According to new data, HR professionals' top concern for 2021 is recruiting and hiring while the country recovers from the coronavirus epidemic.
Despite, or probably because of, the economic uncertainty produced by COVID-19, talent acquisition professionals will have their hands full. Unemployment is likely to stay high, and the majority of people in the labor market expect to hunt for a new job.
In September 2020, XpertHR, an online HR resource site, polled 563 U.S. companies about their anticipated workplace issues for 2021, and discovered that recruiting and hiring was at the top of the list, followed by workforce planning and workplace health and safety.
"Roughly half of responding firms anticipate to increase their personnel [in 2021], according to the poll," said Andrew Hellwege, XpertHR's surveys editor. "Employers will not want to miss out on the potential recovery in 2021 after COVID-19 shook the economy in 2020... For attracting people and scaling up operations, recruiting and hiring initiatives will be critical."
According to the survey, only 10% of firms expect to have to remove employment, while 30% foresee no change in staff size and 12% are unsure.
The most difficult challenge in talent acquisition is acquiring top talent, which is followed by making candidates feel safe working onsite, employing a diverse staff, managing virtual recruiting and onboarding methods, and dealing with a high volume of applicants.
Separate research indicated low applicant quality as the #1 obstacle relating to recruitment, according to Emily Scace, legal editor at XpertHR. "This could be due to a genuine skills gap for specific professions, or it could be at least partially due to businesses' hiring tactics," she said. "Moreover, the finest candidates may have many offers, making it more difficult for any one firm to attract and keep them."
Another problem is sifting through a large number of applicants. "With less time per applicant, hiring managers may be more prone to use shortcuts to choose which candidates to advance—an approach that can eliminate a large section of the talent pool, perpetuate biases, and fail to discover the best prospects for the job," Scace added.
According to a new research of job seeker attitude released by the American Staffing Association, recruiters could expect a surplus of candidates in 2021. (ASA). The study, which polled over 700 working adults, found that 80% of them expect to look for new jobs in the coming year.
According to Cynthia Davidson, ASA's senior director of research, a lot of the instability originates from the government shutdown "stems from the economic uncertainty that has accompanied the pandemic. Fears have gotten stronger, and the desire for security has increased."
While it may appear that such an attitude would keep employees in their existing positions, Davidson claims that it does not "Employees don't want to be caught off guard—even if they feel safe, they want to know they have options in the face of all the other uncertainty. People may be aware that their company is considering layoffs, regardless of how hard they strive to stay at their current employment. It all relies on the situation at each employer."
The ASA study also adds to mounting evidence that preferred work patterns have evolved dramatically since COVID-19 first appeared. When compared to before the epidemic, nearly 70% of respondents prefer working remotely to working on-site, and 62 percent prefer permanent roles to other forms of employment arrangements. Notably, 30% of workers believe temporary assignments have gotten less appealing this year, while another 30% think temporary placement through staffing firms has become more appealing.
According to Davidson, the disparity could be explained by different sectors' reactions to the public health problem. Workers in the health-care industry, who "previously loved the flexibility of temporary assignments," are now the least likely to consider them desirable, and are also more likely than workers in other industries to have left their most recent job because they were offered a better opportunity elsewhere, she said.
She went on to say, "That shift makes sense." "Health-care employees seek stability, and despite the fact that they are vital, many have lost their employment as a result of the pandemic."
Temporary work, on the other hand, has been gaining popularity among IT professionals. "With organizations going remote, these occupations are becoming more common, and many of these job searchers recognize the potential benefits of partnering with staffing services to assist them find more employment prospects and reduce their job search burden," Davidson said.
Recruiters and recruiting managers should keep the following candidate interests in mind when communicating with potential hires: business culture, job flexibility, and workplace safety, according to her.
"Candidates are expressing concerns about their health and safety if they are required to work on-site," she said. "Those issues must be examined from the candidate's perspective, and employers must demonstrate that they are going above and beyond to eliminate worries and concerns so that people feel safe returning to work."