Digital acceleration and its ramifications have put recruiters in the hot seat as this far-reaching evolution challenges the conventional wisdom of hiring, developing and retaining talent.

Compounding this challenge is a younger workforce that has a different definition of work life and aspires to different career goals vis-à-vis previous generations.

“There’s no doubt that the business of recruitment has become more challenging on both the demand and supply sides,” says  Elsie Cheung, chief operating officer of the South China Morning Post, which continues to upgrade and refine its cpjobs.com brand to reflect evolving needs and market trends.

As recruiters grapple with a conundrum of challenges, Cheung recommends recruiters to strategise towards strengthening tools and processes for hiring, creating a compatible company culture to engage with and retain young talent. She believes that workplace diversity and adaptability to new changes are also two key elements for best HR practices.

“For many industries, millennials are steadily becoming the ‘dominant’ group within the workforce. HR professionals have had to rethink their approach to attracting and hiring younger employees. And with some job types and skills changing so rapidly, there will clearly be no shortage of challenges ahead.”

Among these, Cheung notes the need to create a distinct corporate culture, to be nimble when adapting, and to revamp the standard interview process. In particular, with soft skills and technical know-how becoming ever more important, recruiters must be better attuned to exactly what line managers require for specific roles – and not just identify generic traits or qualifications.

“From the employer side, the skills required in a fast-changing business environment are changing rapidly. Soft skills and personality traits have become more important, which might not be that easy to get a clear picture of in job interviews and it is a challenge to state these clearly in job descriptions.”

It is also essential that recruiters understand how the outlook and mindset of prospective employees are changing. Many from the younger generations might find it challenging to adapt to the usual rules and trappings of standard corporate life. What might appeal to them, though, is a “cultural fit” in which the corporate culture has room for a more relaxed environment, including casual dress code, flexible working hours, working remotely and a good variety of work assignments.

“More importantly, they look for meaningful jobs with a bigger purpose,” Cheung says of the challenges HR managers face when hiring. “Recruiters might also have to rethink their approaches in employer branding to appeal to young employees, the hiring channels, as well as working closer with business teams as partners to get a better understanding of the job requirements and functions of each candidates.”

At the first stage of recruitment, i.e. posting or placing job ads, recruiters will have to decipher a myriad of considerations including suitability and calibre of the jobseekers in the field.

To help recruiters and jobseekers alike, cpjobs.com has steadily enhanced the range of features available to users since its launch in 2015. For example, the in-house product development team came up with “Match Me+”, which makes job recommendations based on users’ online behaviour.

The latest version has improved real-time responses and conversion rates, thanks to better data mapping of user profiles and job descriptions. In addition, online behaviour was also integrated into the mechanism to create a more personalised search experience for jobseekers.

Other recent improvements include an easy-to-use job posting management system for recruiters. It comes with real-time automated feedback reporting, making it possible to track status changes besides ensuring that job ads on cpjobs.com will reach a much wider audience of potential applicants.

“And the good news is that, from now on, this service is free,” says Cheung. “Recruiters are now able to post standard job listings on cpjobs.com for no fee. Together with a mass-market advertising campaign that we will soon launch, the job ads on cpjobs.com will reach a much wider audience. Furthermore, as we gather more information on jobseeker and recruiter behaviour, we will be in a good position to modify our algorithms. One result would be that our predictive recommendations could then reach a new level of compatibility.

“By using cpjobs.com, they no longer need to worry about costs in posting online job ads,” she continues. “Our team will also provide efficient, professional support in managing job postings. As a result, HR professionals and hiring managers can then focus more time on generating value for their companies in other ways.”

Cheung adds that recruiters would increasingly require reliable tools to help them manage the hiring process: from posting job ads on online platforms such as cpjobs.com to screening applications, lining up interviews, liaising with line managers, making the right offer and compensation package, and measuring return on investment.

She reiterates that cpjobs.com will continue to invest in enhancing the tools to enable employers to meet these needs.

Photo: May Tse

This article appeared in the Classified Post print edition as Setting it all free.