Recruitment Trends – How well is it shaping up, post-pandemic?

Covid-19 exacerbated the world’s already-increasing economic downturn and employment losses. With businesses closing and going bankrupt, the recruiting landscape saw one of the worst freezes in history. Millions of employees were laid off in a single month, pushing the unemployment rate to an all-time high. Recruitment had come to a halt and was anticipated to remain so for the foreseeable future! However, the pandemic brought with it new opportunities for organizations and people. With the advent of digital media and remote work, we witnessed rapid adoption of technology for business continuity.

Recruiters around the globe started adopting new techniques of engaging with prospects, abandoning old approaches like in-person interviews and physical assessments. The whole HR process went online. While businesses struggled to migrate their operations online, employees were also upskilling to suit the new normal of working remotely.

While the entire recruitment process went digital from career advertisements, and fairs to the onboarding process. Recruiters and hiring managers started looking for candidates from distant locations, who had the right skill sets and were not in proximity to the office locations. According to a Talview study conducted in December 2020, 79% of employees agreed that they can discover better talent if hiring is not limited to candidates located near their workplaces.

Fast forward to the post-pandemic period, where businesses are reopening to their full potential, and recruiting is creeping back up. Some new recruitment trends are emerging as a byproduct of the pandemic. This article will help you identify emerging trends and orient yourself in this new hiring environment to bring your organization’s vision to reality.

Workplaces of 2022 are more Evolved than Legacy Workspaces

After working from home for more than a year and a half, many things have changed in terms of the workplace. It has become more dynamic, flexible, digital, and highly productive. Employees have realized that it is not always about a steady paycheck, work-life balance has become increasingly important. Employers are expected to be more flexible, give opportunities for advancement, and demonstrate values that fit with their career objectives.

According to research by Gallup, millennials and Gen-Z make up nearly half of the full-time workforce. This younger generation wants to work for an organization that cares about their physical and emotional wellbeing. As per Glint employee well-being surveys, just 20% of employees believe they can:

Achieve their career goals in their current organization
Have organizations and managers’ support to pursue these goals

If businesses want to create the next generation of leaders, they must evaluate what younger generations expect from their employers and adopt solutions appropriately. Gallup has identified five dimensions of employee wellbeing: professional, social, financial, community, and physical. Each aspect impacts the others, and flourishing in all of them is essential for a fulfilling existence.

New Type of Workforce has Emerged

There’s an increase in contingent work among the present workforce. Many are hired via a third-party staffing agency, offering flexibility to employees and decreased OPEX for companies.

The growing number of contingent employees enables recruiters to employ a more proactive attitude in hiring candidates. It is now easy to address change in organizations’ needs as per workforce requirements, expanding and shrinking the workforce has never been so easy. Workers can be hired based on demand for less cost for short-term or long-term projects.

With the rising use of remote employees, organizations can now hire individuals from all over the world; workers’ proximity to the office is no longer an element of consideration. Industries such as technology, customer service, professional services, finance, and others are looking for remote employees to provide services that are out of their reach.

Organizations are increasingly Leveraging Internal Mobility

Back during the war, employers filled more than 90% of vacancies through promotions and horizontal shifts when employment began at the end of World War II. With the growing workforce and greater talent acquisitions from various industries, this practice diminished as hiring external talent didn’t require additional training. The number of internal hires dropped to one-third or less.

Internal mobility made a significant comeback during the pandemic and will be an essential component of recruitment in the post-pandemic phase. Internal recruiting has increased by 19% since Covid-19, accounting for a larger percentage of total hires. 73% of recruiters believe that internal recruitment is important for their company as it costs less and requires less time than external recruitment. According to the global talent trends study, firms with high internal hiring increased employee retention by 41% compared to those with low internal mobility.

The main benefit of internal mobility for recruiters is the ability to hire workers who are already familiar with the organization’s structure. While employees who are looking for new possibilities can benefit from vertical or horizontal movement. According to PwC, 52% of millennials agree that their employer’s prospects for professional growth help them stay and explore new possibilities.

Adding internal mobility to the talent pool will be a major focus for organizations looking to build a long-lasting relationship with their workforce for years to come. Uber has expanded internal mobility by more than 120%, resulting in talent retention inside the organization for a longer time. With everything going digital, it’s easy for recruiters to take advantage of it and hire your top talent. If you’re not flexible, someone else will offer better opportunities to your employees.

Employees are Preferring a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace

The younger workforce expects equality, inclusiveness, and respect from their employer; millennials and Gen-Z grew up in a far more diverse environment than earlier generations. Based on the outcomes associated with diversity, diversity has become a key focus for talent acquisitions.

• According to McKinsey’s research, executive board diversity leads to higher profitability and return on equity.
• Harvard Business School research revealed that having multicultural employees increases creativity.
• Workplace diversity, according to Forbes Insights, is a significant predictor of internal innovation and corporate growth.

Before accepting a position, many individuals research the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives and policies. There is still work to be accomplished, and more learning to be done, to achieve workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion. Organizations all over the world are actively embracing diversity and acknowledging its influence on the workplace.

According to a report released by Credit Suisse Research Institute, large-cap companies with one woman on board have outperformed their peer group with no women on board by 26% over the last 6 years. The need for diversity and inclusion comes not only from employees, but also from employers, who receive a competitive margin in terms of profit, creativity, and innovation. Many studies have shown that diversity is beneficial to any business, and this will be a key trend in recruiting post-pandemic.

Conclusion

Recruitment is all about matching the skills needed for the role to the candidate’s skills and ambitions. Recruiters should understand the needs of candidates to make the hiring process a win-win situation for all. Never before has the corporate world provided so many opportunities, nor has the workforce held so many possibilities. You can handle today’s market dynamics by recognizing the trends we’ve covered and designing your approach to reflect them in your new job search or hiring a new member of your team.

If you’re interested in learning more about offloading operational tasks and costs, contact the Rahi team.