Have you ever wondered how your organization compares to others when it comes to recruitment practices? Whether you are interested in learning best practices for employee referral programs, suggestions for developing veteran hiring initiatives, or simply interested in benchmarking your cost per hire, why not ask your fellow industry practitioners for their valuable input? One great benefit of DirectEmployers Membership is the opportunity to survey your peers from our 840+ member organizations for their thoughts, suggestions and feedback on relevant topics. For one of our latest surveys, a Member in the retail industry was curious about hiring trends, and the responses uncovered a number of interesting observations.
After gathering basic information on the respondent’s organization and the kinds of positions they hire for, the survey dug into hiring trends, with 17% of respondents saying that they saw a decrease in applicant flow in 2015. Half of these respondents said the decrease was 10-20% while 38% said the decrease was even less. Getting to the root of this drop in applicants, the survey asked respondents to identify the suspected cause of the decrease and 78% attributed the decrease to lower unemployment rates. Additional causes identified include lengthy/confusing application process, wages and competitor’s hiring practices.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, 42% of respondents said they saw an increase in applicant flow in 2015. More than half felt the increase was 5-10%, while 28% felt the increase was 10-20% and 17% said the increase was even higher. What was this increase attributed to? Fifty-three percent believed the increase is a result of advertising and social media campaigns. Interestingly enough, a number of survey respondents associated the cause to higher unemployment rates – a poor economy and more positions to fill.
So where is this higher volume of applicants coming from? Forty-five percent indicated their most effective source for high volume recruiting is job boards, while a number of other sources were named including employee referral programs, job fairs, DirectEmployers job syndication services and online sponsored campaigns. Speaking to advertising and social media efforts specifically, 47% responded that LinkedIn is their most effective social media outlet for high volume recruiting, with other outlets including Facebook, Twitter, etc. falling far behind. Additional sources include DirectEmployers microsites, corporate career sites and Glassdoor.
Thinking about the trends that your organization experienced in 2015? To what do you attribute to your increase or decrease in applicant flow? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! DirectEmployers Members can view the full survey report in our online Member community.
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