3 Ways To Hire Smarter Now | 2-minute video

Can you hire smarter this year? Must you hire smarter this year?

It’s almost certain HR professionals will need to up their hiring game this year because there’s an increasing skills gap, a tight labor market as layoffs have slowed, plus continued voluntary turnover within organizations.

Challenges to Hire Smarter

Some industries will struggle more than others. To note, the industries with the highest turnover and lowest ability to hire are leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing, according to Indeed data. Facing fewer challenges: professional and business services, and wholesale trade.

So there are fewer available employees for the roles you create or need to fill by attrition. And AI won’t likely fulfill the need — but it might enhance your recruiting efforts.

“It’s also possible that we are entering a period in which the easiest hurdles on the road to a soft landing have already been cleared, leaving only the highest and most difficult for the last mile of the race. That the labor market’s journey to this point has been relatively painless does not guarantee that actual pain is not coming,” the Indeed researchers say.

In this episode of HRMorning’s 3-Point, two HR experts tells us what’s critical to hiring smarter this year. Plus, they offer insight on how to get it done.

Click, watch and listen for more details on hiring smarter.

Transcript (edited for clarity):

Hiring will likely become more difficult.

According to the Indeed research, turnover, layoffs and job postings are down. People aren’t moving professionally.

So to get the best candidates, you’ll have to hire smarter this year.

But how? It’ll take some change.

Plunkett: A lot more people are going to LinkedIn for professional positions than they did in the past. Indeed has all the AI built in it now; it’ll write your job descriptions. I’m sure LinkedIn has it too. But all of these job search engines have the AI now built into them and they’re trying to be a better tool for you to use and find people.

There’s a word of caution when you ramp up AI in hiring

Albert: Once you’ve decided on a tool and you’re using and operating that tool, one of the most important things in the AI area is human oversight. You’re going to want to make sure, is the tool performing as expected? Are we getting what we want out of it? Is it in fact looking at resumes and ranking job candidates appropriately? Are we getting value out of the predictions it’s making or the content it’s generating?” 

Finally, rethink your job descriptions.

Plunkett: In the past, a job description would lead with the title and a brief description and then go into more detail about skills necessary and all of those things. And then [that’s] followed up by what the company does and what they can do for you. I’ve seen it flip. I’m seeing more job descriptions that lead with a, ‘Come work for us and [here’s] why. And this is what our company does,’ way before they get into the job description.

Whether you’ll hire many or few this year, to do it smarter:

• Try AI. Most common platforms have made it even easier to get your job in front of the right people.
• Include humans. With AI in hiring, you want to maintain human oversight.
• Flip the script. Show candidates what’s great about your company, not just the job.

Hiring can only get better this year. You can start doing it smarter now.