Consumer Trends all Recruiters Should be Taking Note Of

To determine candidate and recruiting trends, it is prudent to look at key consumer trends: more often than not, consumer trends are a precursor to candidate and recruiting trends.

A strong trend in most corporations in recent years has been to adopt a “customer first” philosophy.  Also referred to as customer-oriented, customer-driven or customer-focused, these businesses are oriented towards serving their customer's wants and needs. This informs the direction of their products and services. Such businesses also tend to provide excellent customer care. They understand that putting customers first isn’t a strategy, it’s a culture!

But why has this trend become so prevalent?  What factors have led to a more customer-centric model for many organisations?

The key underlying reason is, that in order to thrive, an organization needs to continuously change and adapt to their customer’s ever-changing needs and wants. If they fail to continuously evolve and adapt, they will lose out to their competitors who are better at it.

Recruiters and Employer Brand professionals would do well to adapt this trend into a "Candidate First" philosophy that underpins all of their activities across the full recruiting funnel.

Following are some key consumer trends that inform why we need to take a "Candidate First" approach.

1. The Era of Choice

Firstly, we, as consumers, have more information, more opportunities and more choice than at any time in human history.

Armed with incredible access to information, today, people complete nearly 60% of the decision making process before any interaction with your business (Source: Corporate Executive Board, cited in Harvard Business Review, “The End of Solution Sales”, July 2012).

Brands have always moved people towards decisions long before they transact. Think of the brand power of Nike and how this influences you when selecting your sports shoes and attire.

What is different today is the amount of information available to research before we make any big purchase or life decisions.

Ten years ago, when you booked a holiday, you may well have looked at a glossy brochure in a travel agent and been seduced by the image of the unfeasibly aqua water, white sand and palm trees. Today, most of us would not book a holiday online without researching Trip Advisor, looking for the social proof and other social signals that help us to make decisions. In other words, we are more likely to rely on the review made by a German tourist half way around the world, who we have never met, than the travel agent’s glossy brochure.

The same is true for booking a restaurant, finding a tradie, or purchasing white goods. And indeed it has never been more relevant for career changes.

2. Rising Consumer Expectations

The amount of information available has also contributed to rising consumer expectations.

Trend Watching produced their landmark report “The Expectation Economy” back in 2008, but never have the findings been more relevant.

In essence, an improved consumer experience at one company will raise consumer expectations of other companies, even companies who operate in different industries.

Examples that we will all be familiar with:

• Google – Google works so well, that we expect almost instantaneous search results. What’s more, we now type three letters and expect Google to know what we are looking for and auto suggest the rest of the search string. As a result, we expect the search function on any web property to work as well as Google search and are therefore generally disappointed.
• Amazon and ebay – Both ave done a lot to create expectations of total transparency from brands. These online giants were instrumental in introducing user reviews and star ratings that are now common place. 

So in the information age, consumer expectations are steadily increasing and brands are competing with anyone and everyone, which means they need to keep an eye on anyone and everyone.

3. Declining Brand Loyalty

As consumers we have more brand choice than ever before. As an example, a typical supermarket now houses three times more brands than it typically did 30 years ago.

At the same time, brand loyalty is declining…sharply.

We see in this chart that car badge loyalty has declined dramatically over the past 30 years. This is representative of many industries.

Apart from the odd exception, top brands aren’t able to retain their status as market leaders as long as they used to. A loyal customer base can melt away in 12 short months. Many of Nokia’s loyal customers switched to Apple or Samsung without a second thought.

As Edelman’s 2015 Global Trust Barometer showed, it is not just trust in brands, but trust in companies overall that have faced a steep decline, particularly in developed countries.

4. The Brand Paradox

However, there exists a certain brand paradox in the world today: while people put less trust in brands in general, they love specific brands.

Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream and Patagonia adventure gear are two companies that have a small army of passionate brand advocates.

Why? What are these select brands doing well?

Modern consumers expect companies to act properly. This means treating customers well, treating employees well and doing good for society.
Doing good to society is interesting: customers like companies with a view on the world that reflects their own.

In other words, authenticity must come from within. People want to, and can, see behind the veil. The difference between reality and what you communicate is harder and harder to hide.

Collectively, such trends have led to Companies taking a “Customer First” approach to their branding and customer service.

As stated upfront, consumer trends are often a precursor for candidate trends.

If Recruiting and Employer Branding teams are not sitting up and taking notice of these macro trends, they are not setting themselves up for success.

I'm a "Talent Brand Consultant" with LinkedIn, based in Sydney, Australia.  I post articles about LinkedIn Strategies, Content Marketing and Social Media. Follow me by clicking on the 'Follow' button at the top of this post if you would like to receive my articles right in your news feed as they are published.