It’s that time of the year again. The time when we look back on what has happened in our respective industries and the various challenges and opportunities that we encountered throughout the past year.
But as much as we love having a good look back on what we achieved, and on what a certain pandemic taught us, there’s something much more important on the horizon—a brand new year.
And a brand new year means a whole new set of challenges and questions.
Will remote hiring remain a viable option for employers? Will the market remain candidate-led? And most importantly, will we finally be released from pandemic restrictions?
While we are in no position to comment on the lifting of restrictions, we do have a few ideas on what may be in store for the recruitment industry in 2022.
Just bear in mind, that while predicting 2021’s trends this time last year was no easy feat, 2022 will be even tougher. After all, who knows what challenges the world will throw at us next year.
Virtual recruitment to take centre stage permanently
At the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record—virtual hiring is here to stay.
That’s not to say that in-person interviews will be removed completely, but it does look likely that virtual recruitment will be a hugely important aspect of the hiring process in general.
Last year we commented on a survey that predicted that 82% of talent acquisition and HR leaders would continue to use virtual recruitment in a post-pandemic world. Little did we know that a full year later we would still be impacted by the effects of that very pandemic.
So it goes without saying that virtual recruitment will remain in play. But even if we regain our full freedom to travel without quarantine measures, it’s highly unlikely that recruiters and employers will dispense with an extremely cost-effective and convenient method of meeting with and hiring new employees. This is particularly true considering the global talent shortage and the need for employers to look outside their local talent pools for suitable candidates.
More investment in employer branding on social media
We spoke last year about the focus on empathetic employer branding and how it could be a major selling point in the search for the best talent.
Companies took up the mantle and invested heavily in creating an employer brand that candidates would find relatable particularly on social media. And this looks set to continue into the future.
With 73% of millennials stating that they found their current roles through social media, this prediction would appear to be a given. Add in the facts that 70% of HR managers have successfully hired through social media and that 79% of candidates use social media to research potential employers, and you can see why investing in employer branding on social media is so critical.
A focus on retention
Employers always want to retain their best talent—it’s simply good business practice. So why is this something that we’re predicting will become a trend in 2022?
Well, there’s the global talent shortage for one thing. Research carried out by Korn Ferry suggests that by the year 2030, there will be around 85 million job vacancies across the globe. And this is simply because there won’t be enough skilled individuals to fill them. Of course, 2030 is still some way off, but the beginnings of that major talent shortage are already having a negative impact on the recruitment industry.
With this in mind, 2022 could see more employers focus on the retention of their best talent and upskilling suitable employees to fill vacant positions. This may lead to changes in benefits and allowing staff to work remotely as employers look to retain their most valuable personnel which leads us to our next prediction.
Notice periods may change
The dearth of talent that we just mentioned could have another somewhat unexpected effect on contract negotiations between employers and candidates. And this is a change that could go slightly under the radar.
As you may well know, the vast majority of people currently employed are open to new opportunities. In fact, research carried out by LinkedIn shows that 87% of the global workforce are open to a career change.
To counteract the potentially itchy feet of their best talent, employers may simply start tying them down with longer notice periods. The thinking being that a lengthy notice period may be a deterrent for recruiters and headhunters looking to poach the best talent.
It will be a candidate-driven market
This should come as no surprise given all that we just said about talent shortages.
As mentioned earlier, there are now more jobs than skilled individuals. In the US alone, there’s currently over a million more job openings than there are people looking for work, and that gap is only going to increase as time goes by.
What this means is that candidates are in a much better position than they have ever been. This could not only lead to better salaries and benefits but also a slight change in how recruiters and employers approach the market. Remember what we said earlier about employer branding?
Some of these predictions may seem quite, well… predictable while others not quite so much. But one thing we are sure of is that regardless of what happens in the coming 12 months, the recruitment industry will adapt and thrive as it always has done in the past.
Whether you’re an employer looking for the best talent or a candidate seeking a new challenge for 2022, we’d love to talk to you. Get in touch with us today and the team here at Software Placements will help you hit the ground running in 2022.