San Francisco – February 23, 2021 – True, the world has not returned to normal, but the end of the pandemic is in sight and TA can finally start to envision what their post-COVID programs will look like. Certain trends, like tie-dye sweatpants, may fall by the wayside, but there are more meaningful impacts that are sure to shape the business for the long haul.
In the last year, workforce planning and TA has come to the forefront of all business strategy. Organizations who want to do more with less are now appreciating the potential of strategic recruiting, redeployment, and talent forecasting as a tool for real business outcomes.
This new status of ‘strategic partner’ comes with its own set of opportunities and it will be up to TA to choose how to leverage and implement these trends to drive hiring success in the coming year. Let’s dig in together to understand the TA trends that will dominate 2021.
1. TA owns the (rising) internal mobility channel
Talent Acquisition finally owns internal hiring. With the development of skills marketplaces and better technology to match employees to jobs, most companies will adopt a fair and competitive internal hiring process to maximize existing resources. This is a huge deal as internal mobility is one of the most prevalent and successful modes of hiring. Since 2008, when CareerXRoads first started tracking source-of-hire, internal transfers and promotions have consistently represented around 60% of all positions filled and that number looks more like 75% in the last year (and that doesn’t even account for the full-time employees who were converted to contract status) as TA teams do all they can to redeploy rather than downsize loyal workers.
2. Uptick in upskilling investment
Closely related to internal mobility, upskilling efforts have also ramped up during the pandemic. Organizations have been forced to focus on leveraging the talent they have rather than expanding with new recruits. This has led to a greater emphasis on workforce planning and formalized career pathing/skills mapping. Such programs will only increase the relative value of internal mobility over the course of 2021 as organizations continue their efforts to do more with less.
3. The race to shape remote work culture
Remote work option was already on the rise pre-pandemic and now, for many industries, it’s become the norm with many organizations announcing that they will continue to be remote-first even after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
While there are many benefits for organizations and workers alike, there is one challenge the industry has yet to solve—culture. How can businesses create a culture without relying on in-person interactions or physical spaces?
We already see organizations grappling with this question and our advice is to focus on what’s most meaningful to your workers: work-life balance, perks having to do with wellness and flexible schedules, and tools/technologies explicitly designed to create a unique virtual work experience.
4. Diversity or bust
2021 will be the year where companies finally take action to achieve Diversity Hiring outcomes. The demand for concrete and measurable action has pushed organizations to make pledges and commitments that must be followed up on during the course of 2021. To meet these goals, many organizations will implement AI Technology to rout our inherent bias, promote inclusivity at work, gather feedback, and track progress.
If TA teams are looking for ways to drive D&I outcomes at your company, you may be interested in taking SmartRecruiters’ Diversity Hiring Assessment. The questionnaire will help you determine your current diversity hiring competency and provide tailored advice for next-steps based on your maturity level.
5. The end of traditional job advertising
Driven by increasing volumes of applications and reduced budgets, companies will finally press the market to get what they really need which is qualified, targeted programmatic advertising. Gone are the days of ‘blindly’ posting on job boards, TA practitioners will want real data on the volume of their channels so they can invest (or not) with confidence. Job boards themselves may see competition in the form of CRM and talent discovery tech which TA practitioners can use to create relevant pools.
6. Automation everywhere
The question on every organization’s mind is ‘how do we do more with less?’ This will be the push TA needs to truly embrace automation as a means of process empowerment, rather than a rival. Increased candidate volumes coupled with the evolved technology available make this the perfect time to implement next-generation tools like conversational AI part of the mainstream TA tech stack.
