Talent Acquisitions Challenges and Job Trends for 2021
2020 has been a hard year for all of us. It has been slightly more challenging for HR and other business leaders since they had to bid goodbye to a lot of people in the team. As we enter 2021, we are filled with hope from vaccines, and excitement as business activities match the pre-covid-normals.
A lot of companies have already announced that they are aggressively looking to hire talent in the coming time. As organizations ramp up the hiring process, there is a tough road ahead as we normalize our work and hiring.
Some of the major talent acquisition challenges will be:
Virtual Hiring
We have been a country driven by relationship, touch, and feel, and obviously hiring was not untouched from that. Whether it’s a senior exec hiring or a fresher we have always preferred to meet once. However, as COVID norms relax we would like to go back to face-to-face hiring but the transition is not going to be easy. Candidates are still apprehensive to travel to the office while hiring managers would like to meet potential hires. This tussle will increase as we enter 2021 and HR leaders will have to make their team embrace virtual hiring.
Onboarding Experience
As we accelerate hiring, onboarding will be the next challenge that we will have to address. With new employees, coming on board it will be crucial to bringing them to pace. This will require an active immersion on multiple ends from skilling for the job, binding with the team, and setting the cultural fabric of the organization. With key team members managing multiple things, juggling between work-life the time given to a new hire may take a back seat and HR leaders should take cognizance of it and solve it actively.
While there are more talent acquisition challenges, I am sure that they will not stop organizations to hire. As companies hire, there are certain things that will stay from 2020 while others will pick up.
Some of the job trends for 2021 are as follows:
WFH is here to stay
It will take at least 6 months to normalize even if COVID disappears tomorrow. Companies have realized the pros and cons of work from home during the pandemic and most of them will continue to try with WFH with certain roles and hence WFH is here to stay for some time. The pool which couldn’t participate in the workforce because of lack of access is now accessible for companies to hire.
Dawn of opportunities in Tier-2 cities
One of the unintended consequences of Work from home will be that participation from Tier-2 cities will increase. There has been a visible migration from the metro to non-metro cities during the COVID time. While some of them will come at pre COVID level, a part of the workforce will continue to do work from home from their place of residence. Pandemic has also brought companies on toes and one of the best ways to optimize will be to double down on tier-2 centers. Opportunities are all set to increase in Ahmedabad, Surat, Indore, Jaipur, and cities of similar stature.
Consumption driven jobs will rise
As the economy opens, the Indian middle class will drive consumption to pre covid level. As consumption increases, jobs associated with consumption will come back mostly in sales and customer service. We will see a surge in entry-level hiring across sectors like FMCG as our spending increases.
As we usher into a new decade, we will see a lot of transformation in HR practices with digitization becoming the center of our HR practices. 2020 accelerated the shifts, and 2021 will be the year of embracing the shifts, change in philosophies, and setting the stage for a bigger transformation.
