2017 hiring budgets projected to stay flat

Global Recruiting Trends 2017 – suggests that most hiring budgets will stay flat in 2017. Despite the expectation that hiring volume will increase for most companies, and the fact that 83% of executives say talent is the number one priority in their organization, just one-third of respondents expect to get a budget boost for recruiting. This means that as the hiring volume rises, recruiters need to get creative and automate their workflow. The recruiting teams that are growing are focusing mostly on finding full-life-cycle recruiters and employer branding specialists, indicating the increasing importance of the company’s image.

Recruitment Budgets

The study also shared information on how budgets are spent: 52% is allocated to traditional channels, such as job board advertising and recruitment agencies, 17% is allocated to sourcing, screening and recruiting technology, and 8% is set aside for recruiting events. Despite recruiters citing employee referrals as the top source of quality hires, only 9% of the budget is allocated to referral programs.

Global Trends

Interestingly, while the global numbers are very positive, this is the first time in five years when the year-over-year growth is slowing down. This subtle cooling of the job market reflects hiring slowdown in Brazil, China, and parts of Europe. The biggest increases we might see in 2017 are projected for India, Mexico, and Southeast Asia.

Big Data

Given that recruiters report limited headcount and budget, while hiring demands are growing, it makes sense that automation is top of mind for the industry. Automation would increase the speed of screening candidates, minimize human bias, and help assess soft skills more precisely. Large companies are driving the focus on big data, listing it as their #1 trend in the LinkedIn report.]]>