With record vacancies and low unemployment across many economies, there is a challenging picture out there for many industries in the quest for talent attraction and retention. Companies are looking for new blood. For their part, candidates are open to new opportunities and have learned lessons (many of them difficult ones) in recent years. To meet the challenges of recruitment in 2022, recruiters will have to offer an engaging candidate experience, which involves anticipating their own needs as well as the new expectations of candidates. Recruitment and Talent Acquisition professionals will have to adapt their communication; this is the differentiating force this year as nearly all companies are in competitive recovery mode.
Candidate experience, a staple of recruitment in 2022
Those who recruit in competitive talent markets know the difficulty of finding the exact profiles you search for and need. In 2022, there are two approaches available to recruiters:
- Adapt your recruitment strategy to better attract and engage candidates: making their life easier when applying.
- Turn to new corners of the workforce – many of whom may be graduates or those less experienced – but who are ready to improve their skills.
In both cases, the first points of contact will be decisive: the job offer and the application process. Experienced candidates are probably currently employed and have little time to apply to new ventures. The recruitment process in 2022 needs to be efficient and fluid to hold the attention and motivation of these potential candidates. On the side of newcomers and graduates, it is a question of offering them a digital-age candidate experience: accessible from a mobile device, fluid and fun, making it stand out from the competition.
Interaction is at the heart of recruitment in 2022
CVs, cover letters, recommendations… these classic recruitment staples have had their day. What if we broke the rules? Offering behavioural assessments as the first candidate filter allows recruiters to assess candidate’s soft skills and motivations, then make their pre-selection list and limit interviews to only the most promising profiles. The results can be returned directly to the candidates, allowing them to have meaningful feedback, which can be shared and leveraged to better position themselves in the future. In this instance, this shift towards detecting potential offers a win-win exchange. Also, these augmented forms of interaction are still rare in recruitment processes, so this is an opportunity to make your employer brand stand out!
Less time wasted for recruiters
From an HR digitalisation perspective, recruitment in 2022 will continue to offload or automate time-consuming and redundant tasks. Digital HR tools are designed precisely for this, with easy-to-use interfaces and functionality. These tools help to prioritise valuable tasks and to streamline collaboration between HR, recruiters and managers. Externally, the time saving is passed on to the candidate experience through faster responses following interviews. By shortening response time, holding the attention of the most sought-after talent is even easier. Internally, effective monitoring of profiles shortens recruitment times and also makes it possible to optimise sourcing by redirecting certain applications to other positions.
Optimising your recruitment process in 2022 guarantees a higher quality of communication and a positive candidate experience. Even for those candidates who are not selected, your company will maintain a good reputation and a talent pool that is able to be called upon for future opportunities.
Hybrid working methods and recruitment in 2022
2020 was the year of working from home and 2021 of the balancing act (more or less successfully) between face-to-face and remote. Recruitment in 2022 is set to be a worthy successor to these years in regards to shifting paradigms. Candidates who wish to work remotely will be delighted when offered flexible working hours and, perhaps, geographical mobility that would allow them to reconcile their personal and professional life. However, note that remote work does not fix everything alone. Via telework, employees work an average of 48 minutes more per day, or a full half-day more per week at full-time.
Companies at the service of their employees
Recruitment in 2022 needs to rise to meet candidate expectations. What management style do you offer? Among candidate’s top concerns is the relationship with their future manager, particularly in the context of remote work and face-to-face. New recruits often talk about their work environment. What office layout do you offer? Is it conducive to the informal exchanges that have been so lacking during the pandemic and quarantine periods, especially with imposed telework. You could also highlight access to the premises (24 hours a day or not) or the ease of connecting to all the remote work resources. Finally, you can also highlight mentoring or support for ongoing training. Finally, if your target includes salaried parents, it will be wise to mention emergency childcare options, parental leave or the possibility of switching to a 4-day week.
In all these cases, your company must show real attention to curating an attractive employee experience. As you are likely already far too aware, Talent Acquisition and recruitment in 2022 revolves around candidates’ expectations in regards to quality of work-life and balance with their personal lives.
Communication comes with transparency
Recruitment in 2022 revolves around clear communication. Between social networks and sites like Glassdoor where employees can leave their opinion, candidates can easily conduct their own surveys on your employer brand. Employers with recruitment goals for 2022 will need to communicate transparently and provide evidence to support their claims. Have bad comments made on social networks or other unflattering reviews online? Showing that you are working on a solution is much more convincing to a candidate than outright denial or totally ignoring the issue. Has your company made a commitment to reduce their carbon footprint? Present a meaningful infographic to illustrate this year’s carbon footprint. Think of content that can be communicated both internally and externally, because an employee who is proud of their company will likely talk about it to those around them and to potential new recruits.
Finally, although the health pandemic has subsided somewhat, your company should also show that you have a backup plan should another wave trigger new restrictions. No rest for HR in 2022, recruitment must be agile, innovative, communicative and human!
