Speed, Communication, and AI are Key to Keeping Top Talent Engaged With Search Firms

A new report find that speed, accurate job matching, and frequent communication are key to building a loyal talent community in today’s competitive recruiting market. Bullhorn’s 2024 GRID Talent Trends Report reveals that 75 percent of candidates would work with their search firm again, and over 80 percent are comfortable with AI if it streamlines the recruitment process. Let’s take a closer look!

October 31, 2024 – What does it take to produce a satisfied, loyal talent community? Speed and accuracy in search and match, and clear, timely communication top the list, according to a recent report from Bullhorn. The recruiting software provider surveyed more than 2,400 global workers on their experiences working with search firms in 2024 to produce this year’s GRID Talent Trends Report.

Overall, the news is good with 75 percent of workers would work with their search firms again — up from 68 percent last year. However, 58 percent of respondents intend to leave the contingent workforce for full-time employment in the next year, even as many employers rely on the flexibility and scalability of contingent employees. This highlights the need for recruiting firms to make the talent experience as simple, personalized, and attractive as possible to keep highly-skilled candidates in their talent pool.

The GRID 2024 Talent Trends Report finds that what matters most to candidates is finding the right job faster — in other words, sourcing and screening activities. And candidates are ready for AI to improve and accelerate these functions. Eighty-one percent of candidates say they are comfortable with AI in recruiting if it speeds up the process and 79 percent are comfortable with AI if it doesn’t mean sacrificing personalization. Overall, more than 60 percent of candidates would be comfortable with AI handling the entire recruitment process.

Job fit, along with communication, also has a huge impact on candidate loyalty. Eighty-nine percent of candidates who heard from their recruiters more than once a week would keep working with them. The impact of excellent sourcing goes beyond just initial job placement: candidate loyalty hits 85 percent when recruiters reach out with new job opportunities before the last one has ended, and 88 percent when candidates have been able to take advantage of reskilling programs.

What Do Candidates Really Want From Search Firms?

“Search firms in general face stiff competition from online job boards and gig platforms,” the Bullhorn report said. “They need to convince candidates upfront that they can offer real, tangible value, and that they can offer the ease-of-use available through other job search resources. And nearly two-thirds of those candidates who do work with staffing firms are typically working with more than one, so it is crucial for firms to differentiate from their direct and indirect competitors. Job matching and recommendations are top priorities for candidates, with a strong emphasis on speed at every stage. With that in mind, search firms need to do everything possible to enhance their sourcing services.”

Related: Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on Executive Search

Candidates are the most likely to use recruiting firms, with 49 percent making it their go-to resource. That falls to 38 percent for healthcare candidates. Most candidates are starting with sources like LinkedIn or industry-specific job boards. In order to compete, firms will need to provide the easy, 24-7 experience of job boards — combined with the expertise and human touch of a recruiter relationship.

Most candidates turn to job boards before staffing firms chart

Positive Past Experience Matters to Candidates

More than half of candidates, 53 percent, chose their current staffing firm based on positive experience, their own or someone else’s as reflected in ratings and reviews, according to the Bullhorn study. This is a shift from last year’s 44 percent. Bullhorn says that firms should make sure they are actively investing in reputation management solutions and continuously driving positive reviews.

Related: How to Use AI to Stand Out to Executive Search Consultants

Bullhorn also found that recruiter sourcing and screening is a comparative advantage over job boards. When asked to rank the greatest value offered by recruiters, it was clear what candidates want most is the right jobs served up to them quickly. And when asked a related question about what they expect staffing firms to handle for them, candidates overwhelmingly (nearly 70 percent) say finding and recommending appropriate job postings. Nailing sourcing and screening remains the comparative advantage that search firms have over job boards, and specialized expertise is what helps firms differentiate from their competition.

Best value recruiters can offer candidates chart

In addition, Bullhorn found that 80 percent of candidates expect to be placed in less than 20 days and this is largely true across industries and age groups. Firms should be looking for ways to streamline the process, arming their recruiters with technology to make job matching faster and more accurate to retain and redeploy talent.

The Bullhorn report also found that 79 percent of candidates would let AI handle communication if it didn’t sacrifice personalization. Most candidates report recruiters are communicating with them less than they would like. The study discovered that 65 percent want to hear from recruiters once a week or more, which only happens 57 percent of the time. This level of communication — especially tailored communication — is only possible with the right technology. The good news is 79 percent of candidates said they would be comfortable with AI handling communication and other recruitment tasks if it didn’t mean sacrificing personalization.

Candidates are Ready for AI

Overall, candidates across age groups and industries are comfortable working with AI-powered tools at pretty much all stages of the recruitment process — as long as they deliver results, according to the Bullhorn report. That means better job matching, faster placements, and timely and clear communication — and all still tailored to the individual candidate. An AI-powered sea change is coming in the recruiting industry, and firms have a crucial, time-limited opportunity to demonstrate the value to candidates.

The study also found that 81 percent of candidates are willing to work with AI if it gets them to work faster. Fifty-five percent of survey respondents were aware that their recruiting firms are using AI as part of the recruitment process. For those candidates, the experience has been largely positive. Most frequently, candidates noticed faster response time when working with AI — and timely communication drives candidate loyalty.

“Candidates are also eager for AI to improve job fit and make administrative tasks easier,” the Bullhorn report said. “Candidates are most comfortable with AI handling job fit — a savvy perspective given how well AI can be trained on a vast quantity of past recruitment data to predict the best job matches. They are also very comfortable with AI handling cumbersome administrative tasks like onboarding paperwork, time tracking, and compliance forms. These results suggest that over 60 percent of candidates are comfortable with AI handling the entire recruitment process.”

Overall, candidates are pretty clear about what they expect from recruiters and their firms: timely placement in the right job, clear communication, and technology that makes the process run smoothly, the Bullhorn report concludes. “AI can enhance candidate matching, streamline screening, and make administrative tasks simpler — freeing recruiters up to focus on the human aspects of recruiting like reskilling and candidate/client engagement,” it says. “And candidates are ready for AI to take a bigger role in recruitment, as long as the technology delivers.”

To read the full report click here!

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor  – Hunt Scanlon Media

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