Courtesy Walrath Recruiting Inc.
By Rene A. Walrath
In 2022, hiring, recruiting, and retaining talent will continue to rapidly transform. The unemployment rates are continuing to rise and the Great Resignation will continue on in this upcoming year. This leads us to ask what will recruiting top talent look like this year?
The Great Resignation is caused by people quitting their jobs in large amounts due to low wages, poor benefits, a lack of work-life balance, and overall unhappiness at their current role. These employees are currently trying to find a job that is a better career fit for them and offers a better balance.
Retaining talent and recruiting in 2022 will be centered around responding to these changes in the employee or candidate’s expectations due to the pandemic.
The beginning of this pandemic forced many employees to work from home as offices shut down, which in turn caused the realization of how productive employees can be from home. Some of these employees enjoyed the remote work and the extra time that came with working from home.
Employees now are pushing for hybrid and remote jobs where they have the ability to add flexibility into their schedule. Companies will continue to adapt to these candidate expectations in order to retain employees during a historic labor shortage by offering a workplace that fosters a better work life balance.
COVID-19 revealed to employers how important mental health is for everyone. During a time where there is a global talent shortage—the Great Resignation—employers will continue to attract top quality candidates through increasing their workforce’s health and fostering a healthy work environment both physically and mentally.
Employers will attract future employees by offering flexibility or programs intended to relieve the stress of their employees. Providing a great employee experience will increase an employee’s desire to stay at their company and lower employee turnover rates.
Another trend that will continue on in 2022 is the employers desire to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within their organization. DEI will be the forefront of many businesses recruiting and retention strategies going into the new year. Many of these organizations will be looking to diversify their leadership and management teams specifically.
This will be an interesting year for recruitment due to the fact that employers are hiring four generations of employees at the same time.
There are vast differences amongst these generations and these generational differences have the ability to influence the success of the organization. Employers will continue to hire employees from all four of these generations and include age variations in their DEI strategies.
Vaccinations will continue to play a large role in the recruiting industry. Some employers may require their in-office employees to be vaccinated. These requirements or lack there of will greatly affect what employees’ organizations are able to attract.
Organizations that require vaccines will have to change their recruitment process to only select candidates that are vaccinated. Certain employees prefer to only work in a space where everyone must be vaccinated while others might prefer to work in a space where vaccinations are not required. These additional requirements of some organizations will impact their ability to attract top talent during the Great Resignation.
The year 2022 will require new skills for certain jobs that will replace the old. Hiring managers will have to tailor their search for qualified candidates this year to the new skills desired for each job and disregard candidates that don’t. Employers can also offer and advertise training programs for new employees that don’t have the specific skillset that they are looking for.
Employers will need to be able to adapt quickly to the upcoming changes in the job market to retain the top talent they have and be aware of this when hiring additional employees.