Trends, fashions and fads come
and go across all sectors and industries, with the ‘how and why’ of the
recruitment process not being immune to changes in fashion and so on.
With the economy slowly levering
its way out of recession, the recruitment market could, once again, become a
hot bed of activity. Companies will be recruiting,
possibly hiring in larger volumes that the previous few years have allowed. With
studies from major recruitment agencies and social platform LinkedIn, the
global recruiting trends for 2015 have been identified.
Top statistic
Nearly half of the 450 financial companies interview from a survey
carried out by the Association for
Financial Professionals Business Outlook, stated they would look to be
hiring big time over the course of the year. With the financial sector
beginning to ‘move’ once again, it pays to keep an eye on all major industries.
Trend
1 - The focus is on retention
A hot recruitment market is a
double edged sword. For the employee, it opens up a whole heap of potential
opportunities but, for the employer it presents real possibilities that they
could be losing brilliant staff.
However, a New York based survey
found that well over half of those surveyed in June of last year were unhappy
with their work or job. This means that there is a large group of people
looking to grasp new opportunities and challenges as they arise.
What this means for employers…
… 2015 could be the year that the
need to listen to employees, create a better working environment and start to
‘look after’ their employees, by providing the opportunities they want in order
to stretch themselves.
As the economy picks up, however,
there is one more threat that companies need to be aware of. 7 in 10 workers,
when questioned, would like to leave their regular employment and start their
own business. A more buoyant economy could be the very thing that they need to
give them the push.
Top tip for 2015 – look to retain the staff you have!
Trend
2 – Offer competitive wages
The recession has a strangle hold
on the what and how much a company can pay their staff, as well as any pay
increases and awards they can offer.
Many UK workers have not had a
significant increase in recent years, if any at all and thus, there is a clear
expectation that once business is able to do so, that it should increase the
pay of staff.
Larger companies with global
points of work have indicated that they intend on increasing the pay of staff,
up to 5% in some cases. However, pay is not the be all and end all, with many
smaller to medium sized businesses urged to look at benefits packages for
employees if their profit margins are still under pressure.
Top tip for 2015 – look to create benefits packages if a pay increase
is not viable.
Trend
3 – Spruce up your brand
Your brand does not just talk to
potential customers. It talks to potential job candidates too.
When recession or turbulent economy
times hit within a company, the profits are pulled to the core, to oil all the
financial cogs that need to keep turning. Once the load is lightened,
businesses may start to look for top notch candidates but, if the brand is not
quite talking, then you may find the calibre of candidate is not quite what you
want.
Top tip – join the big global players and start to cultivate the
employer brand of your company; make it the place that people want to work.
Trend
4 – Retirement age is no longer 65 in the UK…
… and, as a company, you will
need to prepare for this. With the age at which the state pension can be drawn
increasing to 67 and 68 years of age, the make-up of your workforce is
beginning to change. Businesses need to respond to this in a positive, and wholesome
way.
Top tip – finding ways to transfer skills from the ‘older’ generation
to the young starters need to be found, but that ‘space’ within a workforce
will also need to be found to accommodate the change in retirement age.
Trend
5 – the ‘gigging worker’
The ‘zero hours contract’ debate raged during
the recent election but it is still out there. Again, a double edge sword; some
people enjoy the freedom of freelancing and yet some employers are ‘hedging
their bets’ by presenting workers with no choice. For some, they could have no
work tomorrow but 60 hours the following week.
Damaging to both the economy, the
business itself and morale, the grip of these contracts is such that they will
be hard to get rid of. However, the need for flexibility is still strong but
business needs to find a far better way to recruit casual or temporary staff.
Top tip – freelancers are growing but freelancing is not the same as
‘zero hours contracts’.
Trend
6 – Recruiting is going to get tougher
Leading companies predict that
2015 will be the year that everything gets tougher in the recruitment market
with competition between firms to attract the best candidates become almost too
hot to handle.
Many suggest that social media
sites could be effective recruitment boards and that interviewing through phone
or video will also become more common place.