A New Talent Acquisition Approach for the Digital Age

Digitalization is changing the way HR needs to attract, retain and develop employees. In the hiring process, the balance of power seems to be shifting away from employers and toward candidates — who can now apply for multiple positions with one click and find out details about potential employers, from salaries to career paths and company culture.

"The digital economy is also booming, making it tough for companies to find and compete for certain talent, so organizations are working overtime to court newly empowered candidates," said Dion Love, Gartner VP, Advisory, at Gartner ReimagineHR 2018 in Orlando, FL.

“ 46% of new hires from the last 12 months said they wouldn’t make the same decision again”

Organizations refine and promote the employment brand and add more information to the mass that already exists in cyberspace. Many are improving the digital application experience itself. Others are actively trying to sell the organization and persuade qualified applicants to accept an offer. Some organizations are doing all of these things.

In the process, acquisition costs have jumped — by 26% between 2015 and 2017, when the overall cost of hiring rose 18%.

Not such a golden age for job candidates

"It would seem to be a golden age for job applicants, but the picture is bleaker than it seems for candidates," said Love. In truth, candidates feel:

• Overwhelmed. The wealth of available information, meant to increase transparency, is overloading candidates and making it hard for them to decide on a job offer.
• Overlooked. It has become so easy to apply for jobs that the number of applications per job has soared, so candidates have to wait longer to hear back from employers, if they hear back at all.
• Regretful. Increased demand for talent spells greater opportunity, but that is causing candidates to increasingly regret their decisions to accept offers.

Gartner research shows 46% of new hires from the last 12 months said they wouldn’t make the same decision again. And 38% of new hires who regret their decision intend to leave their job within 12 months, compared to 7% who don’t regret their decision.

Read more: Make Sure New Hires Don't Regret Taking Your Job Offer

How to recruit the newly empowered yet overloaded, unthinking and regretful candidate

In this environment, said Love, a more productive approach to hiring is to drive regret-free candidate decisions. To do this, HR needs to:

1. Build a messaging strategy that creates value for candidates — starting right from the messaging in job descriptions.
2. Surface signals of candidate commitment earlier in the process
3. Guide candidates to make confident decisions they won’t regret.

Bottom line benefits

Candidate regret is dangerous to business because it leads to lower productivity and lower engagement, and a much greater likelihood of turnover, threatening the very strategic efforts for which the talent is hired.

If HR can redesign the hiring process to drive candidate decisions and reduce regret.

When you move from courting the casual candidate to driving candidate decisions, the number of regretted decisions decreases by 75% — which could save your organization millions.