Top Employee Hiring Trends to Watch Out in 2020 As in-demand candidates push employers to reinvent the wheel, employee experience enhancement is bound to become a buzzword

Technology is redefining workplaces. A new generation asking for meaningful work and dynamic workplaces is entering the workforce. Real talent is scarce, therefore, demanding.

Welcome to 2020, where skilled employees are the architects of their own destiny. What does that mean for the hiring managers? It means reimagining their strategies, realigning their processes and exploring new platforms that are compatible with the new-age candidate's habits, preferences, liking and disliking.

As in-demand candidates push employers to reinvent the wheel, employee experience enhancement is bound to become a buzzword that will have a deep resonance across sectors. To hire talent that can make a difference, employers will have to market themselves to the talent pool, look hard for mediums to reach this talent, nurture strategic relationships with lost candidates and woo them back carefully into the fold.

According to a study by AuthBridge on employee hiring trends to watch out in 2020, it is found that technology will be playing a crucial role in hiring, besides recruitment marketing and candidate relationship management that will gain importance. The other trends include social media and data analytics which will take centre stage, while emotional intelligence will become a hot skill and employee experience will be at the heart of hiring. Below are the top measures of employee experience enhancement that will dominate 2020.

Digital On-boarding

The end-to-end automation of the recruitment process—from hiring to verification to on-boarding—will catch up with employers so that all actions associated with hiring are defined, allocated and completed in time to bring all stakeholders involved in the hiring process on the same page. Digital on-boarding will also help organizations in attracting and retaining Gen Z talent by offering seamless pre-boarding and on-boarding experiences that engage them in ways they comprehend and appreciate.

Recruitment Marketing

Competition to lure talent is rising and this places candidates in a unique position in the equation where they choose the employer as much as the employer chooses them. In 2020, employer branding will gain focus in order to attract and nurture talented individuals who are the best fit for the organization. Data-based targeting and retargeting of specific talent and employer branding initiatives will gain importance to generate awareness, consideration and interest.

Candidate Relationship Management

Unlike before, a recruiter's job will not end at discovering a desirable candidate but will focus on developing a relationship cycle for long term engagement. Human resource analytics tools rooted in artificial intelligence and machine learning will help recruiters in better workforce planning, skills gap analysis, assessment, retention and database management for future considerations. This, in turn, will positively impact quality of new hires as well cost and time spent during the hiring process. Automation of ex-employee verification process, a rising trend, will help organizations in saving time and resources as well as generate insights on attrition trends for better retention policies and practices.

Social Media Recruiting

Understanding employees beyond their curriculum vitae and work history will be crucial to build successful workplaces of the future. To this end, employers will come up with structured methods of making use of social media platforms. In addition to posting jobs, social media recruiting will extend to creating positive stories around the brand and gathering insights around emotional intelligence of employees, their passions and their motivations.

Rise of Remote Workplaces and the Gig Economy

The new-age model of remote workplaces and temporary or virtual workforce in gig economy will push employers towards "remote workforce management' that is not bound to time and place constraints. This is especially true for the gig economy where a continuous supply of workforce is mandatory for the economy to hold together. This, in turn, will see huge reliance on technology to ensure quick, efficient and reliable automation of staff on-boarding.

Data Protection and Privacy

A rising concern worldwide, data protection and privacy norms will start impacting organizations' hiring policies and mechanisms. With impending changes in regulations, be it GDPR or India's own personal data and privacy bill, employers will have to assess and redefine hiring practices and processes to stay complaint.

Inclusiveness: Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity will continue to be the key to creating a strong, value-focused brand as Gen Z will place a premium on culturally dynamic workplaces. In the age of surging involvement of technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning for resume shortlisting, candidate assessment and selection, employers will have to be cautious of technology (and algorithmic biases) defining the cultural fabric of their workplace.