Fact Checking 2017 Recruiting "Trends"

I did not have to kiss many frogs to find my Prince. But when my team spends time looking for talent, it feels a lot like we're kissing frogs.

Every January we see tons of blogs and articles telling us what's cool for the new year. You can immerse yourself in the best exercise routines, Superfoods you should eat, the Best Apps to download, and...top Recruiting Trends for 2017.

A Google search led me to dozens of predictions for top recruiting trends for 2017 and I have decided to stop reading all of it, since the facts seem questionable. Here are few of the things I really don't want to hear anymore:

Your best candidates come from internal referrals. In some companies, internal leaders are spread so thin and focused only on meeting their goals, so they don't have much interest in recommending their favorite former co-workers. Some companies have hyper-competition which makes it feel risky to recommend great hires, since some of the newcomers may perform better and be given the opportunities for advancement. Since engagement research consistently tells us that people are overwhelmingly disengaged and people plan to leave their current job as soon as they can -- maybe the current team in some companies actually dislikes the work, culture, or management so much that they wouldn't want to recruit their friends.

Job Seekers are not using LinkedIn. This one really gets me. I found research suggesting that 90% of Recruiters use LinkedIn to source candidates, but only about one-third of job Seekers are using it. Can that be true? In my mind, a job seeker needs a current profile with all the bells and whistles -- a professional photo, some career history, groups that make you seen "connected" in your field, recommendations from people you've worked with. When I get an unsolicited resume, or find a job applicant who seems promising, I look for the LinkedIn profile. Am I the only one doing this? It is surprising to find job seekers with minimal profiles, unprofessional photos, or less than a dozen connections. If this trend is true, scant LinkedIn profiles would mean nothing.

Paid Job Boards are still the #1 recruitment tool used today. At the risk of dating myself, I used to read Job Advertisements in a newspaper, prepare a customized resume and cover letter, place those into an envelope, and pay money to send it using the USPS. There was some effort and thought in the process. I would ask myself: "Am I qualified? How should I present myself to get attention?" Not anymore.

In 2017, anyone with an Enter key can apply for a job pretending to be a qualified candidate.

The Job Boards have thousands of jobs and candidates and sorting through the clutter can be so frustrating. I keep hoping someone will come to market with a search feature that makes it easy to find the real applicants. Haven't seen that yet, but we all keep using Job Boards.

Soft Skills Assessments will be key to hiring in 2017. This trend intrigues me, in light of the dozens/hundreds of unqualified applicants sitting in most every job advertisement. Surely we can't budget to offer assessments to the masses, so we'll need to sort through the applicants and then find a subset we want to test for soft skills. Wait, everything Simon Sinek and other experts have taught me about Millennials suggests that soft skills are being redefined and may be greatly reduced in a generation that sends texts instead of making a phone call and having a real conversation. It does not feel like a good idea to sort through all the applicants and then give them an assessment that they might not be able to pass.

A majority of recruiters report that talent acquisition is the #1 priority for 2017 at their company. Really? How many recruiters can we find who would say, "Nah. Recruiting is not important at all. It's just a necessary evil." It makes perfect sense that Recruiters would say this and -- before I make enemies for myself -- let me clarify. Recruiting is very important. Particularly in growth companies like iPic Entertainment. We do need to attract new people to facilitate growth.

But, 25 years of Human Resources experience convinces me that appreciating and developing your people should be the #1 priority, not replacing people who leave.

We need to coach, engage, inspire our people so we can retain and promote internally to address growth. That means we could reduce our recruiting activity.

My request:

1. For all those Job Seekers who might see this -- please update your LinkedIn profile. Realize that recruiters and hiring managers are going to look at your profile and the presence you have created for yourself will impact their opinion of you.
2. For my HR colleagues -- share the strategies you use to avoid kissing frogs.