The past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have been quite tough for talent acquisition, hiring, and recruitment teams. Its repercussions wreaked havoc on talent managers for announcing lay-offs, managing the remote workforce, and filling up demand for new roles in the digitally-driven world.
According to the stats – the number of salaried and non-salaried employees fell drastically from 398.14 million in March to 390.79 million in April 2021. However, the number of people employed in India was 400.7 million in the same year in January.
As a response to COVID-19 uncertainties, talent acquisition teams adopted virtual recruitment methodologies to curb the company’s expenses. Many recruiters took the opportunity to help employees with reskilling and upskilling as a win-win strategy for the benefit of the company as well as employees. The challenges and accelerated adoption of technology in HR management will undoubtedly influence hiring patterns in the upcoming year.
As the year 2021 is coming to an end, top talent acquisition teams have started chalking out their respective strategies for 2022. They are addressing critical areas to resolve issues within the existing hiring process, revaluating existing talent, and redefining new job positions. Here’re the five most influential talent acquisition trends that are likely to shape the segment in 2022.
Data-Driven Recruitment
Technology has become an indispensable part of business organizations. Today’s talent acquisition leaders are focusing on integrating technology as part of routine processes to ensure employees have a data-driven mindset to stay ahead in the digitally driven corporate world. Apart from that, adopting requisite technology to execute data-driven hiring strategies is predicted to transform the process of searching and screening candidates.
In the 2022 year, talent leaders are predicted to leverage the use of real-time analytics and insights to find quality talent for their organization. This will automate the process of hiring by eliminating tedious human-oriented tasks and improving critical areas.
Crowd Recruiting
As the world is progressing towards technology, every organization and its talent acquisition team is looking for ways to make the recruitment process highly responsive and efficient. The year 2021 has been a year of reinventing conventional talent acquisition space.
Crowd Recruiting, which was already there for years has now started gaining momentum in the industry. It leverages a large community of independent recruiters, staffing firms, and industry professionals to complete the recruitment process in the most efficient manner.
Crowd recruiting is one such trend that talent acquisition teams are betting on. It brings together a pool of seasoned professionals to achieve a common goal. Additionally, the use of new-age crowd recruiting platforms will help talent managers expedite the process of hiring by enabling them to explore a large network of candidates to fill the role.
Enhancing Employee Engagement
The onset of COVID-19 introduced the corporate world with remote working. As a precautionary step, organizations had to include ‘work from home’ into their HR policy to ensure the health safety of employees. Considering the reopening of markets, organizations are implementing a hybrid work model in which distributed workforce will remain commonplace.
This makes it vital for talent managers to focus on enhancing employee engagement for those working in the office and at home. Amid the transition to hybrid work culture, talent acquisition teams will modify their employee engagement efforts to make sure the employees feel heard and their work is valued by their respective leadership teams.
Prioritizing Internal Mobility
With an increased focus on upskilling and reskilling of employees, organizations’ open roles can easily be filled internally. This is known as the internal mobility of employees. In the present corporate world, new job roles based on advanced technologies are opening. Considering the competitiveness in the market, it becomes harder to find a qualified candidate with the right fit for the role.
As a result, talent acquisition teams have strategically moved their focus from external sources of recruitment to prioritizing internal mobility. It serves several advantages including lower expenses, a faster hiring process and increased internal engagement. In the upcoming year, talent managers are also expected to use internal mobility as an integral part of an employee retention strategy.
Focus on Diversity & Inclusion
Employees’ priorities for joining an organization are gradually changing. Apart from financial security and benefits, they now look for flexibility, career development, and other commitments like Diversity & Inclusion. As a result, Diversity & Inclusion will continue to be a focal area for talent acquisition managers in 2022.
Almost every employee seeking a job would want to work with a company that is highly committed to its diversity and inclusion policy. Focus on including candidates from different geographic locations, promoting gender equality, etc will help talent acquisition teams to build more diverse teams.
Final Thoughts
Even with new challenges, talent acquisition teams are adapting to changes to be agile while recruiting. With the present technological advancements, there will be an increased focus on the timeline, cost, and quality of hire. Additionally, there will be a steep surge in the use of recruitment platforms powered by Artificial Intelligence for automated and faster-hiring processes.
