Jobvite’s 2021 Recruiter Nation Report Reveals New Levels of Agility in Recruiting

Jobvite’s , the industry-leading talent acquisition suite, has published its 2021 Recruiter Nation Report. The new report provides an in-depth look at the current state of recruiting and the challenges and opportunities facing recruiters today.

“Companies are experiencing a new kind of worker revolution where candidates and employees feel empowered to choose a job where they feel supported and valued”

The 2021 Recruiter Nation Report gathered responses from more than 800 U.S.-based recruiters and HR professionals, revealing a dramatic shift from one year prior when the world was facing job losses, layoffs, and staffing reductions. Today, recruiters face higher organizational turnover while attempting to fill new roles as 39% of organizations are increasing staffing levels and hiring rapidly—a 13 percentage point jump since last year.

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These challenges have empowered hiring teams to reimagine recruiting processes and become more adaptable to labor market trends. Nearly 80% of recruiters’ priorities have shifted over the past year and 40% have increased recruiting budgets. Fifty-four percent plan to outsource more jobs to freelancers and 40% are making more hires from internal employees.

However, the report also finds that companies who fail to adapt will face more difficulty attracting high-quality talent. Sixty percent of recruiters believe organizations will lose high-quality employees if they do not transition to a remote-first culture, while 40% said candidates have turned down an interview or job offer due to an organization’s lack of diversity.

“Companies are experiencing a new kind of worker revolution where candidates and employees feel empowered to choose a job where they feel supported and valued,” said Kerry Gilliam, Vice President of Marketing at Jobvite. “The pressure is on for organizations to respond to these challenges by leveraging the right strategies that quickly get talent through the door and embracing initiatives that align with candidates’ values and priorities.”

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Jobvite’s 2021 Recruiter Nation Report aims to help talent acquisition leaders understand:

• Industry recruiting priorities and investments
• Stress levels of recruiters today
• Challenges in hiring quality talent
• Importance of diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives
• Salary negotiation in today’s hiring climate
• Valuable metrics for tracking recruiting success
• Top-rated sources for hiring
• Trends in social media for recruiting
• Candidate evaluation factors and measurement
• Effective benefit and perk offerings
• How recruiters are using AI and automation

Today’s candidate-first world has also given workers the upper hand when it comes to negotiating salaries. Three out of four recruiters report an increase in candidates and current employees negotiating for higher wages, which is 20 percentage points higher than the previous year. In addition, 56% report that average salaries have also increased in 2021.

Additional key findings from the report include:

Hiring trends and challenges

• 65% of recruiters report increased stress levels, with one in five reporting a drastic increase
• 47% said lack of skilled/qualified candidates is the biggest concern in hiring quality talent
• 57% believe lack of work from home policies make it harder to attract potential candidates

Candidate evaluation

• Only 28% of surveyed recruiters prioritize “cultural add” when considering a job candidate, down from 83% in 2017
• Employee referral (31%) and previous job experience (62%) have also drastically diminished in importance when evaluating a candidate
• 20% said participating in viral challenges or dances would negatively impact their decision to move forward with a candidate

Diversity & inclusion (D&I)

• 49% said job seekers are inquiring about D&I initiatives more than they did in the previous year—up 16 percentage points from 2020
• 61% of companies are putting more emphasis on diversity than they did in 2020
• However, 20% of organizations have no goals for improving diversity

Social media in recruiting

• Facebook is now the most-used social media channel for recruiting at 68%
• 45% of recruiters use Instagram, an increase of 28% since 2017
• Snapchat (20%) and TikTok (16%) continued their upward momentum as recruiting tools

Jobvite’s 2021 Recruiter Nation Report was conducted by Zogby Analytics in August 2021. It includes responses from more than 800 recruiters and HR professionals from hundreds of companies, including both Jobvite customers and noncustomers.

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