HR Trends: Attracting Candidates

HR Trends: Attracting Candidates

About the series: CV-19 and geopolitical turmoil have accelerated many trends, including (or especially!) those related to HR and recruitment. Companies that want to hire valuable candidates – who don’t quit after 3 months – have to make sure they keep up with the newest trends. What’s even more important: they need to implement new strategies in the right way.

Trends that are introduced too fast and/or by the wrong department will backfire by e.g. generating additional costs, negative employer branding, losing valuable candidates, longer recruitment processes, low(er) candidate experience, etc.

To help companies avoid these mistakes, we put together a summary of the most important trends along an employee’s life cycle – with their accompanying threats and – where possible – adding relatively simple quick wins – everything backed up with stats and real cases.

This week, we are sharing trends and threats related to Phase #1 out of 5: Attracting Candidates.

HR Trend #1: Employer Branding

According to the Employer Branding in Poland report published by HRM Institute in 2024:

• Employer Branding is one of the top priorities for 30% of companies.
• 51% of companies say EB is important but not a priority.
• Only 1% consider EB to be a top priority.
• 44% of companies have a separate EB budget.
• The biggest benefits of having an EB strategy are seen in communication with candidates (46%) and internal communication (43%).
• For 55% of respondents, HR departments are responsible for employer branding.
• One in four organizations has an EB department.
• Marketing departments play an important role in EB for 28% of respondents.
• Boards of directors are responsible for EB according to only 6% of respondents.
• The percentage of companies without any EB strategy has risen to 29%.

According to Universum’s Employer Branding NOW 2024 survey, Employer Branding is key to standing out and attracting the most desirable candidates. Average WMAE (World Most Attractive Employers) budgets for EB remained at around $3.7 million.

What are potential threats?

1. Companies might still treat employer branding superficially, confusing it with: PR & marketing activities, nice graphics, benefit programs for employees or recruitment activities.
2. Often, only the HR or only the marketing departments (instead of both) carry out employer branding activities.
3. Candidates might have unrealistic expectations which lead to higher personnel turnover.
4. Treating all candidates and employees the same – forgetting about proper segmentation into career types (that translate into motives, engagement factors or competences).
5. Many talent leaders admit they are still not data-driven when it comes to recruiting. Companies clearly indicate that data-driven recruiting is a priority, but, as data from Universum’s study says, only half “frequently or always” make employer brand marketing decisions that are data-driven.

Solution?

→ We couldn’t find a “quick fix” for that – it’s a matter of educating all involved departments / business units around the differences between Employer Branding, EVP or developing a corporate culture.

HR Trend #2: Chatbots and AI

More and more recruiters and companies decide to use AI and automation in their recruitment processes. According to the Employer Branding in Poland report published by HRM Institute in 2024:

• 49% of respondents answered that they use automation / robotics / AI in recruitment and HR activities.
• Automation finds its application, among others, in the creation of chatbots and voicebots – 14% and 6% respectively.
• Customer service, including chatbots and voicebots, is the sixth of the TOP 10 areas using automation and AI.

Additionally, according to a June 2024 ResumeBuilder.com study:

• 43% of companies are already using or planning to start using AI job interviews.
• 2/3 of this group believe AI conversations will increase hiring efficiency.
• 15% say AI will be used to make decisions about candidates without human intervention.

The data we found while preparing this year’s HR Trends – Potential Threats series says:

“Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) have been gradually gaining ground in companies for years, but
in recent months, their use has increased dramatically. AI has become a popular topic, thanks in part to ChatGPT, which was unveiled in November 2022 by US company OpenAI, and other image generation tools based on artificial intelligence (e.g. MidJourney). In 2024, 62% of those surveyed say they use AI at work, which shows the dynamic growth of interest and implementation of these technologies in companies. This topic will certainly continue to grow”.

What are potential threats?

1. HR professionals have the ability to understand / interpret candidate emotions and reactions – chatbots, obviously, can’t. That could negatively affect the user experience – it’s possible you’d be missing out on potentially good candidates!
2. The algorithms of chatbots may contain different biases of people who build the algorithms.
3. Every candidate speaks in a slightly different way – even in the same language. Consequently, it can be difficult for chatbots to give accurate results (choosing the right chat algorithm).
4. Some candidates, especially the more experienced ones, might straight out refuse to interact with a bot which could mean loosing out on potentially fantastic candidates!

Solution?

→ Prepare an FAQ document and share it with potential candidates (e.g. as an easy download or published next to the job ad on the website). This way, everyone can read the answers that have already been coded and fed into the chatbot anyway AND that increases the chances of retaining more candidates.

At Career Angels, after thorough analysis, we decided to substitute the screening calls with a detailed FAQ file. Below an opinion from one of our candidates:

“I really appreciate how you’ve optimized your recruitment process for maximum efficiency. A concise FAQ document provided to the candidate at this stage is a brilliant idea. It has indeed answered many of the questions I had. Having reviewed the document you’ve attached, as well as your company website once again, I can’t help but feel that this opportunity does seem like a good fit”.

HR Trend #3: Smartphonization

Nobody in 2025 should be surprised that more and more activities are moving online. An increase in the use of mobile devices is what comes with it – consequently, more candidates are becoming “mobile candidates”. Companies who don’t want to miss out on them have to adapt accordingly.

According to a 2024 AppCast report, more than 60% of job seekers use their mobile phones to search for jobs.

According to Forbes, candidates are also using social media to let others know how a particular company treats its candidates, which can negatively affect its image and hinder future recruitment.

What are potential threats and solutions?

1. Some people don’t feel comfortable being interviewed on a video call via their phone – as a solution: over “normal” video calls via Skype, Zoom and alike!
2. Many platforms used by companies are not yet adapted to mobile devices and/or don’t offer their own mobile apps. No easy quick fix here: work closely with your IT department!

HR Trend #4: Remote Work

The KPMG Future of Work report found that “50% of employees work fully on-site, but only 30% want to work from an office. Simply Get Results’ analysis shows that less than 10% of job ads take this preference into account. Only 6.7% describe positions as ‘fully remote’ and 2% describe positions as hybrid.”

Here is more data provided by SHRM:

• While the pandemic prompted many organizations to try a wider range of recruitment strategies to increase their ability to find talent in 2022, the results show that the rates of use of recruitment strategies fell across the board in 2024.
• The percentage of organizations offering flexible working as a recruitment strategy decreased by 16 percentage points in 2024.
• The percentage of organizations offering pay improvements has decreased by 16 percentage points compared to 2022.

Additionally, according to the HRM Institute report, the hybrid / remote working model ranks fifth on the list of most important employer brand attributes in talent acquisition (for 45% of respondents it was very important and for 36% quite important).

What are potential threats?

Remote working can have certain consequences. A few key risks associated with this phenomenon include a decrease in commitment and sense of belonging, communication and coordination problems, difficulties in integrating new employees. On the other hand, if job offers do not meet the candidates’ expectations regarding remote or hybrid working, this can negatively affect the functioning and competitiveness of the company in the market. This can cause, among other things, problems in recruiting and attracting talent, high employee turnover, decreased commitment and satisfaction, difficulties in retaining younger generations (millennials and Gen Z), deterioration of the employer branding.

Solution?

• If offering remote working is not an option, consider implementing a hybrid model as a compromise. Gradually testing flexible models and collecting feedback from your employees will make this change easier to implement.
• As part of the modernization of work policies, it is worth analyzing which roles actually require office presence, creating transparent home office policies and including flexibility in contracts and job offers as an added value.
• In job ads, it is worth clearly highlighting the hybrid or remote working options available.
• Conduct trainings on hybrid management.
• In addition, it is important to build a remote organizational culture (‘virtual coffees’, team-building meetings), improve communication in remote teams (e.g. identifying which topics require email and which can be discussed in messages or during a video call).
• Introduce appropriate technological safeguards and conduct cybersecurity training to minimize the risk of data leakage.

HR Trend #5: Protection Against Climate Change

According to Gartner’s 2024 report, “as major climate change events move from local and episodic to widespread and persistent, executives will need to find new ways to deal with their impact on productivity, retention and recruitment”. Additionally:

• In 2024 and beyond, organizations will emphasize and promote direct protection from climate change as a key element of the benefits they offer.
• Examples of such benefits include: preparing proactive plans to provide shelter, energy and supplies when natural disasters arrive, cash benefits for those experiencing hardship due to climate-related events, grants for short-term accommodation, relocation assistance, mental health support.

What are potential threats?

While this trend is most evident in the United States at the moment, increasing incidents of extreme weather can also be seen in Europe. Introducing such solutions come with the potential threat of increased costs, inequitable distribution (some employees may perceive that climate-related venefits favour only those in high-risk areas), and the risk of greenwashing accusations. On the other hand, extreme weather can disrupt employee work-life balance and affect the employees’ health. Moreover, this is an opportunity to stand out and appeal to the younger generations, who particularly value climate-conscious employers.

Solution?

→ Introducing benefits to protect against the effects of climate change is an innovative way to address the needs and concerns of employees. It is worth highlighting in job offers what a company can do for an employee in the event of finding themselves in a difficult situation related to extreme weather events.

Coming up next: “HR Trends: Recruit”, in the meantime you can read our article about the 5 phases of an employee’s life cycle.

If you’d like to discuss how we could potentially support your organization in implementing or improving certain HR trends, feel free to get in touch by email with Zadrozna.Anna@CareerAngels.eu.