It’s hard to believe we’re almost one month into 2022. After all, most of us are only just now remembering to write the right date on our sign-offs! But alas, the year is in full swing, and the experts have already put their heads together to figure out what changes are coming down the pike when it comes to hiring. Read on to learn our top tips and predictions.
Find your flexibility:
As we have touched on in many of our previous posts about the post-pandemic hiring landscape, being a business that can offer its workers flexibility is key. In fact, in a LinkedIn report, job seekers identified workplace flexibility as their fastest-growing priority. With the pandemic showing us that, for the most part, many of us can successfully work from home, candidates will be on the lookout for companies that are willing to offer remote or hybrid work options, with LinkedIn even including it as a new filter for job searches!
Key Takeaway: Be sure to update your job listings now so that it includes buzz words such as “hybrid,” “remote,” and “flexible” to capture the biggest pool of talent.
Fix your filters:
Gone are the days when the name of a school or even participation in a fraternity could tell you that a job candidate would be a good fit for your business! Instead, moving into 2022, recruiters should put seeking specific schools, degrees, and even extra-curricular activities on the backburner and instead open up their pipelines to include non-traditional candidates. In fact, the LinkedIn survey showed that the number of managers hired without a four-year degree increased 20 percent between 2019 and 2021, with recruiters now prioritizing skills, specialty certificates, and even good life experiences to diversify their talent pool and hire the right person for the job.
Key Takeaway: When you’re reviewing resumes, don’t get caught up in the four-year degrees and brand name certificates, and instead put more emphasis on the specific skills that a job opening requires.
Mix in Mobility:
A new buzz term for 2022 is “internal mobility,” which captures the ability of a company to upskill their workforce and fill jobs from within. With a tight job market, having a workforce that can quickly swivel to fill internal openings will be key to sustaining your business, not just because help wanted ads won’t go unanswered, but because LinkedIn data suggest that employees are less likely to leave a company with a strong upskilling program (with retention rates of 5.4 years for high mobility businesses, versus 2.9 years for businesses that haven’t made this a priority).
Key Takeaway: Although many companies have stripped back to basics to survive the pandemic, be sure that you’re keeping up your investment in internal training opportunities and making sure that you have a flexible workforce that can easily move up among the ranks.
Lose the location:
As more companies transition to remote or hybrid workforces, the geographic location of job candidates will become increasingly obsolete. In fact, some companies may rarely if ever, require their workers to come into the office at all. With geographic parameters removed from the job search, businesses can enjoy a far larger pool of candidates, which will be a real boon to companies that have previously struggled to hire for niche positions due to a dearth of such skills in their metropolitan area.
Key takeaway: While it’s exciting to open up your candidate search area, be sure that you understand the employment laws of the state’s in which you plan to operate. These rules and regulations are constantly shifting, so it pays to tap into an expert, such as Abel HR, to keep you on the right side of the law.
Do DEI:
Before the pandemic kicked off, companies were dipping their toes into diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments. While many businesses pushed this to the sidelines when they entered into survival mode, experts suggest that 2022 will see more companies making this a lasting part of their business strategy. In terms of recruiting, job seekers will want to know what your DEI strategy is and how you have changed operations in response to these calls for greater inclusion and diversity in the workplace so be prepared to share this information during early candidate interviews.
Key takeaway: In addition to establishing a DEI plan, be sure that you are sharing your strategy on your company website, social media platforms, and job seeking materials.
