Jobvite’s annual Recruiter Nation Report for 2021 looks at the state of the industry as it is showing a dramatic shift from one year prior when the world was facing job losses, layoffs, and staffing reductions. Today, recruiters face higher organizational turnover while attempting to fill new roles as 39% of organizations are increasing staffing levels and hiring rapidly - a 13 percentage point jump since last year.  was conducted by Zogby Analytics in August 2021.

The report was conducted by Zogby Analytics, and includes responses from more than 800 recruiters and HR professionals from hundreds of companies, including both Jobvite customers and noncustomers.

In response to changing priorities, organizations have begun pushing hard to adapt processes and grab additional budget:

• Nearly 80% of recruiters’ priorities have shifted over the past year
• 40% have increased recruiting budgets
• 54% plan to outsource more jobs to freelancers
• 40% are making more hires from internal employees.

That said, challenges abound, as many companies cannot pivot quickly enough to meet the demands of a labor force which is now firmly in command:

• 60% of recruiters believe organizations will lose high-quality employees if they do not transition to a remote-first culture
• 40% said candidates have turned down an interview or job offer due to an organization’s lack of diversity.

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Hiring trends and challenges

• 65% of recruiters report increased stress levels, with one in five reporting a drastic increase
• 47% said lack of skilled/qualified candidates is the biggest concern in hiring quality talent
• 57% believe lack of work from home policies make it harder to attract potential candidates
  

Candidate evaluation

• Only 28% of surveyed recruiters prioritize “cultural add” when considering a job candidate, down from 83% in 2017
• Employee referral (31%) and previous job experience (62%) have also drastically diminished in importance when evaluating a candidate
• 20% said participating in viral challenges or dances would negatively impact their decision to move forward with a candidate

Social media in recruiting

• Facebook is now the most-used social media channel for recruiting at 68%
• 45% of recruiters use Instagram, an increase of 28% since 2017
• Snapchat (20%) and TikTok (16%) continued their upward momentum as recruiting tools
  

Diversity & inclusion (D&I)

• 49% said job seekers are inquiring about D&I initiatives more than they did in the previous year - up 16 percentage points from 2020
• 61% of companies are putting more emphasis on diversity than they did in 2020
• However, 20% of organizations have no goals for improving diversity
  

Automation-nation - particularly amongst the chatboting class

Recruiters continue to automate - and chatbots are leading the pack in terms of use as well as growth of adoption. SMS usage is now a given:

• 60% of recruiters view texting as an effective tool for engagement and communication
• 54% plan to increase their use of texting in 2022

For the full report, please visit here