Written by Simon Benford-Blows

In today’s time, everything is about trends. Even though they come and go and come again, the one who makes the best out of these trends will for sure ride the success.

So, are you ready to know these RPO staffing trends and understand how these will help you get the best talent? Then we suggest you read this blog till the end!

Simon Benford-Blows Head of RPO at Pertemps Managed Solutions, shares some insights to his projections for trends across RPO, HR and talent teams going into 2021 and beyond.

The “Digital Boom”

Many have seen the significant investment organisations have been making into digital transformation and the effects it has had on our everyday personal life.

The digital boom in the business world is no different. It has also led to significant inroads and progress in today’s modern workplace touching ever part of our working life. Many organisations chase to become a better company, team and more diverse, whilst the need for hiring the best talent will only increase. Interestingly Recruitment Process Outsourcing services has played a key part in the digital boom and innovation within the way recruitment and hiring is moving forward.

Enhancing employer branding

The talent market is extremely competitive and going into 2021, identifying and retaining your talent is going to be a key objective and what makes Pertemps Managed Solutions unique is their approach towards recruitment process outsourcing services to support clients including employer branding.

Did you know that be having a compelling employer brand, enhances your chances by up to 50% of getting more qualified and genuine employees, improves retention and improve productivity.

The drive in Automation & AI

Automation has evolved so much that it has innovated recruiting solutions. Recruiting automation is a category of technology that allows companies to automate recruiting tasks and workflows so they can increase talent acquisition and HR productivity, accelerate time-to-fill, reduce cost-per-hire and improve the overall talent profile of their organisation.

Research shows that approximately 74% of the employers have shown their interest in implementing automation in most of the parts of the HR department in the coming decade including recruitment.

Many are already using Artificial Intelligence for finding and screening the candidates. This will eventually result in lesser human errors, manual workload, and smooth HR and recruitment processes.

More adoption and use of analytics

Analytics is the discovery and interpretation of meaningful patterns for sourcing, selecting, and hiring. It allows HR, talent acquisition teams and RPO providers to identify, measure, evaluate and redesign any form of recruitment process or programmes. It provides insights that can be used in order to improve EVP, NPS and Brand, drive efficiencies, streamline processes and improve quality and cost of hire. 

The adoption and increased use of analytics which enables data-driven tools to provide insights and streamline process is going to be a key feature over the coming years for all business in order to simplify the complex process of hiring skilled talent.

Soft Skills are equally important

It is predicted that in the near future, the main competency that will help a person get a job will be their soft skills.

Many organisations have been moving away from standard ways of recruiting to a move of looking at key soft skills such as, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, creativity and innovation.

The rationale is that individuals with some of these key traits can be taught any subject matter and research has proven individuals with these traits can typically be a better fit and likelihood to outperform those recruited via older methods.

Improved candidate experience

Candidate experience is defined as the perception of a job seeker about an employer, based on the interaction during the complete recruitment process. This includes all points of contact during recruitment – job search, the application process, interview process and onboarding. Most employers believe that a candidate’s experience can actually play a vital role in the success of the organisation and leads to greater engagement and productivity.

On the flip side, the impact of negative hiring can affect the company’s products, services, and customer-relationship too.

Simon Benford-Blows states that, “A good candidate experience can really help, but an awesome one will set you apart from the competition. People want to feel valued and, if they’re made to feel like your top choice, they’re far more likely to accept an offer.”

Diversity and inclusion

It’s probably been on the trends list for the past few years, but with 2020 shining a spotlight on a raft of issues around diversity, it’s likely that 2021 could be the biggest year for diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I). That said, it’s simple – diversity and inclusion drive business revenue and profits and many organisations are now stating that this is a key agenda for 2021 and beyond.

Gen Z in the workplace

A new generation has arrived!

Generation Z will soon surpass Millennials as the most populous generation on earth, with more than one-third of the world’s population counting themselves as Gen Zers. Gen Zers are the new kids on the block and are about to step onto the world stage. HR, Talent teams and recruiters must brace themselves as this generation is bound to bring drastic changes to the workplace.

Gen Zers were born and raised in a highly digitised and connected environment, GenZers are expected to share a fresh set of expectations, preferences, and behaviours. More than any generation, they cherish having the perfect balance between life and work. They also look for the same balance between technology and human touch. 

Gen Z’s digital knowledge is unrivalled, and these young workers’ qualifications match the modern workplace’s requirements. Recruiters can attract this new breed of employees by offering perks that favour work-life balance and career advancement in addition, companies who demonstrate their commitment to a broader set of social challenges such as sustainability, climate change, and hunger will benefit greater from this group.