(updated from article published 11/27/2017)

Recruiters, what can you expect in 2019?

The advances technologies, the change of the behavior of the candidates and the transformation digital business are factors that will directly impact your strategic choices for next year.

In the not-so-distant past, finding candidates, even for qualified positions, was not very difficult : all you had to do was publish a advertisement or use specialized sources.

Now, the era of "post and pray" is over. The recruiter must consider the employer brand, social media, the candidate-experience, not to mention the online acquisition levers, of which content strategy is part.

What are the 4 challenges facing you, digital recruitment professionals in 2019 ?

1 - The rules of the game will change (again)

The digital transformation is shaking up the needs of companies that must find the right people to adapt and sometimes even survive.

Increasingly connected and agile, candidates now have a major advantage in their job search: they can know a lot about your company!

The traditional top-down relationship between recruiter and candidate is being disrupted, as is the seller-buyer relationship.

This redefinition of the rules is pushing more and more companies to refocus their recruitment process around the candidate (and therefore, no longer only around their own needs) in an approach called Candidate-Driven Market (literally: the job market " oriented" towards candidates).

In a Candidate-Driven Market, it is the candidate who holds the cards.

2 - The war for talent will intensify

The demand for specific skills from companies is leading to a parallel exacerbation of competition between employer brands.

The skills shortage, particularly of technical skills but also of salespeople and specialists, is becoming a vital issue for companies.

Is there a good solution for finding talent that fits the needs of your business ?

Probably not one that would be a panacea, but it is possible to achieve a good result by thinking carefully about the coordination of actions on the web and on social networks.

The recruiter will need to be more competitive and more relevant in their search for talent as it is quite possible that a sought-after candidate will have multiple opportunities at once.

In 2019, it will therefore be unthinkable to limit yourself to posting a job offer and waiting for candidates to come forward. The time has come to be proactive and above all original in your approach.

Automating the process by identifying the right profiles very early on is also an effective approach to saving time and best satisfying both candidate and your recruitment needs.

3 - Companies will need to attract AND retain employees

On the other end of the recruiting process, it's more critical than ever to keep your best people and avoid too much attrition (turnover) from your talent pool.

To avoid this phenomenon, which can be detrimental to your day-to-day business, it is important to focus on ongoing training and employee retention.

Companies need to rethink how they retain talent now in order to remain competitive in the job market.

The acceleration of digital transformation is one of the reasons (the main one, in fact) for the reversal of candidate/recruiter roles but is also the answer to this new order.

Adapted digital tools help improve the application process all the way to the ability to deliver a good employee experience.

Combined with an storytelling effective  and a expectation-targeting, digital tools are a great way to personalize recruiting and offer real employer value to employees.

This is called Employee Attraction and Retention.

Attracting your candidates means identifying their expectations and facilitating their approach; To retain them is to make them adhere to the values of your company.

4 - Marketing will indeed be the future of recruitment

The role of Marketing and particularly Content Marketing, already important today, will very quickly become essential in the Candidate-Driven Market.

In order to remain competitive in this market, the recruiter must also take on the role of marketer, think strategy and Inbound Recruiting, i.e. attract through quality content, but also convert into leads, offer contextual information (nurturing), and qualify prospect-candidates in an engagement loop.

Pto attract sought-after talent, the recruiter will need to think of an innovative way to highlight job openings and create a more personal relationship with candidates.

Disseminate the content your target talent is looking for to show that you share values and ideas with them.

This will make it easier to create a lasting relationship with them and make you a true digital recruiter of 2019!