EXPERT DISCUSSES TRENDS THE RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY WILL SEE FOR 2021

After a turbulent period for many industries in the past 12 months, the gradual re-opening of society will see many businesses and brands look to get back on their feet – meaning recruitment will be a massive part of their operations for the rest of 2021. But how have the unique circumstances of the pandemic changed our outlook on recruitment? And how have the recruitment trends been affected by a global health crisis?

Here, Abby Edwards, of RLP Resourcing, shares what recruitment trends we can expect to see across the rest of 2021:

The future for existing employees – “This has been a very strange period and it will no doubt shift the HR and recruitment market forever – we’re looking at an entirely different landscape now. People have been forced to work remotely and have either found themselves preferring it or are being told they’ll stay there for the foreseeable future. For those people who’ve worked from home for the past 12 months, the terms have changed massively and any changes must be accommodated now. Employees are finding themselves in positions where if they don’t like what their employers offer they’ll likely leave. Flexibility is going to be key here – we don’t know how remote working is going to be policed so it’s time for organisations to establish good working relationships with recruiters and build a care plan for employees going forward.”

The working relationship – “The obvious point of recruiting is that, like many aspects of a lot of industries, it’s all done online now, which has been quite unusual for many businesses. The practicality of some processes has been taken away, so it’s easy for companies to fall victim to not finding the right people due to their reputation. If these companies have got any common sense, they’ll deal with recruiters that care about how they treat people. As we saw with the reaction to how Wetherspoons treated their staff during the pandemic, recruiters aren’t going to want to work with those who have a bad reputation.”

The new model – “The next six months are going to be quite uncertain. Businesses will be asking themselves whether they go fully remote, return to normal or choose to go with a more hybrid approach. It’s going to be a situation where employers are going to have to state what they want from an employee in terms of their working model. If employees don’t feel comfortable their automatic instinct is going to be to reject them. On top of this, the socioeconomic arm that people have been made aware of in the past 12 months is going to influence decisions – and if recruiters and companies don’t adjust to this they’re going to be opposed. It’s cheaper for companies to allow employees to work from home rather than go to an industry tribunal with them. The trend therefore will be doing the right thing for the wrong reasons; to increase morale but also cut costs.”
Trends for major cities – “With major cities, you’d use your commute to work in the morning visiting little businesses along the way – the cafes, the newsagents etc. If these businesses realise there’s going to be fewer people, do they bother banging their head against the wall? It’s the same for the major office building in the cities – if you had 100 people in an office but only 30 in at one time the support network is going to dwindle. This means that this can’t be a selling point anymore in major city businesses. A lot of the younger, city-dwelling folk from before the pandemic are going to give up their rentals and save their money if they know they’re not going to have to come back to the office.”