A survey of 299 Canadian recruiting professionals found that despite macroeconomic trends, hiring in Canada remains relatively strong, with over 40% seeing an increase in hiring volume from 2011. Competition for talent and employer branding are key priorities. While passive talent sourcing and talent pipelining are important, consistent measurement of recruiting metrics like employer brand is lacking. Quality of hire is the most important metric but data-driven decision making remains a challenge for most organizations.

1. Recruiting Solutions
2012 Recruiting Trends – Canada Snapshot
ORGANIZATION NAME

2. Methodology All respondents:
 work in a corporate HR/recruiting setting
Surveyed 299 recruiting  represent an even mix of small, midsize
and large enterprises
professionals in Canada  have at least some budget authority
with a LinkedIn profile.  focus solely or significantly on recruitment
May - July 2012
Nordics: 113
Netherlands: 226
UK: 334
Canada: 299
Germany: 97
Spain: 100 France: 224
USA: 755
Italy: 99
Australia: 280
Brazil: 226 India: 255
2

3. 6 notable trends in Canada - summary
1. Hiring surprisingly healthy
2. The (competitive) heat is on
3. Passive talent and pipelining remain essential
4. Quality of hire the name of the game
5. Employer branding the hot topic
6. Data-driven decision making is Achilles heel
3

4. 1. Hiring surprisingly healthy

5. Among those who are hiring, over 40 percent seeing
volume increase in 2012
100% 100%
80% 41% Hiring more 80% 38%
46% 50%
60% 60%
Hiring same
34%
40% 42% 40%
41% 35%
20% Hiring less 20%
28%
13% 18% 15%
0% 0%
2011 2012 2011 2012
“Considering only full and part-time professional employees, how do you
expect the hiring volume across your organization to change this year?”
5

6. Budget growth almost in line with hiring growth
100% 100%
37% 30%
80% 38% Increase 80% 41%
60% 60%
Same 43%
40%
49% 44% 40%
45%
20% Decrease 20%
27%
13% 19% 14%
0% 0%
2011 2012 2011 2012
“How has your organization's budget for recruiting solutions changed from last year?”
6

7. 2. The (competitive) heat is on

8. Top Canadian obstacles to attracting top talent reflect
highly competitive landscape
Biggest obstacles to attracting top talent
Competition 1 48% 1 41%
Compensation 2 41% 2 39%
Lack of awareness or interest in our employer brand 3 24% 3 25%
Location 4 23% 4 25%
Recruiting team too small 5 16% 5 15%
Recruiting team doesn't have the right tools/systems 6 14% 6 13%
Lack of awareness that we're hiring 7 12% 7 12%
Inability to effectively use data to improve our approach 8 9% 8 9%
Quality of talent currently at our company 9 7% 9 7%
Recruiting team skills 10 6% 11 4%
Company performance 11 5% 10 6%
Other 10% 11%
8

9. Chief competitive threats
Recruiting leaders in Canada are most concerned their
competitors will…
 Learn to use social networking and social media more
effectively
 Build and nurture strong talent pools or pipelines
 Invest in employer brand

10. Similarities between competitive threats and top long-
term trends
Top long-lasting trends
Utilizing social and professional networks 1 41%
Finding better ways to source passive candidates 2 38%
Upgrading employment branding 3 27%
Training recruiters and hiring managers 4 24%
Boosting referral programs 5 22%
Optimizing your career site 6 20%
Recruiting globally 7 18%
Measuring quality of hire more consistently 8 17%
Reducing dependence on traditional job boards 9 15%
Revitalizing corporate jobs/career sites 10 12%
Using CRM technology to manage talent leads 11 12%
Reducing spend on staffing firms 12 12%
10

11. Recruiting through the eyes of Canadian talent
acquisition professionals
“Recruiting is…”
11

12. 3. Passive talent and pipelining remain essential

13. Most believe in the importance of passive talent and
the practice of pipelining talent
Passive talent Pipelining talent
Passive talent a focus Engaged in pipelining talent
Passive talent not a focus Not engaged in pipelining talent
21%
40%
60%
79%
13

14. 4. Quality of hire the name of the game

15. Quality of hire is the single most important metric for
corporate recruiters; cost per hire surprisingly low on list
Single most important recruiting metric
Quality of hire 1 40% 1 45%
Time to fill 2 28% 3 21%
Hiring manager satisfaction 3 25% 2 22%
Other 4 4% 5 3%
Cost per hire 5 3% 4 8%
15

16. Fastest-rising source of quality hires: company career
site; Fastest falling: legacy job boards, internal hires
Biggest YoY
Best sources for key quality hires changes
Company career website 1 44% +11%
Employee referral programs 2 39% +4%
Internal hires 3 39% -7%
Social professional networks (e.g. LinkedIn) 4 31% +4%
Internet job boards 5 30% -7%
Recruitment agencies 6 17% -5%
Your ATS/internal candidate database 7 12%
Internet resume databases 8 12%
College recruiting programs 9 9%
General career fairs 10 7%
Your CRM system 11 4%
Print newspapers/trade journals 12 3%
16

17. 5. Employer branding is the hot trend

18. Employer brand seen as critical in hiring great talent
88% 83%
Agree that employer brand has
significant impact on ability
to hire great talent
75% 69%
Agree that employer brand is
a top priority for their
organization
18

19. Despite the climate of ‘more with less’, companies
investing in employer branding – especially in Canada
Increasing (53%) or
99% maintaining (46%) their
investment in employer
brand in 2012
91%
19

20. 6. Data-driven decision making is Achilles heel

21. Despite its importance, measurement of employer
brand inconsistent
Regularly measure the health
35% of employer brand in a
quantifiable way 33%
Regularly survey candidates
25% to understand employer brand
position 32%
21

22. In general, talent acquisition must become more data-
driven in order to lead the business
Believe their organization
28% utilizes data well to make
hiring decisions 26%
Believe they are average,
72% or poor at using data to
make hiring decisions 74%
22

23. 6 notable trends in Canada - summary
1. Hiring surprisingly healthy. Despite macro trends, hiring in Canada is relatively strong.
Over 40 percent say hiring volume up from 2011; another 42 percent hiring at same rate.
Budgets appear to be trending roughly in line.
2. The (competitive) heat is on. Competition and compensation are cited as biggest
obstacles to hiring top talent; respondents are most worried their competitors will learn to
use social platforms more effectively, pipeline talent, and invest in employer branding.
3. Passive talent and pipelining remain essential. 60 percent say passive talent is a focus,
and almost 80 percent do some form of talent pipelining.
4. Quality of hire the name of the game. 40 percent cite quality of hire as most critical metric;
career sites, employee referrals, and professional networks are rising as quality sources.
5. Employer branding the hot topic. 88 percent agree employer brand has a significant
impact on ability to hire great talent; 75 percent say it’s an organizational priority. And an
incredible 99 percent are either increasing or maintaining employer brand investment.
6. Data-driven decision making is Achilles heel. Despite the importance of employer
branding, 35 percent regularly measure, and only 25 percent survey candidates. Only 28
percent say they use data well to make hiring decisions.
23

24. Additional resources
On how to recruit
http://talent.linkedin.com/passivetalent
passive talent
On how to dial up your
recruiting impact on http://talent.linkedin.com
LinkedIn
On best practices in
COMING SOON
employer branding
Read our blog http://lnkd.in/talent-blog
See more research http://lnkd.in/hireonlinkedin
Follow us @hireonlinkedin
24

25. Sampling and methodology
 Survey fielding occurred between late May and late July 2012
 N=299 talent acquisition professionals located in Canada, who
– work in a corporate HR/Talent Acquisition department
– have at least some authority in determine their company’s recruitment solutions budget
– focus exclusively on recruiting, manage a recruiting team, or are HR generalists who spend
more than 25 percent of their time recruiting
 Comparisons to 2011 data are taken from 2011 Global Hiring Trends research, which
fielded between late April and early June, 2011
– n=290 talent acquisition professionals with identical sampling criteria and methodology to 2012
 Global numbers are reported as un-weighted
averages of corporate recruiter responses from the
following countries:
– Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India,
Italy, Netherlands, Nordics (Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, Finland), Spain, UK, & US
 Participants are members of LinkedIn who have
opted to participate in research studies. They were
selected based on information in their LinkedIn profile
and were contacted via email.