SAN MATEO, CA — (Marketwired) — 09/22/15 — Jobvite (), the comprehensive recruiting platform for emerging and enterprise companies, today announced the results of its eighth annual survey of recruiting professionals. This year, for the first time, Jobvite expanded the scope of its survey beyond social recruiting, gathering insights into all aspects of recruiting. The newly renamed “” gathered responses from over 1,400 recruiting and human resources professionals — both customers and noncustomers — revealing the trends, challenges, and opportunities that they face when finding and hiring top talent.
This year–s data reveals a fiercely competitive market for talent — one where recruiters struggle to find high quality candidates. 56 percent of recruiters cite the lack of available skilled talent as a key stumbling block in hiring, while 95 percent of recruiters anticipate equal or increased competition for talent over the next year.
“Landing a highly skilled candidate can sometimes feel like hunting for an elusive unicorn,” said Dan Finnigan, CEO of Jobvite. “So, as this year–s Recruiter Nation study points out, recruiters need to get creative and take a multipronged approach using social media, insights gleaned from analytics, and mobile tools, while engaging the entire organization to help find and hire top talent. That–s how winning companies will stay one step ahead in this competitive career landscape.”
78 percent of recruiters report that they find their best candidates through referrals, up from 60 percent in 2014, indicating that the personal touch has become more effective than ever. The next most effective targeting methods are finding candidates through social and professional networks (56 percent), and intern-to-hire programs (55 percent).
Other notable findings are summarized below.
Over half of recruiters believe that cover letters and college GPAs are relatively unimportant in evaluating candidates.
Among the qualities that leave the most lasting impressions on recruiters are culture fit (88 percent) and previous job experience (87 percent). Punctuality and appearance also carry some weight with recruiters after an initial interview.
96 percent of recruiters still count on face-to-face interviews, and 93 percent rely on resumes. But recruiters are now also diving deeper to connect with candidates using tactics like video interviews, personality tests, and sample assignments.
Recruiters need to incorporate data into their work. 72 percent acknowledge data analytics as somewhat important or very important.
A whopping 92 percent of recruiters utilize social media in either discovering or evaluating candidates.
87 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn, while 55 percent use Facebook and 47 percent use Twitter.
About three-quarters of recruiters view candidates positively when they post content relating to volunteer, professional, or social engagement work.
25 percent of recruiters report to have a negative perception of selfies, and 73 percent report that they–re neutral. Under 3 percent have a positive view of selfies!
54 percent of recruiters frown on social media posts showing candidates drinking alcohol, but posts that reveal marijuana use are viewed much more negatively at 75 percent.
Don–t forget to spell check! 72 percent of recruiters respond negatively to spelling and grammar mistakes, so be sure to give that post a second read before hitting enter.
To help get quality talent in the door, nothing works better than a solid health care plan — 63 percent of recruiters say this is the perk candidates find most attractive. Also among the most attractive perks are 401k plans, casual dress codes, and “work from home” privileges.
Of course, money still reigns supreme. An increased salary is one of the most effective ways to seal the deal and 69 percent of recruiters have increased initial salary offers in the last year.
Jobvite is the leading recruiting platform for the modern business. Today–s fastest-growing companies use applicant tracking, recruiter CRM and social recruiting software solutions from Jobvite to target the right talent and build the best teams. Jobvite is a complete, modular Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform which can optimize the speed, cost-effectiveness and ease of recruiting for any company. For more information, visit and follow us .
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