With the year drawing to a close, many companies are in the process of putting together their hiring strategy for 2021.
Over the past 12 months, priorities have changed dramatically; every industry is facing its own individual recruiting challenges, whether that’s hiring freezes, inefficient ways of processing high volumes of applications or an increase in vacancies.
What are the hiring trends that will dominate in 2021? While this year has taught us that anything can happen, here are our predicted hiring trends for companies over the next 12 months.
1. Remote and flexible working options are here to stay
One of the (many) reasons 2020 will be remembered is that it’s the year remote working became the norm for millions of employees. Companies that had never encouraged remote working were suddenly forced to accommodate the majority of their staff working from home.
It may have taken time to adjust, however we learned that many businesses were able to successfully adopt a remote working strategy.
While we’re unsure of what 2021 will hold in terms of restrictions and social distancing requirements, an increased number of companies will likely offer remote working as an option permanently, helping them to broaden their talent pool of potential new hires moving forwards.
2. Diversity will be monitored
Diversity has been high on the agenda for HR teams over the past few years, as more businesses seek a diverse range of thoughts, ideas and representation in their teams. However, 2020 has really pushed diversity into the spotlight as a major discussion point.
For companies prioritising equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), they will look to implement the strategies they’ve started to plan this year. This will likely include:
- Advertising on specialist diversity job boards
- Improving the inclusiveness of their recruitment process
- Seeking smarter ways of reducing bias during hiring
Additionally, businesses will be seeking the most effective ways of reporting on their diversity initiatives, both monitoring the diversity of their teams but also measuring the impact of their diversity initiatives.
3. Recruitment marketing will remain important
With more companies focusing on developing their employer brand, HR and talent acquisition professionals are adopting marketing techniques to increase their exposure, improve their brand and deliver a memorable candidate experience.
With the rise of recruitment marketing technology, more companies will rely on tactics typically used by marketing departments, including content marketing and email automation sequences, to improve their talent attraction strategies.
Read more: 5 Ways to Recruit Like a Marketer
4. Technology and AI will increase efficiencies
Throughout 2021, business will continue to invest in hiring technology to power their recruitment activities, using AI and automation to help teams to work smarter and prioritise the tasks that matter.
While human contact is important (now more than ever), they will use technology as an aid to help HR and recruitment teams to spend more time on the human aspects of recruiting.
Looking to make positive improvements to your recruitment process in 2021? Book your demo of Webrecruit ATS recruitment software.
