With spring already here, it’s time to take a moment and assess what is happening in talent management now and in the foreseeable future. Looking at the landscape, here are a couple of talent management trends to watch in 2016.

Company Culture Preservation Creates a Tech Need

HR professionals and C-suite executives are increasingly concerned with promoting and preserving company culture that aligns with their corporate mission and engages their employees. Deloitte’s “Global Human Capital Trends 2015” report states that 87 percent of organizations cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges, and 50 percent call the problem “very important.”

As company culture preservation becomes a major priority, the need for strong talent management solutions will become increasingly apparent and the role of recruitment in preserving company culture will continue to grow.

Company culture and talent management have a symbiotic relationship. On the one hand, attracting top talent enhances company culture. On the other hand, a positive company culture makes talent acquisition significantly easier to achieve.

Additionally, a strong connection exists between company culture, employee engagement, and employee retention. Savvy talent managers realize that a strong retention strategy actually begins during the recruitment process.

Access to powerful analytics provided by robust talent management technologies will help talent managers to find candidates with a high likelihood of integrating well into a company’s culture, becoming actively engaged employees, and remaining with an organization for a longer period of time.

This elevated level of engagement and retention translates directly into increased productivity and profitability, proving a positive ROI for investment in talent management technology.

Talent Sourcing Goes High-Tech

According to Pew Research Center’s “Searching for Work in the Digital Era”, job seekers are turning to the Internet in droves. Here are some statistics from that study:

  • 54 percent of U.S. adults have gone online to look for job information.
  • 45 percent have applied for a job online.
  • Among Americans who have looked for work in the past two years, 79 percent used online resources in their last job search.
  • 34 percent of that group ranks the Internet as the most important tool available to them for performing a job search.
  • 28 percent of Americans have used a smartphone as part of a job search.
  • 13 percent of social media users say their social media presence has helped them find a job.

Commenting on the trend of social media use in job searching, Ere Media notes: “With sites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor helping to make some aspects of corporate culture more transparent, employers may want to review their social media presence and consider whether they want to contribute to the social conversation about what it’s like to work for their company.”

Additionally, top job candidates are increasingly likely to expect talent managers to connect with them via social media platforms, making talent management technology an important tool in the arsenal of any recruiter.

Social media plays a significant role in the acquisition of passive candidates as well. Monitoring social media platforms with talent management technology reveals thought leaders in your industry who, while not actively looking to make a move, may welcome a dialogue with your organization if it is a good cultural fit.

Leveraging social media to find internal brand advocates who are actively promoting your company brand on social media will improve your recruitment strategies significantly.

Talent management solutions that enable collaboration in real-time will also have a positive impact on the agility of your talent management strategy. Robust analytics provide essential information that shapes your talent decisions and keeps your talent acquisition strategies in top form at all times.

The Takeaway

Tech-savvy talent managers will reap significant benefit from leveraging the power of technology in their search for top talent. Using technology to preserve and support company culture, to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by social media use, and to identify and engage passive candidates will continue to be a top priority for forward-thinking talent managers.

To see what our state-of-the-art talent management solution can do for you, please schedule a demo today and take advantage of cutting-edge technology for your talent acquisition needs.