When it’s time to do the hiring, there are two teams that come into play. There is the management who have the propensity to hire on impulse – just show them a great resume and tell them so awesome ideas.

Then you have HR which, in most cases than not, choose their hires based on more rational terms. It is HR’s duty to look at the legal aspects of hires and be sure that companies are not placing themselves vulnerable to issues that could arise in the future. For example, while management would like to hire someone with little experience but great potential. Yet, HR usually looks for people who bring experience to bring to the table. Because of these differences in opinion, it is no surprise that these two departments don’t get along at times.

Undoubtedly, HR is one of the most important departments in an organization. The most important function of HR is recruiting, so it is important for them to understand the next hiring trends of the upcoming year.

The Good Old Apprenticeship Is Back

Recently, Donald Trump gave praise to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s long-term approach in using apprenticeship programs to build its workforce. “The German apprenticeship model is one of the proven programs to developing a highly skilled workforce. Germany has been amazing at this,” Trump said. Furthermore, President Trump stated that America should be heading towards the same direction. Besides vocational schools and universities, organizations should start adopting apprenticeships for jobs such as manufacturing, trade and other high-skilled jobs.

Germany has a very low unemployment, even though their wages are some of the highest in the world. Unemployment is only 4.2 percent. Even the youth unemployment rate is lower than the US at 6.5 percent.

Artificial Intelligence Will Be a Huge Part of the Hiring Process

HR won’t have so much to do with hiring as they used to in the future. One company who has adopted Artificial Intelligence to hire entry-level employees is consumer-goods giant Unilever. The company has reported that doing this has really helped them increase diversity and been cost-effective. “We were going to campus the same way I was recruited over 20 years ago,” Mike Clementi, VP of human resources for North America, told Business Insider. “Inherently, something didn’t feel right.”

For Unilever, there isn’t anymore collecting résumés, sending company representatives to universities, or even arranging follow-up interviews by phone for those candidates who stuck out to them. Partnering up with digital HR service providers Pymetrics and HireVue, Unilever is now digitizing those first steps. If and when a candidate passes the AI screening process, they will move on to an in-person job interview.

Today’s HR Is About the Team Approach

In 2016, Deloitte conducted a study about the challenges businesses are having in the human department. The results of the Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2016 were quite amazing. Out of the 7,000 or more companies from over 130 countries, the first issue on the leadership’s table is the demand that is required from their workforce. The study took nearly a year, and at the end, it showed that today’s digital world of work is being disrupted and its foundation of organizational structure shaken at its very core. Things are shifting from the traditional functional hierarchy to the one Deloitte refers to as a “network of teams.”

Job roles and job descriptions are being forced to change – they’re being forced to rethink internal mobility and careers. Emphasizing skills and learning are now keys to an employee’s performance.

Developing a Successful Employee Value Proposition

Locating good talent has become more and more difficult over the years. It isn’t really about candidates worrying about landing jobs as much as it is about companies competing for those candidates. This has made employer branding a very important strategy for the modern day employer. Companies such as Ladbrokes are great examples of a great candidate experience.

In this day and age, a strong company brand is just as important for nabbing good talent as it is for attracting consumers. A great brand image and company values are of paramount value to those looking to join a company for its culture. This means they must design a successful Employee Value Proposition (EVP). An EVP communicates a company’s best selling points, spotlighting what makes a company an attractive place to work.

Create a Great Candidate Experience

As with building a great company image, it’s more important than ever for enterprises to deliver a personalised and engaging recruitment strategy. Without an effective way of communicating with potential candidates, they run a high risk of them simply walking away from the entire process.

One thing that coincides with candidate experiences is marketing. Your employer brand is fed by the candidate experience feedback. This is a very empowering tool for any brand to adopt if they truly desire to hire the best talent. If they mess up and deliver a bad experience, it doesn’t only lead to them turning down the job, but shining a bad light on the brand.