Recruitment Trends to Watch in 2022

As the year draws to a close, Fertility Talent director Joanna Stroud looks ahead with her top hiring trends to watch in 2022.

Candidate-driven market

This is undoubtedly the biggest change we’ve seen over the past two years, and it looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. In practice, this means job seekers have more choices available to them, and firms are having to work harder to attract top talent. Ultimately, this means a drive towards higher wages, better benefits, and more flexibility in working hours and locations – all things workers have long said are important with them, and now have the power to demand. For hiring managers, this means their struggle for talent will continue, and businesses will be looking closely at their employer brand to sell themselves to potential applicants.

Bigger, better EVPs

As candidates have more choices than ever, employers will need to step up their game to compete for the very best candidates out there. That means more focus on Employer Value Propositions - or the things that businesses can offer their employees. We’ll certainly be seeing a lot more about culture, values and “why X is a great place to work” as everyone scrambles to explain just why candidates should want to work with them. Your EVP goes beyond just having a drinks fridge in the office – studies have shown workers increasingly want a job that makes them feel fulfilled, with an employer who aligns with their values.

Remote-first recruitment

This is another trend from 2020 and 2021 that’s here to stay. As the pandemic forced businesses to adopt remote working, many have embraced the benefits that come from having a distributed workforce, including hiring managers as they move toward remote and even automated interviewing. Many companies now conduct their recruitment process entirely online for remote jobs, and why not? After all, there’s value in knowing that candidates can work the technology, look professional, and communicate clearly through an online interview if that’s also how most of their meetings will be taking place.

One step further than this is the rise of AI for candidate screening and interviewing. Software like MyInterview allows hiring teams to conduct asynchronous video interviews where candidates are asked questions and given a set time to respond. The software then assesses and scores their responses, and even facial expressions in some cases, to provide a suitability assessment for the vacancy. This sounds like the stuff of science fiction and, currently, it mostly is, with serious questions being raised about the reliability of these AIs. Nonetheless, as the sector continues to innovate, we’re likely to see more - and better - automated hiring software pitched at the industry.

Diversity at the forefront

While the need for increased focus on diversity, equality and inclusion has been evident for some time, these issues have once again been thrust into the national spotlight in 2020/21. Most businesses have diversity initiatives, strategies and roadmaps in place, but the next twelve months will separate those companies that are serious about diversifying their workforce, and those just paying lip service to the concept. Going into 2022, those looking to expand their team should have a robust strategy for diversity and inclusion, as well as clear metrics on which the success of that strategy can be measured.

Hiring for retention

With all the shake-ups going on in the labour market right now, it really is no wonder employers are thinking beyond hiring and into retention. It’s been estimated that a bad hire can cost more than £50,000, and as workplaces are already stretched due to higher turnover during the pandemic, staff retention has never been so important. For both new and existing employees, companies across the UK are going to be looking inwards to assess how they can improve retention.

Living wages and hours, a positive culture, transparency and opportunities for career progression are all frequently cited as the most common reasons for moving jobs, so those companies who can demonstrate that they embody these values will be most successful in holding onto their workers during the great reshuffle.

Gen Z arrives

Again, this isn’t strictly new, so much as a trend that’s been growing over the last few years. Unlike many of the other items on this list though, this isn’t caused by any internal or external forces, save the relentless march of time. As older workers reach retirement age and more Generation Z (workers born after
1997 - currently aged 24 and under) leave education and enter the workforce, their unique perspectives and concerns will continue to generate a lot of buzz.

As with Millennials and Generation X before them, there’s likely to be a lot of opinions penned on how this new generation of workers are upsetting the status quo. But just as with their predecessors, most of these will be overblown, and as Gen Z settle into the workforce they’ll undoubtedly bring their own innovations and help drive progress. For now, hiring managers are increasingly looking for ways to attract the best talent from this age group, and need to pitch their EVP at a values-driven and media-savvy generation.

Reaching Passive Candidates

All of this adds up to a need for hiring managers to go above and beyond, both in the presentation of their company and the ways they reach and screen candidates. For most, this translates to a need to contact passive candidates – those who aren’t likely to send out an application but could potentially move jobs if the right role is pitched to them. Passive candidates make up around 73% of the CVs sitting on databases, including LinkedIn, so the ability to leverage your network and get in touch with these people will significantly widen the talent pool you have access to. Pitching a vacancy to a passive candidate is often a harder sell but can be more than worth it in the long run, as with enough tenacity, you’re much more likely to find the perfect hire.

If you’re a hiring manager with Fertility & Women’s Health vacancies to fill in 2022, Fertility Talent’s expert consultants are highly tenacious in the pursuit of talent, headhunting across both databases and their own extensive networks. Our consultants take the headache out of talent acquisition and present you with the very best candidates in their fields.

Call Fertility Talent today on 01904 230002 to find out if we can help you deliver an outstanding talent acquisition program in 2022.