LinkedIn’s survey reveals diversity as the top trend in recruiting industry in 2018

Diversity will be among the top trend in the recruiting industry this year as 81 per cent leaders in India say it impacts their hiring process, as per a survey.
According to the LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends survey, diversity will be among the top four trends that will play a key role in the way job-seekers find jobs, get hired and stay engaged at work in 2018.
Other key trends are artificial intelligence (AI), data and insights and new-age interview process, it added.
It said that about 78 per cent of talent leaders globally and 81 per cent in India confirmed that diversity impacts how they hire.
The survey said that companies are prioritising diversity as it enhances productivity and promotes innovation.
Gender (71 per cent), race (49 per cent) and age (48 per cent) are the areas where companies are focusing their diversity efforts, it said.
LinkedIn surveyed about 9,000 recruiters and hiring managers from 39 countries.
Further, 76 per cent of respondents said AI’s impact on recruiting will be significant and will help them work faster by automating administrative tasks and smarter by generating insights they would not think of alone, it said.
Areas where AI will impact recruiting the most include sourcing candidates (58 per cent), screening candidates (56 per cent) and nurturing candidates (55 per cent), it added.
It said that 67 per cent respondents felt AI helps saving time and 43 per cent believe that it removes human bias.
Meanwhile, the survey revealed that Mexico (61 per cent), Brazil (59 per cent), India (56 per cent) and China (56 per cent) are the four countries with the highest number of respondents who believed that using data is the top trend affecting how they hire.
The global average is 50 per cent, it added.
The survey also showed that 64 per cent of the talent acquisition professionals use data now and 79 per cent are even more likely to use it in the next two years.
About 69 per cent of talent professionals believe that using data can elevate their careers, it said.
Currently, the five most common uses of data in talent acquisition are to increase retention (56 per cent), evaluate skills gap (50 per cent), build better offers (50 per cent), understand candidate wants (46 per cent) and do workforce planning (41 per cent).
However, the survey found that the two major barriers in using data include poor data quality (42 per cent) and figuring out where to find the data (20 per cent).
The fourth key trend is new interviewing models, which is reinventing the interview by blending traditional with smart models.
Higher than the global average of 56 per cent, 61 per cent of Indian respondents said interviewing innovations are extremely important to the future of hiring, according to the survey.
It also said that companies continued to believe in the popularity and effectiveness of traditional interview techniques with giving maximum emphasis to structured interviews (88 per cent) and behavioural interviews (89 per cent).
Talent leaders find interviewer bias (42 per cent), limited ability to assess soft skills (63 per cent) and weaknesses (57 per cent) as the most prevalent shortcomings of traditional interviews, it said.
To overcome this, hiring managers are looking at interview models and techniques, including soft skills assessments, job auditions, meeting in casual settings, virtual reality assessments and video interviews to improve the old model, it added.