The past two years have seen seismic shifts in the world of work: the rise of remote work, staffing shortages fueled by The Great Resignation, and explosive demand in key industries, including healthcare and manufacturing.
With so much change, many are looking to the year ahead to forecast workplace trends for 2022. Staffing agencies in particular may benefit from considering what lies on the horizon, with an eye to what role recruiters will play in the coming months and years.
While no one can say for sure what the future holds, here are the workplace trends that are likely to have a major impact on work in 2022 — and how they will impact recruiters.
Extending contractual notice periods
Increased staff turnover and a lack of suitable candidates has led many businesses to write longer notice periods into employee contracts.
The objective is to retain workers while replacements are found. This is good news for recruiters in that it loosens time constraints, but if more businesses adopt this approach over time, it could cause the labor market to stabilize to the point of stagnation – something that won’t benefit staffing and recruitment firms at all.
Upskilling or retraining existing employees
Having discovered how difficult it is to find the ideal candidate, employers are ditching the search in favor of upskilling or retraining programs for existing staff members.
For example, Amazon recently announced plans to retrain 300,000 employees worldwide by 2025. Over $1.2 billion is going to be invested in several training initiatives, including free college tuition for front-line workers.
With improvements like this being made to on-the-job training, the skill requirements for new hires are likely to be lowered. Of course, this widens the candidate pool for recruiters, but they will also have to contend with the fact that more recruitment will be taking place internally. Reducing the need to source applicants from elsewhere.
Shift towards ‘on-demand’ staffing
The financial stability of many companies remains delicate, and it is difficult for employers to plan or commit to long-term staffing. Instead, there is likely to be a continued shift towards ‘on-demand’ recruitment.
Businesses will be reacting to ever-changing trade conditions as late as they possibly can. When the time comes, they will need to move fast. This will generally necessitate the use of staffing agencies, who can utilize their broad networks to place candidates at short notice.
Greater emphasis on project-based work
Another trend that is likely to accelerate in 2022 is the shift to project-based work. Since many organizations pivoted to remote work, it became possible to hire talent from anywhere, particularly specialized talent. This allowed employers to bring together teams on a specific project-by-project basis, without either party having to commit to long-term employment.
This is good news for recruiters, as the need for fresh talent on an ongoing basis will keep them busy and in high demand. It will also mean that recruiters should be making use of the latest technology, such as an applicant tracking system and CRM software, to identify the highest quality candidates for relevant work opportunities and to fill those roles as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Leveraging data to match job openings with ideal candidates
With every passing year, data has assumed a greater and greater role in all aspects of work.
Applicant tracking software has already become a standard tool in many organizations, and many staffing software providers, such as Mindscope, offer detailed data tracking and analysis that can transform how recruiters and staffing agencies operate.
This workplace trend will continue to gain momentum, especially as these tools evolve to offer a greater range of time-saving features and functions.
Make sure your staffing agency is ready for the workplace trends of 2022. Reach out to us to explore how Mindscope can make recruiting easier, faster, and stress-free.
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