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The Scoop: Recruitment Trends & Industry Insights | February 2022

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Here is your February guide to the latest trends impacting the world of work. Every month, we provide perspective on the biggest news affecting the industry and explain what to expect as new trends continue to emerge.

RADANCY SURVEYS REVEAL WHAT JOB SEEKERS WANTED MOST IN 2021 (AND WHAT’S TRENDING OVER TIME)

Basic needs continue to increase in significance to job seekers.

Since 2018, Radancy Surveys – part of Radancy’s Unified Platform – has surveyed over 850,000 career site visitors about their motivations and challenges. One of the most notable trends has come from a question that asks job seekers what is most important to them when evaluating a job opportunity.

Pre-pandemic, when asked: “What are you primarily looking for in an opportunity?” the most popular responses were aspirational – with “Interesting and challenging work” and “getting ahead in my career” being the top two choices. Since then, both are down 40% and 41% respectively. Today, candidates are now focused on two things: Compensation (including benefits) and Convenience. 

  • Since 2018, the importance of ‘compensation and benefits’ in how they make decisions about a job is up 53% amongst job seekers and up 40% since the onset of the pandemic. 
  • Since 2018, ‘convenience’ as a deciding factor in choosing a job is up 165% and 102% since the onset of the pandemic. 

Rising global inflation is making salary a higher priority for job seekers. And wage transparency legislation continues to gain momentum around the globe, most recently in the US. If not doing so already, employers should publish salaries in their job ads. It will help improve conversions in an already tight labor market by simply giving candidates the most important information they need to make an informed decision.

Understanding the specific benefits that are available is becoming increasingly important to job seekers too. Employers should feature role-specific benefits and rewards that will pique a candidate’s interest directly on the job ad pages of their careers site.  

And with new, more flexible approaches to work locations on offer for many knowledge workers, it’s critical for employers to clearly communicate their approach to flexible working at every candidate touchpoint.

Connect with Radancy to learn more about our candidate surveys.

UNDERSTANDING WHY EMPLOYEES QUIT CAN HELP EMPLOYERS REDUCE ATTRITION

A Gartner poll found that almost two thirds of executive leaders were significantly concerned about employee attrition, whilst 65% of employees say the pandemic has made them rethink the place that work should have in their lives.

To help employers mitigate attrition, Gartner created a framework to help employers understand why employees quit.

“Whether you face an attrition crisis or are planning your post-pandemic workforce strategy, you need to know when and how to repair, humanize, outcompete or double-down on recruiting efforts.”
Alexia Cambon, Director, Research, Gartner

Whilst ‘compensation and benefits’ were one of the most important factors in what job seekers are looking for (Radancy candidate survey data), to stop them leaving, employers must deliver on the employee experience and adopt appropriate strategies for employees that fall into each of Gartner’s quadrants.

Read more: ‘Great resignation or not, money won’t fix all your talent problems’ [Gartner]

DO JOB SEEKERS AND EMPLOYEES WANT MORE FLEXIBILITY, OR DO THEY REALLY WANT MORE AUTONOMY OVER THEIR LIFE?

Flexibility can mean many different things to many different people. A global study of 5,000 knowledge workers by Jabra found that “59% of respondents reported that ‘flexibility’ is more important to them than salary or other benefits, and 77% said they would prefer to work for a company that gives them the flexibility to work from anywhere rather than fancy corporate headquarters.”

The survey also found that the flexibility employees want is conditional on their ability to exercise it in a way that best fits them. In other words, they want the autonomy to decide when it’s best to work and from where.

Employers are starting to find themselves in a ‘perks war’ (similar to that seen in the early 2010s by tech companies in Silicon Valley). Enabling employees to have autonomy over their flexibility might not be a differentiating factor for long, it may even become a competitive disadvantage to not offer autonomy.

Read more: ‘Forget Flexibility. Your employees want autonomy.’ [Harvard Business Review]

SALESFORCE LAUNCHES GLOBAL DIGITAL SKILLS INDEX

Salesforce recently launched their Global Digital Skills Index which looks at what 23,500 workers across 19 countries say about digital skills, including their impact on the future of work, concerns about job readiness and the significance of continuous learning.

The survey revealed that over 76% of respondents do not feel ready to operate in a digital-first world, but only 28% are actively involved in digital skills learning and training.

Employers need to not only empower colleagues to learn, but to provide them with the learning tools to improve their digital skills now and on an ongoing basis. From a talent acquisition perspective, it’s critical to share your approach to digital skills development with prospective employees to reassure them that they’ll have the ability to learn and improve their digital skills during their employment.

Read more about the Salesforce Digital Skills Index or view the interactive digital skills data dashboard [Salesforce]  

About Nathan Perrott

As VP, Strategy & Innovation at Radancy, Nathan is responsible for observing emerging trends in technology and the future of work to drive product and strategy innovation, bringing the value of Radancy Labs' work to our clients and colleagues, and also leads the European team of solutions engineers who drive value from the Radancy Talent Acquisition Cloud.

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