2017 has seen how talent landscape has evolved along with changing business environment. Ahead of the turn of the year, Randstad USA released an expert analysis of the trends on hiring and workplaces for next year. With general employment growth showing positive growth, the labor market remains competitive, so employers will need new strategies to attract talent and meet business demands.
Technology plays crucial role in changing business models across sectors. Amidst today’s digital transformation, employers have to keep up with growing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skill shortage, AI involvement in the workforce, as well as agile talents. Therefore, it needs progressive thinking to find talents with the right skillsets to meet the company’s short and long-term needs.
According to recent Randstad report, here are six trends that will impact employers in 2018:
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It is time for employers to realise that top talents often come with pricey cost, especially hard-to-find ones. Hiring managers should weigh the importance of having qualified candidate against the cost to hire them. Additionally, this will also drive employers to offer non-traditional benefits such as wellness perks and competitive paternal leave.
To build a solid team, organisations no longer need to hire full-time or permanent employees. Research has suggested that future talents prefer agile work opportunities with flexible work arrangements. These factors are key to employee attraction and retention, so employers need to adapt with the trend by relying on temporary resources and seasonal staffing needs.
Less-teachable soft skills will continue to be critically important in hiring the best fit candidates. Therefore, employers will increasingly focus on recruiting for culture and soft skills, then training them on hard skills to hone their competencies.
While many industry discourses around the STEM skills gap weighs mainly on jobs that require advanced degrees, mid-level STEM occupations such as computer support specialists, web developers, and engineering technicians are actually in the highest demand. To fill these positions, employers will need to upgrade and upskill their employees’ skills.
In a bid to create more effective and efficient business practices, many organisations are relying on AI and automation. However, despite the growing involvement of automated machines in the workplace, there remain fears that they will eliminate jobs. To overcome such issue, it needs skilled humans to operate, use, and advance these technologies.
Data in will move beyond metrics in the HR department, such as employee engagement and retention rates. Next year, more companies will make data at the forefront of strategic workforce planning, with metrics and analytics that will help them understand more about the workforce.
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