The recruiting market has continued to change in recent years.
While the economic climate is not always favorable for hiring, digital, HR developments and the transformation of society influence jobs and practices recruiters.
Recruitment figures in France
The sourcing of candidates
The sourcing of candidates is a recruitment activity that has evolved considerably in recent years.
Yet the job advertisement remains a stable tool. According to the APEC, 89% of companies continue to use it to search for candidates.
Other recruitment channels include the meteoric rise in the use of social media for sourcing, known as social recruiting.
More than 8 out of 10 companies use social media to search for candidates. On the first step of the podium of the social networks most used by recruiters, we find LinkedIn, followed by Facebook than Twitter.
Cooptation is still popular with recruiters! Indeed, 89% of companies say they use it to find their new recruits.
The surprise of recent years has been the democratization of the direct approach! Long reserved for headhunters, this sourcing technique is increasingly used by companies to search for rare and high-level profiles. The direct approach increased by 10 points between 2011 and 2018. These data go hand in hand with the professionalization of recruitment functions and the specialization of sourcing.
Recruitment intermediaries
Recruitment and temping agencies always have their place in the quest for that rare gem.
68% of companies plan to use recruitment intermediaries in the event of difficulties in recruiting new employees.
The requirements of recruiters
The CV, application document par excellence, is essential for recruiters: 62% of them prefer it on a single page.
Among the most crippling factors are the lack of readability and spelling mistakes.
For recruiters, a good CV is clear, airy, aesthetic and presents detailed and costed experiences.
His sidekick, the cover letter, is not left out! One in two recruiters considers it important, even very important.
Candidate selection practices
With the recent health crisis, recruiters have had to rethink the way they select candidates.
Le remote recruiting has grown dramatically. Of the candidates interviewed, 95% did not physically meet recruiters during the recruitment period.
The preferred tool for remote recruitment interviews is the video, live or in deferred.
But this is far from the only tool used to assess profiles. The telephone recruitment interview is a successful candidate selection technique! Whether used to conduct interviews or verify factual information, 61% of employers report using it.
And when the candidates are sorted, it is not too late to change your mind! Two out of three recruiters sometimes draft a CV eliminated during the first phase of selection.
Although not everyone’s agreement, recruitment tests have an important role in the selection of certain profiles. In the IT sector, for example, 70% of respondents consider that they are as important as the job interview.
Finally, recruiting professionals take advantage of technology to optimize their processes. Almost one in two recruiters uses an ATS to manage applications.
Candidate requirements
According to a study HelloWork, the distance home/work is a required criterion in a job offer for 46% of candidates surveyed. It is followed by remuneration (45%), required skills (27%) and job responsibilities (22%).
But the quality of the ads also matters! More than one in two applicants spend more time on a job posting that includes photos or videos of the recruiting company.
The habits of candidates
Applicants no longer want to fill out long and tedious application forms!
And for good reason, 73% of millennials use their smartphone to search for a job. They devote 1 to 10 hours per week to this activity and prefer to consult job offers in the morning.
But 44% of Millennials stay connected even after a long day at work! 18-35-year-olds use social media to communicate and seek information. While Facebook remains the most used platform, it is closely followed by Snapchat and Instagram.
The media, therefore, remain real opportunities to attract candidates.
Employment in France
Emerging sectors
According to a LinkedIn France report, emerging sectors in high demand are:
- Information technologies and services
- Computer software
- Internet
Special mention for IT security professions whose needs are growing rapidly.
The most sought after profiles
Still, according to Linkedin, the profiles most sought after by recruiters are essentially linked to new technologies, but not only!
In the top 10 profiles sought, we find:
- The Data Protection Officer
- The artificial intelligence engineer
- The real estate agent
- The customer success specialist
- The community manager
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
- The cybersecurity specialist
- The DevOps Engineer
- The data engineer
- The data scientist
A big surprise therefore for the real estate sector, which has been booming since 2018. The customer experience is still as important for companies as is shown by the popularity of the roles of customer success manager and community manager.
Note that recruitment profiles are also in high demand. The roles of recruiting manager and IT recruiter are respectively 12th and 14th in the ranking.
The cities where the jobs are located
If Paris centralizes nearly 60% of emerging professions, the cities of Toulouse and Lyon are very dynamic according to the famous professional social network. Some medium-sized cities such as Strasbourg, Nantes, Rennes and Bordeaux also represent important employment pools.
But high demand positions do not only attract professionals present in France!
Businesses are quick to find candidates across borders, especially in Tunisia, Morocco, the UK and Canada.
HR and the recruitment function
We couldn’t talk about the recruiting market without mentioning the role of the HR department and the recruiting function.
Long considered a simple support function, the HR department today occupies a strategic role in the development of the company and in adapting to constant changes in the environment.
The success of the HR mission lies, among other things, in their ability to find the right skills, retain talent, develop employee skills and master the real cost of recruiting.
Future recruiting trends
1. Artificial intelligence
Recruitment tools that use artificial intelligence and big data are on the rise.
They provide solutions, in particular for automation of tasks, the sourcing of candidates or, predictive recruitment.
These innovations allow companies to optimize their hiring processes, reduce time and costs to hire and make better decisions, on time.
Discover our full article on the place of big data in recruitment.
2. Applications simplified on mobile
Very popular, applications on mobile will continue to grow.
A streamlined application process allows professionals to present their profiles in just a few minutes.
Optimized and designed on the user experience, the mobile application meets a growing need of professionals who are strongly connected.
3. Increased job offers
As we have seen above, job postings accompanied by photos or videos attract the attention of applicants. They then spend more time on the ad and are more likely to nominate.
Expanded vacancies provide a colorful overview of the company. Candidates can then plan themselves more easily, well beyond the simple job description.
Organizations must be original and authentic to attract the right profiles and stand out from their competitors.
4. Employer branding strategy
In our digital society, everyone has access to information, at all times. It is very easy to speak up on the Internet to share your ideas and opinions, whether positive or negative.
Candidates are no exception to this trend. They have expectations of transparency towards their new employer. Professionals need to know if they identify with the values of the company and if the work environment suits them.
And the numbers speak for themselves. According to an infographic from the super agency :
- 83% of hires start with an online search for a company.
- 88% of young graduates believe that it is essential to be in tune with the culture of the company.
- A strong employer brand increases the number of highly qualified applicants by 50%.
Hiring a collaborator is a mutual commitment.
To attract the right candidates and avoid a high staff turnover and costly recruitment errors, companies have every interest in putting in place a strategy employer brand that resembles them.
Have you decided to take charge of your employer brand?
5. Soft skills
Soft skills are skills associated with interpersonal skills, in other words with behavior. Companies attach increasing importance to it in the selection of candidates.
According to the skills and territories barometer, the 7 soft skills most in demand by companies are:
- Quality orientation: be aware of internal and external regulations during the performance of the work.
- The force of proposal: show initiative, offer suggestions independently.
- planning and organization: knowing how to manage priorities and meet deadlines.
- Digital agility: the ability to take control of new technological tools for work optimization.
- The analysis and problem solving: understand the direct and indirect components of a problem to find solutions consistent with the needs of the company.
- Communication: formulating ideas in a concise way, adapting the speech to the interlocutor and practicing active listening.
While these soft skills can be observed on a daily basis, it is necessary to establish good practices around digital uses. This is all the more essential with the development of teleworking.
Future challenges
The recruitment market is dynamic and must constantly adapt to changes in its environment.
Recruiters need to make thoughtful and measured use of new digital tools to attract talent and meet their hiring goals.
In a hyperconnected society, transparent and well-thought-out communication will help build a powerful employer brand image that is consistent with the overall strategy of the company.
With the rise of new forms of employment, such as self-employment or wage portage, specific talent management is necessary.
They must be able to be integrated with the other workforce of the company to promote fruitful collaboration.