Recruiting Trends 2022: Relevant Developments and Trends in the New Year

Searching and Finding Employees in the Year 2022

The search for personnel remains disproportionately high this year as well. Numerous job offers and too few skilled workers. Recruiters and HR professionals must therefore continue to stay up-to-date and continuously adjust their strategies to be successful in the search for new employees. We take a closer look at which recruitment trends are emerging this year in this article.

The focus in 2022 is clearly on the influx of new generations into the workforce and the resulting measures and technological developments.

The young generation is changing the way we find and retain candidates! Learn about the developments gaining momentum in the new year and the trends you need to keep up with to position yourself as an attractive employer for the young generation.

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Generation Y & Z – How are these generations changing the way we find and retain candidates?

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The two youngest generations, Y and Z, are now entering the job market in large numbers. If you want to be successful in your hiring efforts in 2022, you need to understand the differences between the generations and respond accordingly.

Generation Z

Tech-savvy and always online, impatient and demanding, health- and environmentally conscious – these characteristics describe Generation Z. Generation Z is the generation born between 1995 and 2010. This part of society accounts for 25% of the population, and their expectations of employers differ significantly from those of previous generations. If you want to gain an edge in your industry, it’s time to think about how you can meet the expectations of Generation Z in the workforce. If you want to attract Generation Z employees in 2022 and avoid missing any trend, here are some helpful implementation tips:

Mobile Working A recent study by Deloitte found that Generation Z has high expectations of the workplace. They want to be able to work from anywhere without having to travel long distances. They also expect their employer to offer learning and development opportunities, as well as flexible working hours. Social Media & Mobile Recruiting Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. More than half of Generation Z uses the internet exclusively via their mobile phones. Use social media. Almost 90% of Generation Z uses social media. If you're not active there, your employer brand will suffer significantly. Do you have no experience in social media recruiting? There are intelligent tools like kroot that can help you create and target job advertisements on social networks.

With kroot, you can create a professional job ad in just a few clicks and publish it on social networks to your appropriate target group of applicants.

With the help of intelligent targeting technology, kroot calculates your appropriate target group of applicants. Try it yourself and create your job ad on social media now with no obligation: Create a job ad now!

How do you find suitable apprentices?

Generation "impatient and demanding"

Make the application process quick and easy. If it takes more than one click or something has to be downloaded, the young target group of applicants won't do it! They expect an application to take no longer than one click and that their resume can be submitted via a mobile device or computer without having to download anything or fill out long forms. Therefore:

1. Stay up-to-date.
2. Reduce barriers and drop-out rates by minimizing the application effort (more on this below).
3. Adapt your processes to the expectations of the Gen Z.
4. Use new technologies in the form of helpful tools and platforms.

Recruitment Technology: Chatbots

Recruitment technology is evolving rapidly. As tech-savvy and up-to-date as Generation Z is, no trend escapes them. Recruiters must therefore keep up with the latest tools and platforms to avoid falling behind in the competition for young talent!

In 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) will play a larger role in recruitment. Chatbots will be used to identify qualified candidates.

Automation and AI mean more efficiency. Recruiters will use more processes through automation and AI software in 2022 than in the previous year. The most popular tools are "Automated Texting" and Chatbots. 51% state that their company already uses chatbots in the recruitment process.

Applicants have the opportunity to ask questions to the chatbot and get a quick and reliable response. This prevents an HR department employee from having to take extra time for this. Thus, time is saved while simultaneously improving the candidate experience. It is therefore a clear win-win situation.

Many large companies even go so far as to have conversations with candidates run through the chatbot, which already have the character of an interview. Of course, complex and self-learning chatbots are essential for such a project.

Compared to traditional job interviews, the inhibition threshold for applicants may be lower, for example, when asking about specific details such as salary, home office options, or benefits like a company laptop.

Generation Y

The first digital natives with excellent digital skills - a generation that places a high value on personal development, has great self-confidence, and a desire for self-fulfillment. Generation Y (employees born between 1981 and 1995) currently form the largest generation in the workforce by numbers. However, companies also find through strategic people analytics that this generation unfortunately leads most of the statistics for unwanted resignations. The most common reason: lack of prospects. This means that companies need to focus not just on convincing and hiring young workers but, above all, on keeping them long-term. Get ready for the approach of employee centricity as a company.

Employee Centricity means that employers must focus more on the needs and experiences of employees in the workplace. Employee-centric solutions, a strong employee lifecycle, and focusing on maximum employee engagement - all topics that are still unknown territory for too many organizations. If you want to find and retain good employees in 2022, you need to ensure they have a positive experience at work and in your company. The candidate experience will gain more attention, and companies will place more value on the following things: Positive Application Experience In 2022, recruiters need to integrate leaner and primarily digital application processes to win candidates. As already mentioned, chatbots are a helpful option to simplify the application process for both sides. However, there are numerous other tools and apps that significantly improve the search for qualified candidates for recruiters as well as for the applicants. An app for job seekers, which allows applicants to upload their resumes directly from smartphones or tablets into the company's databases. A tool named kroot, enables recruiters to create social media job ads in just a few minutes and publish them to the appropriate target applicant group. The job ads include a link to an application form through which potential candidates can express their interest in the job offer by easily submitting their details and requesting feedback. No elaborate application, just leaving their contact information. This simple application form reduces the dropout rate of potential applicants by more than 50%.

Remote hiring, supported by video interviews and digital feedback collection - that's the more efficient and faster hiring of today. If the hiring process (time-to-hire) takes too long, there is a risk of losing qualified applicants along the way. Surveys have shown that the interest in a job decreases for 62 percent of all candidates if they have to wait more than ten business days for an interview invitation.

According to the LinkedIn study "Future of Recruiting", 81% of HR managers worldwide believe that virtual recruitment will continue after the pandemic. 70% of respondents say that remote recruiting will become the new standard.

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More Flexible Work Arrangements

The increasing number of gig workers means that flexible working conditions are likely to become more common. Unlike most traditional professions, this concept allows for greater freedom and self-determination.

Particularly for young people, the gig economy is an attractive model for gaining independence and experimenting with different jobs. This trend could benefit both employers and employees. Ultimately, access to specialized, highly skilled gig workers means that companies can easily commission one-off tasks and projects. In the USA and Europe, 20-30% are already working in the gig sector.

The trend shows that it's becoming increasingly important to incorporate more flexibility into the daily work routine – even for permanent employees. Agile work methods are the ideal response to the generational desire for responsibility and self-determination. Digital companies have long demonstrated how successful agile teams can collaborate.

Make working hours more flexible in your company—move away from the 9-to-5 mindset towards trust-based working hours and offerings like job sharing. More people will be interested in job-sharing options where two employees share a full-time position.

The home office remains a norm in 2022. Take it a step further and enable 'work from anywhere', as there will surely be an increase in remote work opportunities in the new year. Another way to engage the younger generation: offer sabbaticals!

Diversity – a wider range of skills

A global study by the Swiss HR consultancy Egon Zehnder shows that diversity is the most important criterion for millennials (Generation Y) when choosing an employer. Two-thirds of respondents born in the 1980s and 90s cite diversity as the most crucial attribute in their choice of employer.

An on-demand approach (gig workers) also perfectly supports more diversity and inclusion. By transitioning to and employing through remote recruitment solutions in 2022, you can build a workforce that is absolutely diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, and skills.

Another development we are observing is that recruitment is becoming increasingly international. More and more companies are seeking employees from other countries. One reason is that companies can thus tap into new markets. Another reason is that they can find workers with specific qualifications that may be hard to find in their own country.

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Training and Development

The talents of Generation Y want to continuously develop and learn something new. For companies, 'life-long learning' must not remain a buzzword. With digital development journeys tailored individually to employees and compact on-demand learning content, which allows employees to quickly familiarize themselves with new topics, companies can retain Gen Y for a longer period.

If their job profile is too monotonous, they will look for a new challenge. Therefore, they should have the opportunity to work on various projects or work entirely project-based using agile methods—this way, boredom is certainly avoided. Create job advertisements now!