The year of 2016 was a great year for hiring with an increase in median pay of 3.1% over 2015, the fastest pace in 3 years. There are also a record number of unfilled jobs 5.85 million in April of 2016. Given these statistics, 2017 is a great time to maximize recruitment efforts. Workplace trends affect recruitment so we have highlighted 4 trends that are expected for 2017.
4 Workplace Trends
- HR / Recruitment will continue to use more data to aid in making better decisions involving retention as well as recruitment. Given the high demand for talent, retention is key to successful organizations. One third of employers (33 percent) say employees have been leaving their companies voluntarily at a higher rate in 2016 as the economy improved. Use data to assess your internal teams to stay on top of concerns/ priorities to better retain the good performers and make them less vulnerable to leaving. Employee engagement will be a huge focus as companies look to build and nurture a pipeline of internal candidates who are eager to move up within the organization and contribute to the growth of the business. In addition to using data to drive improvements in the workplace experience for your employees, another way to use data is for predictive modeling. Employee turnover is expensive and the average tenure for employees is less than five years. Collecting data from employees can give you a better understanding of why they are leaving which can be used to not only increase retention of existing employees but also of new recruits. This leads to the next point, using data in recruitment, not only for the competitive talent pipeline, but also for the overall labor market. Information on compensation, available talent sources, skill shortages, etc. are all part of the data needed to make informed hiring decisions.
- The increase of automation for repetitive tasks. HR will be adding more technology to minimize repetitive tasks giving them more time to focus on the people. Mobile will continue to play a huge role not only in recruitment but also in pay and benefits.
- Non-traditional benefits will become less popular. According to Glassdoor, ”nontraditional offerings don’t boost employee satisfaction as much as health insurance, 401(k) matches, and paid time off”. However, non-traditional benefits such as gym memberships, free food and drink can also be seen as a part of organizational culture as opposed to a benefit so do survey your employees to get a better understanding of perks prior to making changes. Use data to make informed decisions on what perks are perceived as benefits and which perks are integral to company culture. In regards to culture, flexible work schedules and casual dress will continue to be important.
- The gig economy will slow down. According to a survey by JP Morgan Chase, “only about 4.3% of U.S. adults had ever earned income from an online “gig” platform as of June 2016.” According to Glassdoor’s chief economist, Andrew Chamberlain, the job growth in 2017 is in jobs that are “least likely to function well in a gig economy platform.” The job growth is in health care professionals, data scientists, sales leaders, strategy consultants, and product managers.
Why are these trends important? The demand for talent is high and, the number of unfilled jobs is high which means the margin of error in recruitment needs to be kept to a minimum. We stay informed on all recruitment trends and current recruitment conditions to ensure that we are giving our clients the very best consulting recommendations to grow their businesses through talent.