Attracting employees in 2020: four trends

Attracting employees in 2020? A new year is always the moment for good resolutions, new challenges and predicting new trends. At Pro Contact in Kontich, a specialist in online recruitment, director Noud Baijens sees four trends that will continue in the new year.

Pro Contact has been active in online recruitment in the Netherlands for 7.5 years. In the middle of last year, the RPO specialist also came to Belgium, where from its office in Kontich it helps companies find staff by spreading vacancies through social media channels. A large share of these are in the port of Antwerp and the Antwerp region.

"We currently have around fifty vacancies running there," says Noud Baijens. "With an ever tighter labour market, recruitment has to be done differently. Social media channels will only become more important," he says. For 2020, the director of Pro Contact (including Pro Contact Belgium) sees four trends in this area.

1. Using social media even more

"Social media have been used in recruitment for a while, LinkedIn for example. But they'll become even more important," Baijens predicts. "Lots of young people and blue-collar workers never even visit LinkedIn, but they do spend many hours on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. They're usually on there for fun, but precisely by spreading vacancies through those channels too, you can reach them and trigger them. That's why these are the channels that will be used for recruitment much more often in 2020."

"It's also important to know and use the right channels depending on the profiles you're looking for. You'll mainly approach blue-collar profiles through Facebook and Instagram, while for young people it's Instagram and Snapchat. White-collar staff are best reached through LinkedIn and Google," he explains.

2. The vacancy has to go to the person

"Instead of making people come to the vacancy, the vacancy has to come to the people," Noud Baijens continues. "The first thing that struck me in Belgium was all those traditional interim and temp agencies with shop windows full of vacancies on busy shopping streets. Back home in the Netherlands, we think that's so old-fashioned," he laughs.

"By bringing the vacancies to them through the channels they like to use, and at the moments they choose, they don't have to walk down that shopping street. This way you do reach people who are 'passively' looking for work. These people would never have seen those vacancies on the classic job sites either. This way we also let them apply in their own time, not at a fixed moment but whenever they want, even if that's late at night or at the weekend."

3. From one at a time to one for all

Another trend, according to the managing director, is approaching many people at once, through a campaign for example. "With traditional recruitment, the recruiter approaches one person at a time. That's time-consuming and very expensive at the same time, especially with the shortage meaning there are an exceptional number of open vacancies. Campaigns that reach many people at once will be used more often," he predicts.

"For example, we can link all profiles of a certain age with a certain bachelor's degree within a radius of 10 kilometres to a vacancy, to reach them all at once. That way they're triggered to apply for a job that's tailor-made for them."

4. Attracting employees through Google for Jobs

Finally, there's the global rollout of Google for Jobs, which Baijens expects to have a big impact on recruitment. According to him, it will allow companies to fill their vacancies quickly and cheaply, so there's no longer any need to bring in traditional temp agencies.

This interview was published on jobat.be.

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