Digital Talent Demands: A Guide for Talent Leaders

Posted on June 27, 2023June 27, 2023 by akessler

The demand for skilled tech and digital talent is growing at an unprecedented rate in response to the emergence of new technologies, making the competition for talent as tight as ever, with both tech and non-tech companies vying for the same qualified candidates. For the tech sector, it’s a time of transformation. For non-tech organizations, it’s a golden opportunity to fill their technical skills gaps. But for any employer looking to attract top digital talent, it is essential to first understand what candidates are looking for in a new employer.

In this article, we explore the opportunity for non-tech organizations and offer insights into what tech and digital professionals are looking for in a new employer.

Plenty of Demand Despite Tech Sector Shifts

The tumultuous labor market and recent economic landscape have been a rollercoaster for all HR leaders, but those in the tech sector have experienced particularly high highs and low lows. Recent layoffs at tech companies are being categorized as a “course correction” by many publications, and it seems the “growth-at-all-costs” attitude has finally caught up with tech organizations. Over 160,000 professionals were laid off in 2022 according to Layoffs.fyi, with additional cuts taking place in 2023.

Yet, despite this, demand for tech talent remains high. Over 375,000 tech jobs remain unfilled in the U.S. according to the Dice Tech Job Report. In Australia, tech jobs grew more than twice as fast as the average employment rate in the last decade. In the UK, 41% of companies expect to hire for technical skills in 2023.

The Tech & Digital Talent Diaspora

This demand is being primarily driven by traditional companies, rather than software companies or other tech organizations. In fact, the majority of people in tech occupations (59%) don’t work in the tech sector.

In our digital-first world, every company—from apparel brands to car insurance companies—has tech at the heart of their business as they develop mobile apps and ecommerce consumer experiences. In fact, the biggest and fastest-growing industries for tech professionals are finance, manufacturing and healthcare as these sectors increasingly digitize their operations.

The ratio of tech and digital workers employed outside of the tech industry will continue to grow. Many workers recently laid off from Big Tech firms have highly sought-after skills, creating an opportunity for more traditional organizations to land tech and digital talent.

Will Former Tech Workers Re-Evaluate Their Options?

Given the extent of the downsizing in the tech sector, many workers will think twice about going back to a tech company in the future. Traditional employers, that previously couldn’t compete against the high salaries and quirky perks that Big Tech could provide, now have more to offer tech workers—including stability.

Tech workers are trading the excitement of startups for the steadiness of more traditional employers. The unpredictable nature and funding rollercoasters of tech firms have left many tech professionals seeking a saner pace. As traditional companies embrace AI, blockchain and cybersecurity, workers who have left the tech sector can still leverage their tech and digital skill sets, but with a greater sense of security.

What Do Tech and Digital Talent Want?

When they’re ready for growth again, Big Tech will have to rethink their approach to engaging tech talent and attracting them back to the industry. So, what do tech and digital workers want from their employer and their job? Here are three top considerations that organizations across sectors should focus on to attract and retain tech and digital talent.

Flexibility & Work/Life Balance

Many tech workers who experienced the fast pace and intense work culture of startups now find themselves burnt out and are prioritizing more work/life balance. Flexible contracts and remote working are important to tech workers, with 29% citing flexibility as a top priority when looking for a job. Yet, 48% of tech sector employees said that they were feeling pressure from their employer to come into the office more often.

Recent Gallup analysis shows that employee engagement is lowest among on-site employees, with the biggest dip seen among employees who are capable of working remotely but are required to be on site. Flexibility is not just a perk to offer employees; it should be viewed as a critical way to increase productivity. Organizations can reap the benefits of flexibility in the workplace by continuously monitoring their flexible work program and addressing any challenges experienced by employees or hiring managers.

Digital Skills Development

No one is more aware of the speed of technological advancement than tech and digital workers. And this can lead to anxiety. In fact, 29% of digital employees globally believe their skill set is redundant now or will be in the next one to two years, and 38% believe their skills will be obsolete in the next four to five years.

In terms of retaining digital talent, investing in training and upskilling programs is crucial for all organizations. Over half of digital talent (55%) say they’re willing to change employers if they feel their skills are stagnating in their current role. Plus, 58% say they would gravitate to organizations that offer better tech and digital skills development.

With an abundance of job opportunities available, these employees won’t hesitate to find an employer that will invest in their career development. So it’s concerning that only 27% of employees said their organization had plenty of opportunities in place to help them to learn new skills. Learning and development programs are not only an important part of retaining talent with tech and digital skill sets but can also be an effective way to attract talent.

Start with a skills audit and compare the findings to your business roadmap. By uncovering the areas where your workforce needs the most training, you can then take steps to develop an upskilling program. For example, PeopleScout worked with a longstanding UK financial services RPO client to lead a reskilling program to help the client evaluate their customer service staff in bank branches and call centers to find candidates for their tech skilling program. We were able to identify over 1,000 employees who are now participating in a 12-month “bootcamp” to build digital and tech skills and move into new careers within the organization.

Meaningful Work

Organizations must find out how to communicate their employer value proposition (EVP) in a way that resonates with digital talent. Make sure your attraction content emphasizes the give and get for people in tech roles at your organization including learning and growth opportunities, your tech innovations and projects, well-being initiatives and more. Plus, more and more candidates are paying attention to organizational values and mission. If they can’t determine if their personal values are aligned with the company’s mission, they won’t apply.

EVP is not all about attraction, but also about employee retention. From a retention perspective, it’s crucial that employers continue to showcase how you’re investing in your employees beyond compensation and benefits. This helps to boost feelings of engagement and to build loyalty.

As the pace of digital transformation accelerates, it is difficult to envisage a company attaining its full potential without a strong foundation of tech and digital talent. Demand for this crucial part of the workforce won’t let up soon. It’s mission critical for organizations to understand what makes this group tick in order to attract, hire and retain tech talent. To get more strategies for attracting and hiring tech and digital proessionals, download our Recruitment Handbook for Tech & Digital Talent.

Recruitment Handbook for Tech & Digital Talent

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Breaking DE&I Barriers in Life Science: Tips to Build & Recruit a Diverse Workforce

Posted on June 20, 2023July 1, 2023 by banderson

Over 20 years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act, or the Healthcare Fairness Act, to address national issues such as the increasing need for a diverse workforce. With focus on the life sciences, it stated, “There is a national need for minority scientists in the fields of biomedical, clinical, behavioural, and health services research.” Yet, underrepresented populations are still the largest “untapped STEM talent pools in the United States.”

Black and Hispanic individuals remain underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce. Plus, women remain underrepresented in fields like physical sciences, computing and engineering. Moreover, organisations in Europe are struggling to find and retain women in STEM. According to Eurostat, female scientists and engineers remain a minority in STEM roles, and despite increases over the past decade, women still make up only 16.5% of engineers in the UK.

For life science organisations, the lack of minorities and women in STEM fields and the sector overall will present long-term challenges in cultivating a workforce that will help them remain competitive in our increasingly diverse and interconnected world.

However, it seems there hasn’t been much progress made in the 20+ years since the Healthcare Fairness Act. So, how can life science organisations make a difference in creating more diversity in life science careers? Keep reading to learn more about the DE&I challenges and opportunities for life science employers.

Life Science’s Lack of a Diverse Workforce

Diversity is lacking across the entire life science industry, from research to clinical work. According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, the representation of minority ethnic groups in the science fields must more than double to match the groups’ overall share of the U.S. population. In fact, 65% of the U.S. workforce in life science are white, 19% are Asian, 8% are Hispanic and only 6% are Black.

Source: Pew Research Center

Being a future-focused employer requires investment in building diverse and inclusive teams. Bringing underrepresented groups into your organisation provides a full range of benefits and skills to drive innovation. The issue is particularly pressing as the industry undergoes a wave of transformation due to the disruption of tech—further widening the current skills gap.

Additionally, diversity in leadership will help you boost retention and attract talent. With 85% of life science employees who identify as a minority saying they are ‘hugely underrepresented’ in senior roles, the lack of diverse leadership representation could be detrimental to your organisation. It could affect your bottom line and further hinder your ability to attain those highly competitive, in-demand skills (like data analytics and computer programming) needed within the industry.

Furthermore, Informa Connect conducted one of the largest industry employee research reports to date, which surveyed life science professionals around the world about their opinions on diversity and inclusion in the industry. When asked what the industry’s biggest problem is pertaining to having an inclusive and diverse workforce, over a third of respondents named the lack of representation of minorities in leadership roles.

Source: Informa Connect

Gender Inequality in Life Science

Due to the lack of women in STEM careers, life science employers struggle to attract women to R&D roles. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), 70% of global researchers are men. This creates problems for life science employers as both female life science professionals (65%) and male professionals (59%) believe women are under-represented overall. It doesn’t help that, although women make up almost half (48%) of life science workers, men still out-earn women by 13%.

Why is Diversity in Life Science so Important?

Although there are clear disparities around representation of minorities and women in life science, only 23% of organisations are giving significant focus to DE&I and only 13% are financially investing in diverse groups. Organisations that aren’t prioritising DE&I will struggle to cope with the industry’s current talent shortage. The lack of diversity puts organisations at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent.

In our recent research report, candidates say that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. This is even more important for candidates from underrepresented groups. In Biospace’s latest report, 93% of women of color responded that they believe diversity is important when considering a job. Investing in DE&I-focused talent acquisition strategies, programs and training creates a huge opportunity for life science organisations to grow a diverse and productive workforce.

A diverse and inclusive work environment builds trust, increases engagement and improves business outcomes.

Organisations with strong “diversity climates” have increased employee job satisfaction and employee retention as well as financial returns above national industry medians. Companies with above-average diversity scores report nearly 20% higher revenue due to innovation. 

Moreover, diversity provides many benefits for improved organisational performance and productivity such as:

Broader range of skills and experience
Multilingualism to support global growth
Increased cultural competence and awareness

Diverse workforces, including cognitively diverse teams, leverage a greater variety of perspectives to solve problems faster with improved accuracy. According to the International Labor Organisation, when companies establish inclusive business cultures and policies, they experience a nearly 60% increase in creativity, innovation and openness.

For example, the majority of the western world’s research uses tissue and blood from white individuals to screen drugs and therapies that are developed for a more diverse population. However, different ethnic groups experience different outcomes from various treatments, methods and diseases. A diverse workforce, especially in biomedical science and pharmaceuticals, would more likely push for inclusion in research and testing and provide different perspectives that could lead to new insights and discoveries.

Strategies for Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce in Life Science

Creating a diverse and inclusive work environment can be challenging, but here are some proven steps for attracting top diverse talent and establishing equitable recruitment practices.

1. Focus on Employer Branding

Show diversity as part of your organisation’s DNA by articulating a compelling EVP and employer brand that clearly defines and establishes your organisational commitment to DE&I. Building your internal and external employer brand messaging gives you greater influence over what you are known for, how you are perceived by candidates and the value that you offer to your employees. Make sure your recruitment marketing materials are relevant to a variety of audiences with imagery and content that highlights diversity in race, gender and more. Plus, showcasing real employees adds a layer of authenticity to your employer brand.

2. Update Your Career Site

After viewing a job post, a candidate’s first point of contact is usually your career site. It’s crucial that your career site shows your DE&I efforts. Sharing diversity goals publicly and transparently is an important way for candidates to experience your organisational values and mission.

3. Keep Job Listings Simple

Plain language is especially important if you want to reach diverse populations. Use verbiage that your candidate would use rather than your internal terminology and assess your job ads for biased language. Avoid verbiage like “expert,” “rockstar” or “like a family” that are often masculine and project a homogeneous work culture that prioritises like-minded thinking over diversity. Additionally, remove any experience or skills that are “nice-to-have” in your job descriptions, and keep in mind that men and women value different things. For example, while men usually prioritise compensation, most women see work-life balance as their number one priority.

4. Go Beyond Your Careers Site

Elevate your sourcing strategy by:

Optimising your reach by posting on relevant job boards and platforms. Don’t forget that professional networking groups, like the Black Healthcare and Medical Association, are great resources to get your job ads in front of the right people.
Establish relationships with STEM-based programs at universities, alumni associations and other networking groups that cater to diverse populations.
Get your internal teams involved by asking for referrals. Diverse employees are often connected with diverse candidates.

In doing so, you cast a wider net to reach a larger pool of diverse candidates, maximising your chances of growing your workforce.

5. Representation Matters

During the interview stage, make sure candidates see how much you value diversity by having a diverse panel of interviewers. When a candidate sees someone who looks like themselves or another minority when being interviewed, it creates a sense of belonging and reaffirms your company’s mission to establish a diverse culture. Additionally, make sure your hiring panel has received diversity training and can successfully communicate with those that think differently and have unique backgrounds or working styles.

6. Invest in Diversity Training

Through diversity training, you can help change systematic diversity hurdles—such as your organisation’s hiring practices and how diverse talent is sourced as well as taking action to increase diversity at the board or leadership level.

“Companies need to acknowledge the unique needs and contributions of employees with multiple historically excluded identities.”
Yaro Fong-Olivare, Executive director of Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business (CWB)

Diversity training programs are not a one-size-fits-all solution and come in various training types, which can be customised to help achieve your organisation’s goals. Diversity training helps employees feel a sense of belonging, so they are more likely to stay with an organisation, which can improve your retention rates.

7. Enable Talent Acquisition Technology and Track Your Efforts

To build a diverse candidate pipeline, it’s critical that you engage cutting-edge technology and analytics tools to know where your diverse candidates are coming from, how they’re progressing through the recruitment process, and which of your sourcing channels or campaigns brought them to you. Although these insights are often stored in different systems and platforms, a comprehensive reporting tool can help synthesise your data and visualise trends.

For example, PeopleScout’s Affinix™ brings together applicant tracking systems (ATS), candidate relationship management (CRM) systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital marketing, predictive analytics and digital interviewing to provide award winning innovation to support your organisation’s diverse hiring goals. Affinix Analytics’ diversity dashboards show how diverse candidates are entering your pipeline in real time. By tracking how candidates progress through your funnel, you can determine which resources and campaigns bring in top candidates from underrepresented groups. From there, you can analyse the results, identify hiring trends, adjust sourcing spend and strategy to make data-driven decisions.

Conclusion

Building an inclusive and diverse workforce doesn’t start and end with just hiring underrepresented groups, it requires an entire organisational shift. In order for the life sciences industry to maintain leadership and competitiveness in science and medical advancement, it’s crucial that organisations invest in building a strong and diverse talent pipeline. Everyone from the C-Suite to hiring managers has an important part to play in achieving DE&I goals and shrinking the industry’s growing workforce gaps.

Tech & Digital Skills: 5 Recruitment Strategies for Closing the Skills Gap

Posted on June 16, 2023January 23, 2024 by akessler

There are a host of new and emerging tech disciplines—the metaverse, blockchain, generative AI, cybersecurity and more—that are changing the way we work and the kind of work we do. Many jobs that were previously done by humans are now done by machines. Many new jobs are emerging that require new and changing skill sets and organisations are struggling to find the talent they need to keep up as tech and digital skills gap grows.

According to World Economic Forum, it is estimated that by 2030, “approximately 85 million jobs could go unfilled globally because of a lack of applicants with the skills to take them, which could result in $8.5 trillion (USD) in unrealised annual revenues.”

Skills Shortage: Digital Age or Digital Deficiency?

Salesforce’s 2022 Global Digital Skills Index surveyed 23,000+ workers across 19 countries and found the global digital skills readiness score is just 33 out of 100. No wonder that 64% of managers don’t think their employees are able to keep pace with future skill needs. Furthermore, 70% of employees say they haven’t even mastered the skills they need for their jobs today. Plus, a third (36%) of HR leaders say their sourcing strategies are insufficient for finding the skills they need.

As organisations try to reinvent their business models to keep up with change, employers of all stripes—regardless of sector—must prepare their workforce for digital-first employment. By taking a skills-based approach to your talent acquisition strategy, you can move beyond your tired methods to find people with the right skills and competencies regardless of their degree or job history.

Recruitment Handbook

Recruitment Handbook for Hiring Tech & Digital Talent

Download Now

Measuring the Tech & Digital Skills Gap

As an HR or TA leader, you’re probably asking, “Which digital and tech skills should I prioritise?”

Well, it depends.

To plan for the skills of the future, you must know where you are today. Conduct a skills inventory of current employees, regardless of department. Then, run a technology skills gap analysis, looking at what’s available now and what you’ll need in the future based on your organisational strategy.

This, combined with external labour market data on the availability of tech and digital skills, you’ll be able to understand which critical skills gaps are in place today, what skills are available in the market and what skills you’ll have to develop internally.

Only one in four talent analytics teams currently use external market data.

5 Skills-Based Talent Acquisition Strategies for Tech and Digital Talent

Here are five strategies for closing the skills gap for your tech and digital roles.

1. Assess for Adjacent Skills

A crucial part of your skill inventory must be identifying skills adjacent to your critical skills which can be developed to bridge the gap. With the right capability and skills taxonomy in place—both for internal mobility and external hiring—you can tap talent with related skills to fill talent gaps through recruitment and upskilling.

PeopleScout recently facilitated a reskilling project for a leading bank in the UK. We supported an evaluation of their customer service employees in call centres and bank branches to identify hidden skills. We evaluated hundreds of employees, surfacing many with complementary skills who are now involved in a development program to supply software engineering talent in the future.

2. Don’t Overlook Candidates with Non-Traditional Backgrounds

Identifying these complementary skill sets has the additional benefit of helping you surface non-traditional internal and external talent pools. These are candidates who possess the skills necessary to perform a role’s duties but may never have held a position with a tech or digital specific title. By taking a skill-based approach to tech and digital talent acquisition, you don’t limit yourself to a small talent pool with hard-to-find experience. This could also mean relaxing requirements around university degrees. Plus, it’s a great way to achieve diversity and social-mobility goals.

3. Develop Upskilling Opportunities

Once you’ve found talent with adjacent skills, you’ll need an upskilling program to get them up-to-speed on their target role and for ongoing development of skills as new technology emerges. Learning and development programs are a great way to support cross-functional talent mobility. Plus, it can act as a big draw for recruitment, as more and more candidates say they value growth opportunities when considering a new job. According to the LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting report, Advancement and Skills Development are in the top five most important priorities for candidates.

4. Embrace Global Expansion

With the explosion of remote work, organisations can widen their talent search beyond their office locations. By shifting your focus to talent location and skill set, rather than your business footprint, you benefit from a more diverse talent pool. Leverage labour market data to find emerging tech hubs where demand is still low. For example, several cities in Latin America have a growing supply of digital skills with moderate salary expectations.

5. Look Outside the IT Department

Technology advancement means departments across the organisation—and across sectors—have become breeding grounds for addressing the IT skills shortage. In fact, according to Gartner, almost 40% of job postings for talent with digital skills come from outside of IT departments. The explosion of FinTech, MarTech and even HRIS means that there’s a plethora of digital talent in finance teams, marketing teams and HR teams. So, instead of looking for a data scientist, why not try tapping a financial analyst to get those much-needed analytical skills?

How an RPO Partner Can Help You Secure Tech and Digital Skills

Employers looking to grow their tech and digital workforce can benefit from the services of a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider. Your RPO partner can help you adapt your attraction strategy to resonate with candidates with tech and digital skills, ensuring that you are sourcing talent with the required skills and identifying new ways to target candidates who fit these personas. Plus, an experienced RPO provider can assist you in building your talent pool from within your own organisation, by consulting to develop an internal reskilling program.

Get five proven strategies to attract, engage and hire the best tech professionals. Download our Recruitment Handbook for Hiring Tech & Digital Talent.

The Recruitment Handbook for Hiring Tech & Digital Talent

Posted on June 16, 2023June 16, 2023 by akessler

The Recruitment Handbook for Hiring Tech & Digital Talent

5 Strategies for Recruiting the Best Tech Talent Now and into the Future

Today, every company is a tech company as organisations across sectors create digital customer experiences, embrace automation and AI, and analyse the data created through these platforms. In fact, 6 out of 10 of the most in–demand skills are tech-related.

However, according to Gartner, a third (36%) of HR leaders say their sourcing strategies are insufficient for finding the skills they need. So, how can talent acquisition leaders keep up with the demand for tech and digital talent?

In this handbook, you’ll learn:

Global trends driving the need for tech talent
Strategies for overcoming challenges in your tech hiring programs
How partnering with an RPO provider can help

Candidate Experience Survey Best Practices: How to Ask for Candidate Feedback

Posted on May 25, 2023May 25, 2023 by akessler

Asking for candidate feedback is your best resource for improving your candidate experience and a crucial step for creating a strong employer brand. Yet, in our research report, Inside the Candidate Experience, we found that 44% of organisations did not provide an opportunity for candidates to give feedback through a candidate experience survey.

In an HRO Today and PeopleScout global survey, employers reported significant challenges in capturing candidate feedback, with many saying that a top struggle is having “no formal way to capture candidate feedback.”

This is a missed opportunity. To truly improve your candidate experience, you must ask your candidates what they think and make improvements based on their input. If you’re not leveraging candidate survey tools to gather feedback from your candidates, you are passing up valuable insights that can help you improve your employer brand, lower attrition and shorten your hiring cycle.

Why is Candidate Experience Important?

As consumers, our expectations are soaring. We demand that brands deliver seamless, intuitive and personalised experiences to keep us engaged. In the fight for talent, the same rules apply.

Competition in the labour market and the increased demand for both diverse talent and digital skills means that coveted candidates have more options than ever before. They can afford to be picky, holding out for the employer that engages and inspires them during the recruitment process.

It’s easier than ever for job seekers to broadcast their impressions of your brand. In fact, 83% of candidates share their poor experiences with friends and family, with 54% taking to social media to voice their discontent—and that has major ramifications for your employer brand.

For 78% of candidates the overall candidate experience is an indicator of how a company values its people. Plus, candidates are also consumers, and a poor candidate experience can impact whether you retain an applicant as a customer.

Candidate Experience Survey Questions

If you’re serious about improving your candidate experience, the best way to source ideas is through your talent audience. Introducing a candidate experience survey is a must for any organization that wants to secure top talent. These insights are invaluable for identifying areas of improvement and can help you prioritise your candidate experience optimisation projects.

When it comes to measuring the candidate experience, NPS has become a popular metric.

Net Promoter Score, or NPS, began as a way for organisations to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. By asking one question—“On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product/company to a friend or colleague?”—organisations can gauge which customers are promoters, and which are detractors. The NPS scale ranges from -100 to +100, and the higher the score the better.

candidate experience survey candidate nps

By applying this same concept to the candidate experience, a Candidate Net Promoter Score, or CNPS, becomes a benchmark with which to measure your candidate experience. It’s best practice to also include a place for candidates to provide additional thoughts and comments, so you can gather both quantitative data and qualitative data.

By asking one simple question and the candidate’s reasoning for their rating, you can gather valuable data to drive continuous improvement in your candidate experience. Measuring CNPS over time will show how your talent acquisition investments are impacting your overall recruitment outcomes.

When to Send a Candidate Experience Survey

Consider adding a candidate experience survey email to your CRM after critical stages in your recruitment process, like:

After the completion of an application
After the completion of an assessment center
After the completion of an interview
Upon rejection
All of the above

Asking for feedback should be a priority regardless of outcome for the candidate.

Creating a Feedback Loop

Remember, when it comes to feedback throughout the recruitment process, it’s a two-way street. Employers should be equally committed to soliciting feedback from candidates about their experience, and providing feedback back to candidates, particularly to those who advance further into the selection process. Providing opportunities to give and collect feedback throughout the process will provide you with valuable insights and offer an engaging candidate experience, ultimately improving your recruitment outcomes.

To get the full research and more actionable candidate experience insights, download the Inside the Candidate Experience 2023 Report.

The Multigenerational Workforce: Gen Z in the Workplace

Posted on May 19, 2023May 19, 2023 by akessler

To continue our series, The Multigeneration Workforce, this article explores the challenges and opportunities of Gen Z in the workplace. For the first time in modern history, four generations are working side-by-side: Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. The ratios will change over the coming years—and so will each group’s level of influence.

Gen Z is overtaking Baby Boomers as the largest generation history, boasting an incredible two billion people globally, and is set to become the largest demographic in the workplace by the end of the decade. Leaders must not underestimate the impact this generation’s ideas and perspective will have on the world and the workplace. By understanding their needs and preferences, you can attract, engage and hire the best Gen Z talent to propel your workforce into the future.

Who is Gen Z?

While sources vary, Gen Z is generally defined as the generation born approximately between 1995 and 2010. They are the first generation to grow up with the internet and social media and have come of age in a time marked by 9/11, polarised politics, economic fluctuations and climate woes. They watched their parents lose jobs during the Great Recession. Then, they experienced the biggest educational and workplace disruption in modern history as COVID-19 lockdowns led to their classes moving online, a surge in unemployment and psychological distress.

As voracious consumers and creators of digital media, they focus on curating their online presence and have developed an “unapologetically me” ideology. As a result, they are generally socially progressive and value diversity.

Perhaps ironically, growing up in this hyperconnected online world has also fuelled feelings of isolation and loneliness among many Gen Z-ers. Seeing friends posting content and having fun (cue the #FOMO), alongside the pressure to keep on top of social trends, can make the feelings of disconnection even more acute, leading to increases in depression and anxiety.

What Matters to Gen Z in the Workplace?

Gen Z-ers have different expectations and priorities than previous generations of workers. They’ve expressed less loyalty than past cohorts and are more pragmatic. They don’t assume they’ll have a social safety net upon retirement since seeing layoffs and pensions shrinking.

Here are some more characteristics to look out for when hiring Gen Z candidates.

Fighting for Social Change

After witnessing the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements as well as the increased frequency of natural disasters due to climate change, Gen Z is seeking employment that matches their personal values. They believe in their ability to make a difference individually and are also demanding that employers do their part to help build a better future.

LinkedIn released a global study of nearly 10,000 professionals which found that 68% of workers in the UK, France, Germany and Ireland consider it important to work for companies that are aligned with their values. In the U.S., it’s higher at 87%. Gen Z is driving this shift, with nearly 90% in Europe saying they would leave a job to work somewhere that better matches their values.

Digitally Native but Digitally Unsure

Growing up with access to the internet and mobile devices has led to a widespread presumption that Gen Z-ers are innately good with tech. However, new research shows this may not be the case at work.

One in five of the 18-to-29-year-olds polled in HP’s Hybrid Work: Are We There Yet? report said they felt judged when experiencing technical issues in the workplace. Furthermore, this “tech shame” leads 25% of young professionals to actively avoid participating in a meeting if they think it will expose their tech shortcomings.

Generation Disenchanted?

Much has been said about the number of older workers taking early retirement, but the biggest rise in inactivity since the pandemic has not been among Baby Boomers, but workers aged between 18 and 24. In the UK, the share of workers in this age group classed as economically inactive—meaning they’re not actively working or looking for a job—stood at a record high of 32% in the second quarter of 2022. Plus, of those who are students or currently unemployed, 1 in 10 said they never intend to start working.

In a rejection of the “girlboss” and “hustle culture”, the hashtag #IDontDreamOfLabor has taken off as a platform for Gen Z to speak candidly about their rejection of work as the basis for identity, framing it instead as a financial necessity for paying the bills. In the shadow of the Great Resignation, Gen Z is vocal about the role of work in their lives—sometimes to viral acclaim. Some have taken to TikTok to coach their peers on how to negotiate salaries, which red flags to look out for in the interview process and how to stick up for what they want at work.

The formative experience of the Great Recession combined with entering the workforce during the pandemic has taught young people that hard work doesn’t necessarily guarantee stability. They want better than what their parents had and aren’t shy about demanding more from their employers. Organisations who can navigate these expectations will win the hearts of Generation Z.

Strategies for Engaging Gen Z at Work

To help Gen Z workers become as productive and successful as possible, employers need to showcase their values and offer a combination of ongoing wellbeing support and robust skills training.

1. Evaluate Your Employer Brand for Gen Z

As most young people seeking employment with a company they can believe in, it’s important to build an employer brand that resonates with Gen Z values. In the recent global study, Inside the Candidate Experience, PeopleScout found that the top things Gen Z job seekers look for when evaluating a job are:

Mission and purpose

Flexible working and work/life balance

DE&I; Company culture (tied)

With mission and purpose as the top factor for Gen Z job seekers, it’s surprising how few organisations include this information on their career websites. On the sites we examined, we found an organisation’s mission and purpose less than half (48%) of the time. This means that half of companies are passing up an opportunity to engage emotionally with their young talent audiences and assist prospects in understanding how the job they have applied for fits into that goal. Candidates won’t look at your open roles if they can’t identify your mission on your careers site.

2. Embrace Social Media

Despite concern over how much Gen Z-ers use and consume social media, it is their main way of staying connected, so it is imperative for employers to have a strong presence on social. Two-thirds of candidates use social media to research companies during their job search. Yet, a third of employers are not posting career related content (above and beyond job listings) to their social channels at least once a week.

Favourite social platforms for Gen Z include TikTok, Instagram and YouTube—so consider creating video content to engage talent from this generation. “Day in the life” videos are a great way to provide a realistic job preview and show early careers talent what it’s like to work at your organisation.

3. Showcase Your DE&I Efforts

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a top consideration for Gen Z candidates when looking for a job, and they’ll be scrutinising any employer to separate lip service from authentic DE&I action. When candidates from underrepresented groups are searching for jobs, the right job title might be enough to get them to click on a posting—but whether they actually apply is influenced by what they read and hear about how an organisation treats its people.

Representation matters, and employers who showcase employees across a range of demographics show candidates that people from diverse backgrounds can flourish at their organisation. Ensure your recruitment communications include voices and stories from underrepresented groups at all levels of the organisation.

Employers should also strive for transparency with their diversity recruitment data and share any plans they have in place to shift the dial around representation. Then, when candidates from underrepresented groups encounter similar voices throughout the recruitment process, they’ll realise that not only are they welcome at the organisation, but they’ll also have the opportunity to thrive and progress.

4. Offer Employee Mental Wellness Benefits

Growing up entirely in the digital age has undeniably had an impact on how this generation interacts with others. With fewer in-person exchanges, some 37% of Gen Z feels worried that technology weakens their ability to maintain strong interpersonal relationships and develop people skills. Living in a world of non-stop communication through apps and social media also contributes to mental health conditions like anxiety. The strain of modern living on mental health has been further exacerbated by the pandemic and lockdown life.

Gen Z-ers are proud advocates for mental health, sharing their experiences and removing the stigma around depression and anxiety. According to Cigna International Health’s 2023 survey of almost 12,000 workers around the world, 91% of 18-to-24-year-olds report being stressed. And they’re looking for support from their employer. A whopping 92% of university students say employers should offer mental well-being benefits, and more than a third (36%) are prioritising those who do as they start their careers.

Employee assistance programs, employee resource groups and workplace mental health training are all ways employers are creating a culture that promotes mental health and wellbeing. Gen Z will be drawn to employers who are joining the conversation around mental health and creating a safe space to raise and address these issues.

5. Highlight Growth Opportunities for Gen Z

Worryingly, 37% of young people say their education did not adequately prepare them with the technology skills they need for their career. This digital native generation is lacking in the digital literacy most organisations need to fuel future innovation.

Gen Z is prioritising employers who demonstrate investment in developing their employees’ skills and career paths. Employers who highlight training, mentoring and professional development programs in their recruitment materials will satisfy Gen Z’s ambition and desire to grow.

Training for new Gen Z joiners should centre around soft skills like resilience, relationship building and empathy, enabling people from this cohort to manage their own stress levels effectively and to understand when and how they should ask for help. Face-to-face support and mentoring programs are a core elements of training for Gen Z in the workplace. Mentoring and reverse mentoring are being widely embraced by organisations across industries, enabling more senior employees to share their experience with the younger generation to counteract skills gaps, while also tapping into the knowledge and insights of Gen Z in the areas of social trends and digital media.

Gen Z in the Workplace: Embracing Positive Change

As organisations plan for the future of work, they must work harder to appeal to the savvy Generation Z-ers entering the workforce. While most employers understand the importance of inclusivity and ethical decision-making, this generation will hold them accountable to putting those principles into action. Employers must embrace these values and the positive changes brought by Gen Z in the workplace. Talent acquisition leaders should keep their finger on the pulse of how these young workers will shape how we hire and develop talent in the coming decades.

Check out our report to learn more about the future of work:

Future of Work

DESTINATION 2030: 10 PREDICTIONS FOR WHAT’S NEXT IN THE WORLD OF WORK

Read the Full Report

Employee Retention by the Numbers

Posted on April 18, 2023April 20, 2023 by banderson

Survey results from McKinsey and Company show that 40% of employees across Australia, Canada, Singapore, the UK and the U.S. are likely to leave their jobs. To that end, below are key facts and figures that illustrate the current state of hiring and how organisations can recalibrate to improve employee retention in 2023. 

Hiring Takes the Back Burner…

(Source: LinkedIn October 2022 Global Talent Trends )

…As Retention Takes Priority

Employers Don’t Understand Why Employees Leave 

More Important to Employees than Employers Appreciate:

Valued by organisation
Valued by manager
Sense of belonging

Potential for advancement
Having caring and trusting teammates
Flexible work schedule

(Source: McKinsey & Company)

(Source: ADP Research Institute’s People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View)
(Source: Microsoft Work Trend Index Special Report)

Flexible Work Matters 

64% of the global workforce would consider looking for a new job if they were required to return to the office full-time.  

52% of employees are even willing to accept a pay cut—up to 11%—to maintain flexible, hybrid work arrangements. 

(Source: ADP Research Institute’s People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View )

Employees Crave Development & Growth 

Career progression is the No.1 pull factor attracting employees to new jobs. 

(Source: Achievers 2022 Engagement and Retention Report)

76% of employees would stay at their company longer if they could benefit more from learning and development support. 

(Source: Microsoft Work Trend Index Special Report )

Internal Mobility Makes a Difference 

Workers who have no visibility into internal career opportunities are 61% more likely to have plans to quit their job. 

(Source: Cornerstone People Research Lab and Lighthouse Research & Advisory 2023 Talent Mobility Study )

Employees who make an internal move are more likely to stay at their organisation longer than those who stay in the same role.

Keeping the Human in Human Resources: 3 Employee Retention Strategies for 2023

Posted on April 18, 2023April 20, 2023 by banderson

After the last three years, there’s no doubt that we could all use a deep breath. But, with economic uncertainty filling the air, we haven’t quite reached a steady state. Instead, now’s the time to reflect on all that’s been learned throughout the last few years and recalibrate your strategies to better succeed in today’s reality. In fact, this work has already begun, with new research suggesting that talent acquisition is no longer a leading priority among employers. Instead, a focus on employee retention strategies takes the lead. 

According to Lattice’s 2023 State of People Strategy Report, 40% of HR professionals surveyed said that talent acquisition was a top priority in 2021. By 2022, that number had dropped to 17%, with the surveyed professionals indicating that retention would be a leading priority over talent acquisition heading into 2023. Notably, this data tracks globally, as a recent Global Talent Trends report from LinkedIn highlighted decreasing hiring rates from 2021 to 2022 across a sample of 14 countries. 

During the current economic downturn, it’s clear that employers are looking inward at how they can retain their best people. So, how can your organisation foster an environment where people don’t want to leave? Consider these three tips for increasing employee retention in 2023: 

1. Establish a Strong Sense of Purpose & Belonging 

According to a study from McKinsey and Company, the relational factors that are most important to employees—such as feeling valued and a sense of belonging—are often overlooked by employers who falsely assume transactional factors (such as compensation) are most important to employees.  

Consider these tips for establishing a sense of belonging with your employees: 

Train managers on how to have meaningful conversations with employees. 
Encourage managers to be invested in employees’ personal and professional aspirations. 
Make vulnerability a normal practice among leaders, managers, and contributors. 
Establish a strong DE&I program, complete with employee resource groups.

Along the same lines, there’s no better way to foster a connection to your organisation than by recognising employees who live your purpose in practice. Whether it’s via a team email, internal newsletter or social media post; identify employees who embody your organisation’s purpose. They’ll feel valued, and others will be encouraged to find ways to integrate that purpose into their daily lives, as well.  

2. Maintain Flexible Work Options

The data is clear: Losing flexible work is not an option—not if you want to have any chance of retaining your people. According to a 2022 study from ADP, 64% of the global workforce would consider looking for a new job if they were required to return to the office full-time. What’s more, the survey also found that more than half (52%) of employees were even willing to accept a pay cut if it meant maintaining flexible, hybrid work arrangements. 

As such, it’s important to remember that flexible work doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Consider these options: 

Require two to three in-person workdays for all employees. 
Allow employees to choose which days they work from home. 
Offer atypical work hours — such as 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — to accommodate employees with other responsibilities and interests.  
If possible, allow full-time remote work.

After determining which flexible work options make the most sense for your organisation, remember to purposefully build opportunities for engagement among your remote or hybrid team. And, if your organisation’s policies don’t allow much room for flexibility, be mindful of tying those policies back to the business. For example, rather than citing “productivity” as a vague reason for not allowing employees to work remotely, explain why collaborating in person will allow the business to better serve customers. 

3. Prioritise Development & Internal Mobility

Employees are hungry for growth and development. According to the latest Engagement and Retention Report from Achievers, career progression was the #1 pull factor attracting employees to new jobs. Similarly, new data from Microsoft showed that 76% of employees would stay at their company longer if they could benefit more from learning and development support. So, what can employers do about it? To start, don’t give employees a reason to look elsewhere for opportunities to grow their careers.  

By prioritising learning and development (L&D) from day one, employees will feel like their career progression is being taken seriously. More precisely, consider mentorship programs, shadowing and skills training to invest in employees’ growth. Likewise, another critical component of retaining employees is internal mobility, which works in tandem with L&D.  

Research from LinkedIn shows that employees who make an internal move are more likely to stay at their organisation longer than those who stay in the same role. For example, at the one-year mark, employees are 75% likely to stay without an internal move, while those who make a lateral move or receive a promotion are 87% likely to stay. This trend continues for each year an employee stays at the company. 

Treat People Like People 

At the end of the day, people want to be treated as just that—people. They crave connection, interaction and belonging—all things that were compromised by the seemingly overnight shift to more virtual work. Employers who understand the importance of relational factors over transactional ones will be the ones to retain their employees. And, those who are intentional about establishing a strong sense of purpose; fostering engagement; and creating opportunities for flexibility, recognition and development will emerge stronger with the most valuable resource —their people—intact. 

Workforce Planning: Applying What We’ve Learned to Drive Future Success

Posted on April 18, 2023April 25, 2023 by nfuqua

In the past three years, we’ve seen a talent market that has shifted more drastically and rapidly than we’ve ever seen. These weren’t the standard economic oscillations that take place slowly throughout many years—rather, this pace of change was something new and required talent leaders to spend the last three years fighting fires instead of focusing on workforce planning.

Now, it’s as important as ever to be more intentional about our strategy as we ask, “What’s next?”

Taking Time to Reflect

As talent leaders, we’re no strangers to the Great Rehire, quiet quitting and the Great Resignation—it seems at every turn, we are learning about a new workforce movement. At PeopleScout, we feel the real value comes not from labeling the next talent trend, but in doing the work to help employers struggling with today’s very real talent obstacles and developing custom solutions to address our clients’ unique talent challenges.

Right now, there is an opportunity to take a look back at everything we’ve learned from our experiences over the past three years and apply those lessons to our talent programs to drive continued success. It’s time to change strategies, rewatch the tapes and recalibrate our approach to meet whatever challenges the future holds.

So, where do we go from here? We step back, take a breath and reflect, then take action by challenging the status quo.

In this article, we’re going to outline many of the different lessons learned, as well as opportunities for you to revitalize your own workforce planning strategies.

The Economic Reality

While the global economic landscape continues to fluctuate, the pace of change has decelerated. In the U.S., most economic indicators give a mixed picture: some companies have made headlines with layoffs, but job growth in other industries has remained strong. What’s more, monthly jobs reports still show strong hiring numbers and economists have seen positive signs around inflation.

At the same time, we’re starting to see a bit of “gas pedal, brake pedal” as talent leaders try to read the tea leaves of the economic picture amid these mixed signals. While employers across some industries are still hiring, the pace has slowed from the height of the Great Rehire.

Globally, we’re seeing the setup for similar environments. In the UK, job vacancies have fallen from their 2022 high, but still remain far above average with a shrinking labour force; however, issues like high inflation, rising wages and worker strikes persist. And, in Australia, the unemployment rate remains at a very low 3.5% and our clients are seeing a tighter applicant pool.

These are certainly challenges to contend with, and the best way to move forward is with a quick glance back.

Opportunities for Adjustment with Workforce Planning

With large variances across countries, regions and sectors, the lessons learned and resulting transformations will depend on how the past three years have affected you.

Here are the five main areas we recommend you prioritize as part of your workforce planning enhancement.

1. Recruitment Process Improvement

The first place to start your recalibration is the recruitment process. Did the pandemic and Great Rehire introduce changes into your process? For example, many employers were forced to shoehorn their in-person hiring process into a virtual one through the pandemic and Great Rehire. If that was the case at your organisation, does that process still work, especially for your remote and hybrid employees?

This is one of the biggest opportunities for talent leaders to connect with their teams to understand what worked and what didn’t. Your team members have built up so much knowledge on the ground working through the challenges of the last three years. How can you harness that going forward?

Similarly, take a step back and look at the data you’re using to define success with your recruitment program. Are you hitting your goals, but still feel like something is missing? If so, you may be looking at vanity metrics, as opposed to sanity metrics. There’s always room for improvement; you just need the right data points to identify it.

In this case, consider bringing in a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner. A partner can help with any future scaling up and down as your hiring needs change, but they also provide value in helping benchmark your progress and success. For instance, the most frequent questions we get from clients during our routine business reviews with them are around what other employers are doing. What technologies are out there? What innovations have been made? What suggestions do you have? Without an RPO partner, you miss out on that insight.

2. Employer Brand

There has probably been more discussion about employer brand during the last year and a half than ever before, and this has been driven largely by the change in workforce and candidate priorities. During the Great Resignation, employees left for perceived greener pastures. To that end, it’s important to understand what you did right and where you may have let employees down during the last few years. In particular, there’s an opportunity to talk to the people who stayed with you to understand what kept them at your organisation through some difficult years. Then, you can apply those lessons to your employer value proposition. In fact, if you haven’t updated your employer value proposition and employer brand since before 2020, you’re behind the curve.

Outside of the pandemic and recovery, the growing influence of Gen Z in the workplace has also influenced employer brands. Our research shows that Gen Z—more than any other generation in the workforce—says that your mission and values, company culture, and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives influence their decision to apply. With that in mind, does your employer brand reflect the changing values of the workforce?

3. Candidate Experience

The world has fundamentally changed in the last few years, and so have candidate expectations. Specifically, we’ve seen a shift toward the need for a consumer-like candidate experience in recent years, and it has only accelerated. As consumers, we’ve grown to expect even more convenience. In 2020, many of us expanded our use of services, like grocery pick-up and delivery. We order our coffee with an app so we don’t have to wait as it’s made. Even as the pandemic receded, many of us kept up with these conveniences. Candidates expect a similar experience when it comes to finding and applying for jobs.

In the same vein, when was the last time you evaluated your candidate experience? Have you taken on the task of simply applying for a job at your organisation to see the experience through the candidate’s eyes? Did you make compromises in the depths of the pandemic or the chaos of the Great Rehire? Or did you implement tools—like on-demand video interviews or automated text message screenings—and discover that they reduced candidate fall-out? In any case, it’s probably time to recalibrate your candidate experience.

PeopleScout recently released research around candidate expectations and candidate experience best practices. Read our three most important takeaways.

4. Retention

The Great Resignation forced employers to renew their focus on employee retention, and it has definitely had an influence. According to HR Digest, employers that invested in employee development saw a 58% increase in retention in 2022. Beyond employee development, many organisations have also made their moves to remote, hybrid and flexible work permanent.

In 2023, we expect the pace of turnover to slow down for many employers. That’s because the changing economic landscape has left candidates less confident in their job searches, according to CNBC. As such, we anticipate more workers will place greater value on stability after several turbulent years.

As you look at your own program improvements, the employees you retain will be valuable assets as they’ve learned the key lessons firsthand. They’ve stayed with your organisation and adapted through the changes of the past several years. They know your company better than anyone. What can you do to provide benefits like work/life balance, professional development and wellness?

5. Optimizing Technology

Finally, take a look at your technology. Many employers quickly added new recruitment technology solutions in 2020 to support remote recruitment during lockdown. If that was the case at your organisation, are those tools optimised for your current needs?

When it comes to improving your recruitment program, your technology is one of your most important tools: Your tech stack likely affects every one of the other opportunities for enhancement that we’ve highlighted. With machine learning and artificial intelligence, we can learn from the history of candidate behaviour. The right tools can then help recruiters prioritize interactions with candidates and automate communications to candidates in your recruitment funnel. Similarly, the right technology can also make your recruitment process more efficient; help you more effectively share your employer brand; improve your candidate experience; and provide benefits for current employees. If you’re reevaluating your talent acquisition strategy, technology needs to be a part of the conversation.

Lessons Learned

During the last three years, many of us have spent so much time dealing with the present that there hasn’t been an opportunity to think about the future. That said, we have learned the value of scheduling time to focus on what’s next; over and over again, we’ve seen the importance of being nimble. With that in mind, we’re encouraging our clients to think about the elements discussed above and identifying ways that PeopleScout can help them meet their talent needs. So, I urge you to take the time to think about how you can adjust your talent program for whatever the future brings.

Top 7 Workforce Trends to Watch for in 2023 & Beyond

Posted on April 13, 2023April 20, 2023 by akessler

So far, 2023 has proven to be a year of contradictions, making workforce trends hard to pin down. The labour market is cooling, yet unemployment remains low. Despite the slowdown in some industries, others like healthcare and hospitality are still tight. Overall, job openings are still higher than pre-pandemic levels in most countries.

Despite layoffs and economic fluctuation, 46% of talent leaders say recruitment is a priority in 2023 according to Gartner. Plus, 50% of organisations still expect the competition for talent to increase significantly in the next six months, regardless of broader macroeconomic conditions. Employers seem to be taking a more measured approach to recruitment and “right-sizing” their workforce.

This means recruiting leaders must reprioritise recruiting strategies to align with current business needs, plan for multiple potential scenarios in this shifting market, and make decisions with great confidence using data. Despite a projected increase in the unemployment rate, organisations still face recruitment and retention challenges that affect business productivity.

To help employers succeed in their recruitment efforts, we take a look at the top seven workforce trends to watch for in 2023.

1. Closing Skills Gaps

According to Gartner, 64% of managers don’t think their employees are able to keep pace with future skill needs. A third (36%) of HR leaders say their sourcing strategies are insufficient for finding the skills they need.

With the rate of technological advancements, more and more employers are exploring ways to reskill and upskill their existing employees to create an agile and adaptive workforce for the future. Business leaders surveyed in 2022 for the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report said that about 40% of their workforce will require reskilling in the near future. LinkedIn’s 2022 Global Talent Trends report reveals that upskilling and reskilling are top priorities for today’s workers.

Organisations that invest in training for their workforce see greater employee retention. Companies that excel at internal mobility are more likely to retain employees. Shifting job requirements and an uncertain job market along with rapidly changing technology have left people feeling unprepared for their next career move and in need of additional support. In fact, 70% of employees say they haven’t even mastered the skills they need for their jobs today according to Gartner. Upskilling and reskilling opportunities help employees feel more confident in their roles as well as in their future with your company. Adding these opportunities will enable you to adapt and thrive under any circumstances.

2. Offering More Flexibility

In the wake of the acceleration of remote work, many employees are voluntarily quitting because of concerns about workplace flexibility, according to a 2022 survey conducted by business review website GoodFirms. The survey found that 70% of HR manager respondents pointed to flexibility as a reason for resignations, which is why many companies are making flexibility and work/life balance part of their workforce planning. In our own recent research report, Inside the Candidate Experience, surveyed candidates said that flexibility and work/life balance was the top consideration when evaluating a company.

Yet, there is a disconnect between what workers want and what employers offer when it comes to remote work. While job postings on LinkedIn for remote work have dropped in many countries, workers are still applying for remote roles in droves.

Workforce Trends — (Source: LinkedIn Economic Graph)

Organisations that rethink working patterns and adapt to candidate expectations will gain a significant edge over their competitors. Offering remote work, flexible hours, four-day work weeks, and job sharing may require significant workforce planning to ensure your organisation can maximise productivity while also keeping employees engaged. However, it’s worth it for many organisations, especially those struggling to hire for critical roles.

3. Shifting to Contingent Workers

The desire for flexibility has not only changed when, where and how we work, but also the type of work we seek. The number of freelance workers in the U.S. has grown to a record 60 million as professionals have left full-time work to pursue short-term assignments and contract work.

Employers are making the shift as well. In the six months from May to November 2022, the share of paid job postings on LinkedIn for contract positions increased 26% compared to the same six-month period from the year before. With chronic skills shortages, organisations are clearly looking to contractors and freelancers to supplement their workforce strategy without the expense that comes with full-time employees. These workers can also offer the unique skills and experiences needed to complete specific projects and help fill roles during a leave of absence or while your company assesses future workforce needs.

4. Tapping into New Talent Pools

The labour market has shrunk due to the retirement of Baby Boomers—accelerated by the pandemic—but also because there are fewer people joining the workforce. Not only is the upcoming population smaller and not replacing the Boomers who are leaving the workforce, but one in 10 young people aged 18 to 24 say they never intend to work. Employers are having to work harder to appeal to disillusioned Gen Z-ers.

Meanwhile, talent acquisition leaders are looking to expand their talent pools to fill workforce gaps. DE&I and social mobility efforts are focused on bringing in untapped talent groups. Plus, some organisations are looking to their existing employees to fill critical roles in other areas. We’re currently helping a financial service organisation assess employees in their bank branches to find individuals with hidden aptitudes that can be trained as software engineers to support their web and app development initiatives.

In the wake of The Great Resignation, we’re now seeing a rise in boomerang employees—workers who voluntarily resign from your company only to join again later. Workers who left due to extenuating personal circumstances—and even those who went to seek greener grass—can serve as a strong new talent pool and shouldn’t be counted out. They’ll come in with an understanding of the business and can get up and running quickly, often bringing along new skills or fresh perspectives that can propel your business forward.

Another group boomeranging is Baby Boomers as some call for The Great Unretirement. In the UK, over-50s make up 76% of the 830K people who left work during the pandemic. The Government’s latest “back to work” budget rolled out a number of tactics to entice this age group back to work including a new “returnership” apprenticeship program. For employers to tap into this talent pool, they must offer flexibility through part-time and remote work.

5. Rallying Around the Mission

Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) are increasingly on the mind of HR leaders as employees and candidates are concerned with the ethical and sustainability impact of their employer. More than ever, candidates are searching for work they find meaningful and an employer that shares their values—especially the Millennial and Gen Z workforce.

Our research revealed that for 50% of candidates, an organisation’s mission and purpose are a key influence on their decision to apply. Yet, when evaluating career sites, we found details on the mission or purpose of the organisation less than half (48%) of the time.

According to a study by Mercer, employers with high employee satisfaction and attractiveness scores have significantly higher ESG scores than their peers. HR leaders in particular are focused on the social elements of ESG including diversity, equity, and inclusion—and ensuring their workplace is an environment where everyone can be productive.

6. Prioritising Employee Well-Being

Burnout is still on the rise globally. In a recent poll from Gallup, 44% of employees revealed they experienced stress during much of the previous day. So, it’s no surprise that 42% of the workforce is reporting burnout—an all-time high.

Workplace Trends — (Source: Future Forum Pulse)

On top of that, in the UK alone, there are 2.2M people inactive in the workforce due to long-term sickness and disability. Moreover, the biggest rise in workforce inactivity since the pandemic due to illness has not been among 50 to 64-year-olds as one might expect, but among those aged between 18 and 24.

With so many people out of the workforce due to long-term illness and stress, employee well-being is becoming a top priority for many organisations, as they recognise the importance of supporting employee mental and physical health. In fact, 79% of employees are likely to stay at a company that offers high-quality mental health resources, and 67% of leaders cited improvement in productivity when mental health support is offered.

According to the World Health Organisation, anxiety and depression, two of the most common mental health conditions, cost the global economy $1 trillion (USD) each year.

7. Engaging Outside Talent Acquisition Solutions

While the current economic outlook may have some employers proceeding with caution, business leaders are optimistic about the future. In fact, 85% of leaders said they anticipate their revenue to increase year over year.

Meanwhile, 46% said that staffing would be their top operational challenge for the year ahead. With uncertainty looming, companies may need to reassess their recruitment efforts and create a more agile workforce to evolve for the future. Developing a more flexible model is more critical now than ever in a shifting workplace landscape.

Having trusted guidance at these crucial moments can make all the difference. A talent partner offers a variety of solutions to help organisations attract and hire the right candidates. Whether you’re hiring full-time employees or need to supplement your contingent workforce for a temporary project or long-term assignment, a talent partner can help build and execute a talent acquisition strategy that works.

Check Out Our Report To Learn More About The Future Of Work

DESTINATION 2030: 10 PREDICTIONS FOR WHAT’S NEXT IN THE WORLD OF WORK

Read full report