Exploring 2018’s Top Employer Hiring Trends

Across the country, hiring trends have been shifting for quite some time. Today, for example, job seekers are choosier than ever about the positions for which they apply and the companies for which they are willing to work. In fact, studies have found that nearly 70 percent of job seekers would refuse a job with a company that has a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed at the time. More than ever, job seekers are valuing not just their salaries and benefits, but opportunities for career advancement and work-life balance when accepting jobs.

What about hiring trends among employers? In 2018, we’re finding that employers are having a harder time than ever finding top talent to fill their open positions and that the use of social media and branding is becoming more important than ever as part of the recruitment process.

Finding Top Talent Is a Challenge

Statistics show that there are about five job openings for every top-qualified candidate. This means that employers must not only act quickly when they come across their “ideal” talent, but they must also be prepared to make their best offers to these candidates because they are likely already receiving offers from other prospective employers.

Still, finding “top talent” isn’t easy to begin with, and employers are having a harder time than ever finding job applicants that best suit their needs. In fact, more than 50 percent of hiring managers reported that differentiating the right candidate from the applicant pool was their biggest challenge in hiring a new employee.

Employers Are Spending More on Branding

In 2016 alone, nearly 60 percent of employers reported that they planned to spend more on their employer branding. And given the fact that a company’s reputation has become more important than ever among job applicants, this only makes sense. Today’s workforce has become increasingly “choosy” about the types of employers they are willing to work for. If a company has a bad reputation or if its values don’t align with that of the job seeker, it is unlikely that even a strong compensation/benefits package will bring them on board.

Social Media Is Becoming Increasingly Important

Speaking of branding, the use of social media in creating a strong employer brand is yet another top employer trend in 2018 — and this is likely to be the case for years to come. Consider the fact that nearly 80 percent of today’s job seekers are using some form of social media in their job searches. With this in mind, employers who are on top of their social media engagement are far more likely to receive applications and resumes from top-qualified candidates. Unfortunately, two out of three employees claim that their employer doesn’t even know how to use social media to spread awareness of job openings.

Employers Value Initiative and Creativity More Than Ever

Last but not least, when it comes to criteria that employers are looking for when making their hiring decisions, most of today’s employers are focusing on the following traits:

Creative thinking
Employee initiative
Multitasking skills

Job applicants who exhibit some or all of these skills are far more likely to be given a job offer than applicants who do not have these skills.

These are just a few of the top employer hiring trends that we’re seeing in 2018 — and we anticipate that many of these trends will continue into 2019 and beyond. Looking for help in finding your ideal candidate? Let ECVC Employment Services get to work for you!