As most professionals gear up to conclude the year with hopes of returning back to the office refuelled, now is also the time to prepare for inevitable change and challenges that come with entering a new year.
This is according to Kay Vittee, CEO of Quest Staffing Solutions who notes that one of the most significant trends to consider when recruiting staff in 2017 will be the fact that it is the second year Generation Z employees will be entering the workplace.
“These are individuals who were born between 1994 and 2010, however what is particularly important is that these junior employees have a different set of values and beliefs compared to their millennial, Generation X and baby boomer predecessors.
“Having grown up during the global financial crisis, this tech savvy generation were born into a connected virtual world and do not know a world without the internet.
“And while 2017 continues to see Generation Z mixing in among their older counterparts, the question remains: do recruiters know how to handle them or are we still learning about how they fit in the workforce?” asks Vittee.
Another continuing trend that will carry over into 2017 according to Vittee, is the increasing number of businesses utilising social media as a central aspect of their talent acquisition.
“We have seen this trend develop over the past few years as organisations have had to rethink their social media pages and activity to attract the digital native generation in a very competitive market,” explains Vittee.
To keep up with these industry trends, Vittee says now is the perfect time for talent experts to assess how effectively their organisation has – or can – best leverage from what will undoubtedly prove a key differentiator in the New Year.
Other industry trends Vittee says will be more prevalent in the year head include:
* Talent acquisition will be afforded more priority, organisations are recognising the importance of acquiring quality talent. This will result in departments defining the future of their companies with their right talent in mind.
* Hiring will go beyond acquiring quality candidates only, the recruiter will be required to ensure that new hires stay with the company for longer and maintain consistent communication with candidates and prospective employees.
* Traditional staffing tactics will remain, according to the LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends for 2017, 70% of recruitment budgets are spent on job boards, recruiting tools, and staffing agencies, although employer branding still needs to take the number one spot when coming to the recruitment budget.
* Employer branding will be one of the greatest differentiators in the market, employer branding has a major influence when it comes to attracting and hiring talent. Companies that refer to career growth, company culture and challenges when it comes their employer branding stand a good chance of attracting top talent.
* Machine learning will become more prominent in recruitment, automation will be an increasing future trend in the recruitment of staff. In the hiring process, automation can be applied in screening and other aspects of hiring in order to eliminate human bias and time limitations.
