Diversity has evolved to be the biggest game-changer and most embraced trend in the MENA with over half of companies are already tackling it head-on, according to LinkedIn's annual ‘Global Recruiting Trends 2018’ report. 80% of talent acquisition leaders and hiring managers have said that diversity is the top trend affecting how they hire, with companies prioritising diversity – gender, race, ethnicity, age, education, etc to improve culture and boost financial performance, as they are increasingly realising that diverse teams are more productive, more innovative, and more engaged.

The report has unveiled four top trends globally as well as in the MENA region which are expected to have an impact on the way we find jobs, get hired and stay engaged at work in 2018- Diversity, New interviewing tools, Data and Artificial Intelligence.

“Hiring talent has become highly transactional. Collectively these four trends are elevating recruiting to a more strategic profession. By killing the transaction, they’re giving MENA companies more time to build candidate relationships and think critically about how to win talent,” said Ali Matar, Head of LinkedIn Middle East and North Africa, LinkedIn.

More than half (58%) of hiring managers feel that interviewing innovations are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important to the future of hiring. Innovations such as job auditions, soft skills tests, meeting candidates in casual settings, virtual reality assessments and video interviews are gaining traction.

The new era of talent intelligence is allowing recruiting professionals to use data to influence the strategic direction of their companies and elevate their own careers. 48% of respondents have said that they see data analytics as critical to the future of hiring, with 48% identifying it as a top trend affecting how they hire.

Hiring managers in MENA are also already seeing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it can help them work faster by automating administrative tasks, and smarter by generating insights they wouldn’t think of alone. 36% of professionals feel that AI is a top trend affecting how they go about hiring employees. 

“AI is the future, but so is the human touch. AI is a huge step forward for talent acquisition, but it will never fully automate it. Companies still need people — people to persuade and negotiate, to understand candidate needs, and to build communities and cultures. These four trends are just the beginning of what we predict is a movement to make the transactional recruiter obsolete. To stay alive professionally, recruiters will have to embrace them,” Ali Matar added. 

@ 2017 ITP Business Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).