviour, attitude, problem-solving skills and competencies rather than simply selecting candidates for the accolades on their CVs and their basic qualifications. Only those who can add value to the organization showing analytical capabilities and an understanding beyond their role are hired. In such times, it is equally important for the recruiters to scale up and find and source such people. Moreover, the skills expected and required from a talent service partner will no more be that of making calls, conducting telephonic surveys and sourcing candidates but much more analytical in terms of collating data and interpreting it to take meaningful decisions from the same.

Background screening to be of utmost importance

Albeit social media has brought people together from various domains allowing opportunities for knowledge sharing and networking, it is also an open platform where one can easily forge details. This makes it much more critical for organizations to ensure the true identity of the candidates and potential hires they will be investing upon in terms of the recruitment process.

Now since organizations capture talent early on, the overall recruitment process cost is even higher and to be cost-efficient in such cases, knowing a candidate’s background becomes more important. It helps mitigate risk and an increased cost in terms of time and money involved in hiring a candidate with a fraudulent background. Organizations need not wait till the hiring process begins as the first thing a recruitment partner does is a background screening for the target populations of candidates. The recent market trends suggest that in the coming times, building and sustaining background screening partnerships will be a priority for organizations to ensure getting the right people on board. Undoubtedly, in a collaborative economy like this, it is an elementary task to do a background screening before beginning the recruitment process at all. One can train candidates for required skills, however if an organization hires a criminal or a fraudster, there is nothing that can be done!