Over the last decade, technology has greatly advanced traditional recruitment practices and with the use of AI and VR amongst both candidates and recruiters increasing, we are expecting 2018 to bring a plethora of new recruitment technologies.

Below we discuss the recruitment trends we expect to see evolve throughout 2018.

Replace the ‘Advertise & Apply’ model with ‘Find & Engage’

It is expected that the ‘Advertise & Apply’ model, where active job seekers apply for a role online, will be superseded by a new model called the ‘Find & Engage’ approach.

Digital technology and data science analytics will ‘find’ candidates by searching talent pools and examining large amounts of data at once, to create candidate shortlists. These will also extrapolate data patterns to gauge how interested in new job opportunities a candidate is.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) candidate screening

Next year, automated, machine-learning algorithms will screen CVs and also communicate with candidates. This is already being used by some major firms, who ‘train’ ontology to convert CV data into consistent formats for analysis, to speed up the shortlisting process.

Virtual reality (VR)

Some companies provide VR tours of their office to give candidates a feel for their workplace and culture. In 2018 it is expected that candidates will be able to incorporate VR into their applications. For example, architects could virtually map out their projects to show hiring managers or IT project managers could demo their development projects.

Augmented reality (AR)

Companies are expected to experiment more with AR through interactive candidate experiences, such as allowing candidates to take part in a mock client meeting or another role-specific activity. AR combined with the new ‘Find and Engage’ model above, will help companies manage higher numbers of applications by both speeding up the process and reducing the number of man-hours needed, refining it to the higher stages of an application (face-to-face interviews).

Video LinkedIn profiles

2018 might bring about the ability to embed video into LinkedIn profiles, allowing candidates to build their personal brand, whilst employers could do the same to better attract and engage candidates. Candidate videos will also help to give greater insight into potential cultural fit, something a faceless CV cannot do.

Upskilling becomes a key benefit

As technology continues to rapidly advance and more and more knowledge becomes out of date, top candidates will be looking for roles that offer upskilling and development. They will be looking out for extra responsibilities, additional project scope,  and ongoing mentoring. This will be key in differentiating you from your competition in 2018.

Fintech professionals needed

PwC’s 19th Annual Global CEO Survey stated that 70% of leaders believed the speed of change in technology was concerning. They expect the deployment of technology products to feature highly on the agenda for CEOs in the financial quarter. Therefore, in 2018 you can expect a surge in demand for the skilled individuals who can deploy these technologies and services.

So there you have it, these are the technology trends that you can expect to affect recruitment in 2018! Thank you to Hays for their insight and innovations into the this! If this interested you and you would like to read more of our IT focused blogs, click ‘technology’ in the filters to the side of this blog and explore!

Originally posted on Dec 20th 2017 - by Amy Magee on the ISL Recruitment blog.