Data insights

Top U.S. Talent Acquisition Trends for 2013

If you want to be among the best in the talent acquisition business, you must stay on top of the latest trends and think a few steps ahead of your competitors.

To help you with this, for the past three years we’ve taken a pulse of the global talent acquisition community for our Global Recruiting Trends study. 2013 is no different -- we surveyed over 533 talent acquisition leaders in the US (over 3,300 around the globe) in 19 different countries to better understand their priorities, competitive threats, thoughts on the future, and much more.

The results show that talent acquisition leaders are focused on the core fundamentals of recruiting.  Your peers are most focused on improving the basics – how to source, pipeline, and hire the best talent.

Top 5 Talent Acquisition Trends You Need to Know

1. Social professional networks are increasingly impacting quality of hire

2. Employer branding is both a competitive threat and a competitive advantage

3. Data is used to make better hiring and branding decisions

4. Companies are investing in hiring internally to stop top talent from walking out the door

5. Companies are figuring out the mobile recruiting terrain

However, you and your peers are starting to realize that Talent Acquisition needs to grow new capabilities to become more strategic, particularly in the areas of internal hiring and mobile recruiting.  The 2013 Global Recruiting Trends survey highlights the following 5 most important trends shaping the future of recruiting

What makes the U.S. unique?

  • US talent leaders are concentrating on highly-skilled candidates more so than those in other markets.
  • ‘Increased competition’ has the largest increase from last year in reasons to invest in employer brand.
  • Focus on passive candidates has increased from 62% to 70% since last year (more than anywhere else we studied).

What is hot off the press from our global insights?

  • Compared to 2 years ago, 17% more recruiters find quality talent on professional networks, more than any other source in that period.  When it comes to finding the best talent, social professional networks (such as LinkedIn) are quickly becoming the go-to source.
  • #1 thing that keeps you up at night about your competitors is their investment in employer brand.  What is your most effective way to spread your employer brand? Learn from your peers to further strengthen your brand and attract top talent.

Here is the full report:

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