Top Takeaways From the GRID Talent Trends Report

It’s the age-old question for staffing firms: how can we find the best talent and keep them engaged throughout the hiring process? But what if instead of only looking internally at your business processes and team efficiency, you considered what today’s talent is looking for from staffing firms? And based on that insight, how can recruiters meet them where they are?

You’re in luck: we surveyed 2,000+ global temp workers about their experiences working with staffing and recruitment firms in 2022. The result? The latest GRID Talent Trends Report, covering everything from how often candidates want to be contacted to why they don’t want to work with staffing firms. 

Here’s a snapshot of the report findings:

Build a Consistent Communication Strategy

If there’s one thing to take away from the GRID Talent Trends Report, it’s this: today’s talent demands consistent – and relevant – communication. Recruiters are already spinning multiple plates at once, so creating a system that’s proactive and scalable is crucial. 

Our survey findings confirm that talent want recruiters to reach out regularly both while on assignment and between placements.

Poor communication and limited responsiveness rank among the most common challenges plaguing candidates, with roughly a third reporting poor experiences in their most recent assignment.

With 3 out of 5 workers saying they want recruiters to reach out at least once a week, how can your team keep up? Check out the resources below to set your team up for success:

Meet Candidates Where They Are

Just as crucial as consistent communication is communicating with candidates on their terms, particularly on the channels they prefer and at a cadence that will enhance their experience and not hinder it. 

Almost half of those surveyed prefer recruiters to reach out via email, while just 16% want to be contacted via text message. Perhaps more surprising is that only 11% would like recruiters to reach out to them on LinkedIn.

And when recruiters don’t reach out via the preferred communication channel, respondents were twice as likely to say they wouldn’t work with that firm again. For example, out of the 23% that prefer to be contacted by phone, only 29% report that their recruiters actually did so. 

The key here is to communicate with candidates and build those relationships in a sustainable way for both talent and recruiters, which often means using automation or other technologies to enable regular communication on the right channels without requiring hours of manual work.

The goal? Build a talent community that continuously provides your clients with qualified candidates who want to work with your firm again and again. 

Build an engagement strategy that works for your candidates, not against them. Start with these resources: 

Use Technology Where (and When) It Matters Most

It’s clear technology should play a key role in your candidate engagement strategy, but it’s important to implement it alongside a strategic approach to communication. Candidates still want the human touch during the hiring process: among the top five reasons that candidates value recruiters are the valuable advice they provide and the expertise they have that automated solutions or AI don’t.

Automation can help you create a consistent communication strategy, but it’s not enough to just reach out to candidates. Your outreach should be personalized, relevant, and timely so that your candidates aren’t missing out on valuable opportunities. Our survey found that 29% of workers report getting opportunities from a recruiter that weren’t a fit, and one-third of workers say their recruiter wasn’t proactive about finding opportunities when one fell through.

Using your database of candidate information, personalized outreach, and best practices for proactive engagement, your team can provide the right jobs to the right candidates at the right time, creating a qualified pool of talent for every role.

Still not convinced relevant and timely communication can make a difference? Add in the fact that workers who reported a strong talent experience throughout the lifecycle were six times as likely to consider future opportunities with their firm., and there’s never been a better time to explore how technology can transform your recruiting strategy for your teams, talent, and clients.

Start by taking stock of your current tech stack. Does your team have the ability to automatically reach out to candidates when they apply? How about when they complete an assignment? Can your recruiters easily identify qualified and available candidates in your existing database? (Spoiler alert: technology can help with all of these!)

Check out these resources to learn how technology can play a pivotal role in your ongoing candidate engagement strategies:

Find out more about what today’s talent wants from recruitment agencies in the latest GRID Talent Trends Report.