It’s no secret that in today’s economy, with unemployment at a historic low of 4.3 percent, organizations are faced with the task of fighting tooth and nail for top level talent. Combine these unemployment levels with rapid changes to the way retail operates and turns a profit, and it’s easy to see why some are saying we live in an age of disruption.

Talent acquisition leaders have come to understand the growing importance of branding and recruitment marketing. As Staci Johnson, Vice President Marketing at Roth Staffing Companies noted, organizations need to continue to recruit existing employees with just as much effort as spent on recruiting external candidates. In this sense, both the candidates a business seeks and the existing employees they possess are customers.

When Lumina Foods decided to partner with an outside vendor on scaling up their hiring capabilities, they weren’t entirely sure what to expect. Mandy McPherson, Vice President, Human Resources at Lumina Foods knew from prior experience that recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) vendors  were often used by big businesses to fill high-volume recruiting needs, and thought that was the extent of their use.

Keep an eye on your best employees this year – they might just be eyeing up their next opportunity. According to a recent Glassdoor survey, nearly 35 percent of hiring decision makers expect more employees to quit over the span of 2018 than they did in 2017.

According to the National Center for The Middle Market, “In the third quarter of 2017, middle market companies continue to report strong growth, confidence, and optimism. At 7.0%, year-over-year revenue growth remains steady and the 6.4% growth in employment is well above the historical average. While confidence in the U.S. economy is down slightly from the first quarter of the year, global and local economic confidence remain near peak levels.”  

We wanted to investigate what the current state of the middle market means in terms of hiring and recruiting, and what the business drivers are affecting talent acquisition. To find out, we recently interviewed talent acquisition expert, Pam Verhoff, president of Advanced RPO, a recruitment process outsourcing company based in Chicago, IL.  Here is an edited excerpt of this interview.  

Technology is transforming industries including the talent acquisition and recruiting space. Amazon moved much of our shopping online and put the customer in the driver's seat, while Tesla is moving humans out of the driver’s seat and revolutionizing our commute experience. Technology has also transformed the candidate and recruiter experiences. Arguably, "talent acquisition is becoming a consumerization practice, where candidates are treated as customers of the employer and expect a great experience," per Talent Acquisition Technology: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond, Zack Lahey, Aberdeen Group 2015. 

To understand the evolution of talent acquisition technology from a recruiter’s perspective, we spoke with recruiting veteran and Moore eSSentials’ Partner, Tricia Tamkin. Here is an edited version of our interview.     

Creating a more inclusive and diverse work culture provides a variety of positive benefits for your company, including a more collaborative work environment, a more attractive brand, a greater sense of belonging and engagement for those under your company umbrella.

It’s hard enough to find and entice skilled employees to join your company, but to conduct interviews while lifting weight or punching boxing bags in the gym is taking it to another level. We thought the idea is so refreshingly fascinating that we had to include in this news roundup. View the following #RPOAWeekly for this and other innovative recruiting ideas.

Hiring diversity is a phrase many talent acquisition leaders may have heard within the last few years and that trend will likely grow in the years ahead. Even as the political climate in many parts of the world draws controversy from the very word, the concept of diversity will be one that talent leaders will do well to embrace sooner than later.

Our brains (one of the most complex and magnificent organs in the human body) have more to do with who we select for our next position – and why we select them – than we realize. The brain is a complex mechanism, one that directs and influences our actions even when we aren’t necessarily aware of that fact. This unaware influence on our decision-making processes is called implicit bias, explained Kim E. Ruyle, renowned speaker, published author, and president of Inventive Talent Consulting.