Description: It's time to explore the latest trends shaping the hiring landscape in 2024, and we're sitting down with MRA Recruiting Business Partner Lead, Katie Kestly, to do just that! With more than ten years working in recruiting, Katie has seen a number of recruiting trends come and go. Join us as we discuss the innovative strategies and technologies that are redefining the way organizations attract, assess, and retain top talent in the rapidly evolving job market of 2024.
Resources:
Let's Connect:
Guest LinkedIn Profile - Katie Kestly
Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler
Transcript:
Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:03 Unknown Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR powered by MRA, the Management Association. Looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR? MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler, and we are so glad you're here.
00:00:21:05 - 00:00:47:03 Unknown Now it's time to thrive. Well, hello everybody, and welcome to this episode of 30 Minute Thrive. We're here and talking with Katie Kestly today, MRA's lead recruiting, business partner, partner and subject matter expert on the topic for today. So with more than ten years of working and recruiting, Katie, I know you've seen a number of recruiting trends come and go, so I'm kind of excited to talk about trends that you'll be seeing in 2024.
00:00:47:09 - 00:01:17:17 Unknown Yeah, but today we're going to like I said, we're going to be talking about those recruiting trends that you need to be aware of and start planning for for 2024. So according to a Recruiter Flow blog, some of the top ten trends for recruiting in 2024 will be hybrid work model, proactive candidate engagement, use of recruiting automation, diversity and inclusion, branding, data centric recruiting and list goes on, but we'll cover those in the rest of the podcast.
00:01:17:19 - 00:01:42:10 Unknown So Katie, let's talk about some of these trends and starting out with number one on the list that is hybrid work. So are our employees really still looking for hybrid work? yeah, absolutely. That's one of the biggest challenges right now is just, you know, to work from home, to not work from home. And it's something that companies are really kind of having that hard time trying to identify where are we going to go with this?
00:01:42:11 - 00:02:09:17 Unknown But yes, absolutely, hybrid work is here to stay. So how can an employee really still recruit top talent if they're not going to offer hybrid work? Yeah, that's a really great question. And a lot of companies run into this and I think that the the biggest thing for organizations or the biggest thing for candidates is the number one primary motivator for candidates wanting to work from home is to have that flexibility.
00:02:09:19 - 00:02:31:23 Unknown So if organizations are able to highlight what they can offer in terms of flexibility, that's something that will make them stand out if they're not offering that hybrid policy. So, for example, a lot of organizations are getting creative with their schedules, so they're doing core days in the office or core hours that they have to be in the office.
00:02:31:23 - 00:02:52:17 Unknown So for core days, whether it's your group or groups and Monday one, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday and even core hours. So maybe they'll do you have to be in the office from 9 to 3. So that gives them more of that flexible schedule if they want to work, come in at seven and leave at three or even if they prefer more of a 9 to 5.
00:02:52:17 - 00:03:16:09 Unknown So really highlighting that flexibility of what they can offer. If they can't offer the hybrid. Yeah, absolutely. I was just talking on and podcasts earlier this morning about hybrid work schedules and I had an example of a friend who was at a hybrid company and now they just moved to fully in-person and a lot of people quit because of that.
00:03:16:10 - 00
Episode Transcript
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minuteThrive, your go to podcast for anything
and everything HR powered by MRA,the Management Association.
Looking to stay on top of the everchanging world of HR?
MRA has got you covered.
We'll be the first to tell you what's hotand what's not.
I'm your host, Sophie Bolerand we are so glad you're here.
(00:21):
Now it's time to thrive.
Well, hello everybody, and welcometo this episode of 30 Minute Thrive.
We're here and talking with KatieKestly today, MRA's lead recruiting,
business partner, partner and subjectmatter expert on the topic for today.
So with more than ten yearsof working and recruiting, Katie,
I know you've seen a number of recruitingtrends come and go,
(00:42):
so I'm kind of excited to talk abouttrends that you'll be seeing in 2024.
Yeah, but today we're going to
like I said, we're going to be talkingabout those recruiting trends
that you need to be aware ofand start planning for for 2024.
So according to a Recruiter Flow blog,
some of the top ten trends for recruitingin 2024 will be hybrid work model,
(01:04):
proactive candidate engagement,use of recruiting automation, diversity
and inclusion,branding, data centric recruiting
and list goes on, but we'll cover thosein the rest of the podcast.
So Katie,let's talk about some of these trends
and starting out with numberone on the list that is hybrid work.
So are our employeesreally still looking for hybrid work?
(01:28):
yeah, absolutely.
That's one of the biggest challengesright now is just,
you know, to work from home,to not work from home.
And it's something that companiesare really kind of having that hard time
trying to identifywhere are we going to go with this?
But yes, absolutely,hybrid work is here to stay.
So how can an employee really
(01:49):
still recruit top talentif they're not going to offer hybrid work?
Yeah, that's a really great question.
And a lot of companies run into thisand I think that the the biggest thing
for organizations or the biggest thingfor candidates is the number one primary
motivator for candidates wanting to workfrom home is to have that flexibility.
(02:09):
So if organizations are able to highlight
what they can offer
in terms of flexibility, that's somethingthat will make them stand out
if they're not offeringthat hybrid policy.
So, for example, a lot of organizationsare getting creative with their schedules,
so they're doing core days in the officeor core hours
(02:30):
that they have to be in the office.
So for core days, whether it's your groupor groups and Monday one,
Friday,Tuesday, Thursday and even core hours.
So maybe they'll doyou have to be in the office from 9 to 3.
So that gives them more of thatflexible schedule if they want to work,
come in at seven and leave at three
(02:50):
or even if they prefer more of a 9 to 5.
So really highlightingthat flexibility of what they can offer.
If they can't offer the hybrid. Yeah,absolutely.
I was just talking on and podcastsearlier this morning
about hybrid work schedulesand I had an example of a friend
who was at a hybrid companyand now they just moved
(03:11):
to fully in-personand a lot of people quit because of that.
So I guess that leads to the nextquestion.
Is hybrid really a criticalno or no go offer?
I would say do you think? Yeah.
I mean, personally,I like the having the flexibility.
I like coming into the office.
(03:31):
I think for candidates in the markettoday, just when I reach out to candidates
on LinkedIn, it's the first questionI get is, is this remote?
I'm only looking for remoteor what is the hybrid policy?
I even have gotten to the pointnow on to my email messages
saying we offer a hybrid schedule.
This is what it looks like.
So I would say it's criticaland I think a lot of organizations
(03:53):
are adaptingand adapting to this new work model.
No, I totally agree with that.
Yeah, it's good to know. Yeah.
So I'm also curiouswhat is meant by proactive
candidate engagementas that's another item on the list.
So can you give any examplesof what it really means and
any examples of good proactivecandidate engagement?
(04:15):
Yeah, so proactive
candidate engagement essentiallyis just staying on top of hiring demand.
So a big bulk of what recruiters dois sourcing candidates.
So creating those connections
with them, trying to get them to sync upwith the recs that they're working on.
But say, maybe a recruiterdoesn't have a full plate at the time, but
they see a skill set over and over again.
(04:37):
That's where what it meansby proactive engagement,
making sure you're staying ahead
of those hiring demandsand just kind of building that pipeline
or building that network.
If you will.
So an example ofthat is just simply networking.
Recruiters have LinkedIn recruiter seedswhere they can build those pipelines
of of candidates now, or I should saypipeline, but network of candidates.
(04:59):
So I think an example of that is justkind of from a networking perspective.
But I think in terms of being havingthat candidate engagement,
you want to be tasteful with.
You don't want to just be like,Hey, what's up?
How how's it going?
How are you?
It's moreso, Hey, I see you're an engineerin this skill set.
We've seen this skill set regularly,kind of giving them that whiff.
(05:21):
I'm like, What's in it for them?
Sharing some market dataand things like that.
So absolutely having thosemeaningful conversations.
Yeah, that's a good point.
We also talked a lot about Canada
experience overall on the podcast,
so I'm curious to know what organizationsare doing to enhance the candidate
experience as part of their recruitmentstrategy for 2024.
(05:43):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
I think the candidate experiencehas been a hot topic
for recruiters for quite some time now.
You know,you want to make sure that the candidates
are well taken care of,and I think companies are doing
a lot of different thingsto help implement that.
You hear a lot of like high tech,high touch.
So incorporating technologyinto the forefront of the applicant
(06:06):
tracking system process,whatever it may be.
Another thing that candidatesexcuse me that recruiters are doing
as they're doing more of like a fast replywhen the application comes in.
So as soon as the application comes in,
they're connecting with them, saying,Hey, thanks for applying.
I would love to schedule a phone screen
with you or schedulethe interview with you.
(06:26):
It really shows that you havethat interest there.
Yeah, the last thing
that I've seen organizations doingis focusing more on pre-boarding.
So before the candidates are coming infor their first day,
they're assigning them a buddy,if you will, or they call it like a warm
welcome approach.
So they either,you know, assign them to a coworker,
(06:46):
the recruiter,or the hiring manager or whatever
it may be, and it kind of stays with them,
you know, every step of the waybefore their first day.
So they kind of have that more senseof belonging
when they, you know, feel you know,when you start a new job, it's it's wild.
You don't know where you're going,what you're doing.
So it's more welcome to.
Yeah, no, I could see how that wouldbetter the whole candidate experience.
(07:10):
And you also mentionedtechnology in there.
So another item on herwas is recruiting automation.
So are we really talkingabout technology here
or even the useof artificial intelligence?
Yes, we are.
We are.
We are. AI is everywhere. It's
(07:30):
it's a part of the recruiting process.
And it's not necessarilyto replace recruiters.
It's to make us better, to make us faster,to make us more efficient.
So we have to deliver to our membersto our customers, to our candidates.
So when you think of recruitingfrom start to finish, from, you know,
putting the job out there, sourcingthe candidates, contacting the candidates,
(07:51):
sorting the candidates,AI plays a part into every piece of those.
And it's really justto make us more efficient and effective.
So there's things like auto generated,personalized outreach
messages, auto generatedsearch strings based on requirements.
So you have technologies and toolswhere you can enter in a job or enter
in a job descriptionand it will auto populate
(08:13):
candidates to youthat you can reach out to.
And then lastly,
it helps.
There's different like add inswith different applicant
tracking systems where it can helpprioritize the candidates
that have come into the rack and maybewhich ones are a fit or are not a fit.
So and some of the ones
that we've explored here internally too,it's like German German hire viewer,
(08:34):
the two that really stand out and sayto stay, yeah, that's half of my mind.
But yeah, I love how you said thatAI is not meant to like take over.
Your job is going to help you
because I feel like I've heard a lot,like AI is going to take over my job.
Yeah, they're taking over everything, so.
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
I totally agreethat it's just there as a tool
(08:55):
and you can use itto make your job more efficient, right?
So diversity and
inclusion was also namedas a top trend for 2024.
How can employers really incorporate theAI into their recruiting?
Yeah, that's a really great questionand I feel like this has been
a big buzz for recruitingand just organizations as a whole.
(09:17):
And obviously a lot of it stemsinto the beginning stages of recruiting,
so I can touch every stepin the recruiting process.
So whether it's creating genderneutral job ads, placing the said
job on diverse boardsbecause there's a lot that are specific
to different diverse organizations,you can target diverse talent pools
(09:39):
and when you're sourcing candidatesas well,
partnering with local diversity partners
and doing different like blind hiringmethods, things like that.
So you're not you know, you're focusingon it, but you're not focusing on it.
Yeah.
So and I've seen some other organizations,too, to draw more attention
to their diverse recruiting efforts, do
(10:02):
more of like a Happy blank day on
LinkedIn.
Yeah, I'd say social media,but things like Happy like Day of the Dead
or things like that, just to showthat they're having that drawn
towards more desire for diversityin their workforce.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you just listed a bunch of great
and steps that people can take even nowright after the podcast.
(10:25):
So we'll all link some resourcesto to help with that.
Absolutely.
The next one is branding for recruitment.
And I love this one, obviouslybecause I'm on the marketing team.
So tell us more aboutwhy an organization's
brand is so importantin the recruitment process.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well,marketing and recruiting go hand in hand.
(10:47):
Like sometimes I like to play like I'ma marketing person, but I'm really not.
I'm just I like to marry the personand the candidate and everyone
to where they need to go.
But the main goalfor branding for an organization
and recruiting is just how can youdifferentiate, differentiate yourself?
How can you have thatstrong and input employer brand?
It's very critical and it's to highlightthat within the recruitment process.
(11:10):
So again, a lot of what recruiters dois that active candidate outreach to get,
you know, maybe you have a job posted,you don't have any applicants.
So how am I goingto attract people to this job?
So when I'm reaching out to candidatespersonally, I always like to make sure
my emails are fun, They're lightand getting the point to what they want
to know.
Okay, yes, schedule and compensation.
(11:31):
But if I can leverageother social media platforms and that's
what a lot of companies are doingwhere they can highlight their culture,
their values, what makes them unique.
I was actually workingwith one organization where
they have create they createda slew of day in the life videos.
So when I was recruitingfor those particular skill sets
and maybe the candidates
(11:52):
didn't know exactly what a day in
the life looked like, I would enter thatlink into my email message.
So the candidate could get a better feeland physically
see what a day in the life looked like.
So great idea. Yeah.
So that's a lot of what brandingand how it kind of falls into recruitment.
Yeah, I feel like recruitershave to be more creative than ever now
(12:14):
because I don't know, there'sjust so many different aspects
that you could write be original onand everyone wants to say,
Come to us because we have hybrid work,but everyone's going to say that.
So like, like you said, what makes youstand stand out and stand apart?
Yeah.
So as the jobmarket becomes more competitive,
what strategies are employersadopting to attract and retain top talent?
(12:39):
I think, you know, the
biggest thing that employersare doing to adopt and attract
and retain the top talentis they're looking at the market too.
So they're looking at the market,seeing what the competition is doing,
what the competition is paying,what they're putting out there,
and they're making those adjustmentsand they're being very mindful of that.
I think a lot of what we've talked aboutbefore here is they're also
(13:02):
meeting their employees where they're atand kind of seeing what the benefits are.
That would be a benefit to them,
because a benefit for meis ever been a benefit to you.
So I know a lot of organizationsare doing a paid or unpaid elder care
daycare or child care reimbursementand also embracing
a long term work from home policyand offering those flexibility.
(13:25):
So how about some of the skillsand qualities that recruiters
are really prioritizing in 2024as the job market continues to evolve?
Yeah,the market's pretty saturated right now
in terms of candidatesand people looking for work.
So I think one of the main
skills and qualitiesthat they're prioritizing is culture fit.
I think, you know, everyone was sohot to trot and hot to hire
(13:50):
a few years back.
And I think they've
they've learned their lessonthat at the end of the day,
we got to make surewe have the right culture fed.
So we're having,you know, these individuals longer term.
Another thing they're looking to dois increase
the skills of their recruiting team.
So having them, you know, adopt differenttechnology use are different skills
trainings, factoring in AI as well.
(14:13):
And then I think last but not least,kind of what we mentioned earlier
is that too much meaning the employees,where they're at the meeting,
the candidates where they'reat in terms of communication,
I was recently recruitingfor a slew of interns
and I was like,Hey, this is my first time recruiting
Gen Z, and I know they want short,sweet to the point.
So how what is my messagegoing to be to them?
(14:35):
So what I ended up doingwas I put together a sourcing
and mail that said, Hey,I have an internship, here's
the company, here'sthe location, here's the pay.
Are you interested?
Ed If so, book a time on my calendar.
And I sent them a linkbecause it was all easy
to do on their phones and thingslike that, I got zero responses,
but nine candidatesscheduled phone screens for me
(14:57):
and they all showed up to their phonescreen. Really? Yeah.
So a big thing is of really justmeeting people where they're at
and where they need to be in terms ofcommunication skills and things like that.
So those would be, in my opinion,the key skills now.
Yeah, those are great examplesand great things always keep in mind.
Yeah, well kind of wrapping up hereand looking ahead at the same time,
(15:20):
what challenges do you really anticipaterecruiters will face in the coming year?
And do you have any advicethat you can kind of leave us with today
to help navigate some of these challenges?
Yeah, I think the biggest challengefor the upcoming year
for recruitingis just going to be the job market itself.
I think it's it's ever changing right now.
(15:40):
Like I started last week with two activepositions and now my plate is nearly full.
So it's just it's everchanging again, for better or for worse.
And I don't think anyone really knowsthe predictability for next year.
So I think that's going to bethe biggest challenge.
My advice on that is as a recruiter,
as an employee, as a supervisor,anyone in the workforce
(16:02):
internally or externally, communicationand having those clear expectations.
And I think too,from a recruiter standpoint,
the advice would be
gaining the trust from candidatesand building the relationship.
You know, you there like I said,the market is very saturated right now.
So, you know, you if you ghost candidates,you know, just follow up with candidates
(16:24):
because if someone has a bad experience,yeah, they're going to LinkedIn
and they're going to post about it.
So you want to make sure that you'reyou're ensuring that you're
genuinely there to helpbecause as a recruiter,
you're there to help the candidate,you're there to help the organization, and
you really just want to make sure you'regaining that trust from the candidates.
That would be my, my,my biggest one advice.
(16:46):
That is great advice.
And so thank you.
Well, it sounds like recruitersdefinitely have their hands full this year
and next year, but I want to thank youfor coming on the podcast
and sharing your experienceand expertise with us today.
We're curious to know what you're doingto get ready for recruiting in 2024,
so feel free to leave a comment belowfor a chance
(17:08):
to win one of MRA'snew swag items on the podcast.
And if you liked our chat and topic today,don't forget to share out this episode
and consider joining MRAif you aren't a member already.
We have all the resources you need
in the show Notes below,including resources on this topic.
Otherwise, thank you so much fortuning in today and thanks for joining us.
(17:29):
Katie.Thank you. And we'll see you next week.
And that wraps up our contentfor this episode.
Be sure to reference the show noteswhere you can sign them to connect.
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check out other MRA episodeson your favorite podcast platform.
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so you don't miss out.Thanks for tuning in
and we'll see you next Wednesdayto carry on the conversation.
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