The start of a new decade and the promise of change in respect to the world of work no doubt, but how does the current landscape sit and what are the changes we expect to see.

Picture as of December 2019

  • The employment rate hit a new high of 76.2% at the end of the 2019; Torsten Bell, Chief Executive at the Resolution Foundation, said that whilst “2019 was a bad year for the economy…the part of the economy that households really care about – the labour market – defied the economic gloom and delivered record employment and decent pay growth."

  • Recruiters felt the employment confidence, with increased difficult to fill vacancies particularly across the construction, administrative and service industries.

  • Technology has also played a significant role within the HR/Recruitment sector in recent years, with the increase in online workplace transparency, extensive job board availability and digital savvy candidates making use of social media to source their ideal job opportunity.

Anticipated trends for 2020

  • Culture wins over cash: According to Glassdoor and the CIPD labour update for the North of England - business owners and leaders have realised the importance of business culture. How employees and future candidates view a business’s culture - can be the decisive reason for joining and staying in an organisation.

    Businesses leaders realise that the people and in particular, the skills and knowledge of their people, are their ultimate business asset and need to ensure that a clear vision, personal development path and wellbeing programme are implemented and communicated.

    Flexible working will continue to be a highly desirable condition of employment for the next decade in the North of England and further afield as organisations continue to utilise technology to run their global operations.

  • 65+ Baby Boomers become the fastest-growing workforce: It is anticipated that the senior citizen workforce will grow by over 60% over the next decade, bringing expertise, knowledge and engagement.

  • A monumental move to mobile: 12yrs ago the iPhone landed and immediately changed the way we run our private lives, and massively impacted our way of working. It is predicted that in a matter of a few years, over 70% of internet users will exclusively access the web through a mobile device. This will be a consideration when designing a mobile application program for any business, as well as ensuring that any social media strategy aligns with the move to mobile over desktop.

  • Brexit is not yet finalised: there is an expectation that certain sectors will see a significant decrease in available talent, particularly in the tech market.

In summary, the national political landscape, global technology advancements and increasingly savvy candidates will bring challenges to the recruitment market over the coming year.

Locally, businesses would benefit from clearly understanding their own vision and how aligned their current workforce are to their business goals and how attractive they are to new talent.

Considerations in terms of communicating career development opportunities, working arrangements and ensuring knowledge sharing occurs will support employee retention.

As for candidate attraction strategies, we suggest the following;

  • ensure that the business powerfully presents itself across all platforms
  • create a simple mobile friendly application process
  • offer flexible working arrangements
  • create a sense of the future.

For further information, or if we can help with any aspect of your recruitment strategy, please do call Clare on 01904 769142.

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