fbpx

What’s Your 2021 Recruiting Prediction?

What’s Your 2021 Recruiting Prediction?

Written by Rosie Skinner

Rosie Skinner is a recruitment expert, speaker and Director of Mployable - Talent Strategy and Recruitment on Subscription, also known as the Outsourced In-House Recruitment Team. She's been in the recruitment industry for almost ten years, in recruitment agency (yes, high street agency) roles in her early days, through to in house recruitment and HR managerial roles in the latter part of her career. Rosie is CIPD and REC qualified and has spoken at prestigious industry events such as 'Disrupt HR' and 'Inspire Recruitment' as well as numerous business events and workshops.

I’m going to start by saying: “It’s been a really long year” and it’s only January!

What on earth awaits us for the rest of 2021? Particularly in the recruitment industry.  An industry that, in many cases, had a rollercoaster of a year, to say the least.

One of the first, probably obvious, statements to make is that working from home is here to stay. 

And with that comes virtual recruitment processes and interviewing.  Hiring businesses and recruiting firms alike will have to adapt their usual processes. And remain in line with government guidance, as it’s showing no signs of going anywhere. 

It would, in fact, be prudent (if it’s not already been done) to begin to solidify the virtual process. Tweak and improve systems to build a more permanent infrastructure to work from.

Recruitment technology will continue to gather pace and innovate. 

As with the above, our whole worlds have moved online and recruiting businesses will need to keep up – particularly those that relied on footfall marketing. For example retail businesses or high street recruitment agencies. 

From the applicant tracking system (ATS) through to online interview platforms, video interviewing and values profiling – the recruitment technology industry is booming.

And there are a plethora of choices to supercharge your recruitment. 

Always be sure to do the research and ask the questions.
Why do we need this?  How will we use it?  Why will it be useful?  What do we want to achieve through using this?  Because as well as supercharging your recruitment, some of the options will also drain your budget if not thoroughly researched and implemented.

Employer Branding has been a crucial component of the recruitment strategy for several years now.

But in the 2021 recruitment landscape reaching out to candidates, particularly digitally will be more important than ever. 

Almost a reverse-engineered process of the hirer ‘applying’ to the candidate, employers will still need to work hard to attract the best talent, particularly in shortage industries such as tech and engineering.

2021 will also see a rise in psychometric profiling. 

Viewed with some hesitancy by many, seen as little more than a horoscope by few, but with face-to-face interviews becoming the norm, psychometric testing can be a good way to get to know the candidate better without being in one another’s breathing space. 

However, as with any other technology available in recruitment, research is crucial. 

Many will claim to be different and give you a view on anything from the candidates’ management preferences to their subconscious values.  Work out what it is that your current process is lacking, do the research and appoint a test accordingly. 

A word of caution – don’t use the profiles as a ‘be all and end all’ but simply another tool in the toolkit to help find the right person for the role.

Future planning will also be extremely important – but with the added ingredient of flexibility. 

Contingency plans will be King and recruitment strategy will need to reflect this. Having the capability to react at speed to change and volatility.  If we’ve learned anything over the last few months’ it’s that the rug can be pulled from us at any moment, at speed and without little notice – so any plans must be made in pencil.

2021 is shaping up to be another challenging year but it certainly feels as though there is some light at the end of the tunnel. 

All we can do as an industry is continue to remain flexible and adapt when required. 

We will get through this.

You May Also Like…

Share This