At Good Egg, we work closely with human resource departments large and small. Here's our take on three HR trends to watch in 2021, particularly as they relate to recruitment, culture management, and background checks.
HR Trend #1: More focus on the REMOTE candidate experience (and the technology that supports it).
Thanks to the pandemic, many HR departments had to figure out how to create an excellent REMOTE candidate experience, a trend that will continue into 2021.
HR managers (and the vendors who support them) will need to continue to come up with inventive ways to engage candidates online. This might include some changes in—or adjustments to—the technology that HR uses.
After all, it's impossible to effectively manage a recruitment process that happens 100% online if you're still using or keeping any sort of paper files.
At the very least, HR departments in 2021 will want to have:
- An applicant tracking system (ATS) that can handle the organization's specific recruitment needs
- E-Verify set up so that HR can confirm a candidate's employment eligibility
- A background check vendor that can easily integrate with the organization's ATS
HR Trend #2: Increased interest in/need for social media monitoring.
Since many workforces will continue to work remotely through the first half of 2021 (at least), HR departments will need a turnkey way to ensure the virtual workforce remains positive, not toxic. The Forbes Human Resources Council predicts a "heightened interest in workplace culture" in 2021 and that HR leaders will serve as "culture champions."
Social media monitoring can help with these efforts. The initial social media screen sets the baseline while social media monitoring works on a go-forward basis. It flags toxic behavior/content on a person's public Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles and through a wider web/news search. The biggest benefit of ongoing monitoring is that HR can intervene and address issues quickly before they escalate.
We predict that HR departments committed to strong culture management will invest in (or, at the very least, consider) social media monitoring (even if they hadn't done this sort of screening before).
Bottom line: social media monitoring can be an excellent, budget-friendly way to keep tabs on problematic online behaviors before they become full-blown headaches.
HR Trend #3: Return to "classic" background checks like verifications and reference checks.
The high unemployment rate means desperate times for many people. And desperate times can often lead to desperate measures, like lying on resumes or embellishing experience to gain a competitive edge.
If you hire someone professing to have a specific license or skillset and discover only after disaster strikes that they don't, well—you can imagine the fallout. Not to mention that the remote workforce is creating its own issues. Bad actors LOVE the idea of working remotely since there's no on-site supervision. This gives them plenty of opportunity to do illegal things, such as stealing company data, impersonating folks from the C-suite, or making unapproved money transfers.
Reference checks and employment, education, and identity verifications can provide an extra layer of security that the person is who they say they are—and that they have the experience and education they claim to have.
One thing we can guarantee in 2021: Good Egg will be here for you!
Predictions are just that: predictions, not guarantees. But the one guarantee we can make is that we'll be here for you in 2021 to help with your background check needs. On behalf of all of us at Good Egg, we wish you a prosperous and healthy new year!
