6 recruiting trends for 2022
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6 recruiting trends for 2022

What will 2022 be like for HR? What new aspects will it focus on and what will it bring forward from 2021?

The fact that the world of work, due to the pandemic, has faced new challenges and is still doing so is something we deal with every day, but HR professionals also have a number of challenges to face. Firstly, because the role of HR has changed considerably and has become even more important than in the past, becoming a truly strategic function for the company’s business. And it doesn’t matter whether the company has five employees or five thousand.

That’s why it’s good to know which are the HR trends of this 2022, also to understand how to renew your recruiting strategies, employer branding, employee retention and so on.

We have selected 6 trends for you to keep an eye on. Let’s see what they are.

1. Hybrid work

lavoro ibrido

A word that increasingly marks work is the adjective hybrid, i.e. involving people working in presence, remotely or in smart working. And also that the same worker can decide, in consultation with the company, to work in one of the three modes or all of them together.

What was triggered by the pandemic, when working from home and in smart mode became a necessity, has therefore become fully embedded in the way a company and its resources are managed, which is why there will be no turning back.

Not least because people want to have flexible hours, retain the freedom to go to the gym, pick up their children without time off or do that work-related puzzle at night when everyone is asleep.

Hybrid working has brought benefits not only for employees, but also for companies that have saved costs and moved forward in adopting tools that allow remote collaboration.

This first trend, then, is nothing new, but it is vital that companies do not go backwards, as some tried to do last October by bringing everyone back into the presence and for 5 days a week.

Companies that are less flexible in 2022, because they may think that there is no longer a need for people to work remotely, will become less attractive than others and less competitive. This is also because younger and more talented people, as well as those with more experience, will consider smart working as one of the benefits when choosing a company to apply for. On the other hand, those who have been with the company for a long time will, in the absence of certain conditions, look around to find a flexibility that they had made their own and that is no longer guaranteed.

Failure to take this trend into account means increasing staff turnover and losing valuable people who are difficult to replace.
And this will obviously also apply to those working in the HR team: it will be good to provide for times when people in the team meet face-to-face, but also to work with people remotely.

2. Artificial intelligence and automation

Another trend to watch out for is the increased use of Artificial Intelligence in recruiting and an increasing reliance on automation processes with software that enables this. This is also because AI not only improves recruiting processes and reduces costs, but above all shows that in some cases it can be very effective.

To give a few examples: a proprietary Artificial Intelligence technology such as Inda makes it possible to reduce the biases that are usually involved in choosing one candidate over another.

As we know, all people, recruiters included, can be ‘victims’ of cognitive biases that could lead them to discard a valid person.

AI works to screen candidates on the basis of specific requirements and without bias (another example is blind recruiting), but not only that. Thanks to the analysis of the semantic meaning of words and texts, it is possible to go deeper into what is written in the CV. With an AI system, it is possible to assign a semantic similarity score and rank the applications according to how well they match the required profile.

Recruiters then use these technologies to schedule interviews, to chat with candidates during key moments of the candidate journey, and one of the most popular tools is the chatbot.

So AI definitely makes a technological leap forward for the company, gives the recruiter the opportunity to focus on more strategic activities and reduces the time to hire.

3. Diversity and inclusion

diversità e inclusione

Diversity and inclusion are a real trend for 2022, so much so that there is an acronym for them: DEI. But what does it mean? If it is true that diversity enriches, brings new life to a company, etc., we need to make sure that this is the case in practice. We have said it in part: with Artificial Intelligence we avoid any unconscious bias at the time of recruitment.

But that’s not all: according to Jobvite’s “2021 Recruiter National Report“, the number of jobseekers who inquire about companies’ commitment to diversity initiatives is growing year on year. In addition, 49% of recruiters surveyed experienced that candidates turn down an interview or job offer if they realise there are no diversity initiatives in place.

As McKinsey’s “Diversity Wins” report found, companies with more gender and ethnic diverse executive teams are more likely to have above-average productivity.

This is a trend to watch out for in order to be more attractive and productive.

4. HR Analytics (data-driven strategy)

HR Analytics has actually been talked about for years and 2022 will also prioritise data and data-driven strategy in HR. What does this mean? It means that HR professionals will have to rely even more on numbers – just as they do in marketing – and that they will need to understand them in order to adopt recruiting strategies that achieve their objectives.

Analysing the time it takes a candidate to complete their candidate journey is just as important as keeping track of all the times they leave the process and understanding how to improve it. And it is necessary to do this in real time in order to adjust the process without waiting until the end of the selection process.

Recruiters will have to analyse the numbers more and more and move in the direction of recruitment marketing where experimentation is the key to success rather than sticking to their guns. Only in this way will they be able to keep their finger on the pulse of what is happening in the world of work and understand how to anticipate certain trends.

5. Training and skills

upskilling e reskilling

Skills will be more and more crucial and HR will have to do everything in its power to enable employees to update the skills they already have (reskilling) or acquire new ones (upskilling) to be ready for new jobs, new projects, new roles. What does this actually mean?

Providing company paths for employees in order to increase internal mobility. An aspect that should not be overlooked because, before opening any position externally, it would be good to see if you have the skills in house and start an internal recruitment process.

This can lead, especially in a critical moment like the one some sectors are experiencing, to save on recruitment costs and to open up new applications later on. It can also make employees more satisfied and avoid turnover.

If there are those who resist change, there are also those who want to get involved, and if the company for which they have worked for years proposes this possibility, it is something that will certainly be well evaluated. Also because the company is showing that it is continuing to invest in its people.

Aiming at training and communicating it – on social networks, on the website, to the media – then becomes a way of attracting new staff: with the same experience, people are no longer “convinced” only by salary and benefits, but also by going to a stimulating place where they can continue to grow.

6. Employee engagement

Last but not least, a key word in 2022 will be employee engagement. n other words, employee involvement and participation.

In what? In processes and decisions, for example, as presupposed by the Agile “philosophy” and as done through a mindset such as OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). And again: reorganising roles, as we have said before, giving people the chance to express themselves freely, to invent, to innovate by creating a corporate culture based on shared values and not on a top-down approach.

If there is one thing that the pandemic, the Great Resignation, hybrid work, etc. have taught us, it is this: you have to take care of people. And the HR team has a crucial, if not fundamental, role to play in this.