Recruiting Challenges for 2020

The beginning of the year is a time for looking forward and planning. What should we anticipate for recruiting in 2020?

Here are a few of recruiting’s probable challenges in 2020, along with their ramifications.

LOW UNEMPLOYMENT

While low unemployment has been a recruiting challenge for a while, it dipped to historically low levels at the end of 2019. Because of this, employers may continue to have fewer qualified candidates for a given role and thus have a longer time to fill vacancies, which also likely means a longer time to productivity. It would be useful to plan for this now.

To combat this issue, employers may need to expand their recruiting efforts’ geographic area, offer relocation benefits, or consider offering remote work options when possible. They may also consider identifying and reaching out to passive candidates more, as this will likely become even more important.

Being proactive in recruiting efforts in general will be more important in a low-unemployment environment. 

CANDIDATE AND NEW EMPLOYEE GHOSTING

Ghosting is another common trend that will likely continue into the new year. New employee and applicant ghosting increases the costs of recruitment because you go through the process only to find the applicant doesn’t show up for the interview or, worse, his or her first day.

Candidates don’t mind leaving the process at any point because they have a lot of options, making the candidate experience crucial. To combat this, employers may need to increase their focus on being employers of choice.

HR professionals may want to put more work into the employment brand, which takes time, commitment, and collaboration across departments throughout the organization. They may also want to determine how to ensure the candidate experience is up to par.

MULTIPLE GENERATIONS TOGETHER IN THE WORKFORCE

Although this has always been the case, more senior employees remaining in the workforce combined with large incoming employee populations means many employers have a wide variation among employee ages. Sometimes, different generations have different needs, resulting in different employer requests, such as differing or expanding benefit package needs.

Another concern is that this environment could create conflict if gaps in employee expectations are too big.

Yet another possible concern is younger workers’ getting frustrated with those of retirement age who are still in the workforce, as they may view this as negatively impacting internal mobility.

SKILLS GAPS AND INCREASED TRAINING NEEDS

Hiring workers despite their not being a perfect skills match occurs, in part, because of low unemployment levels. Employers have to find candidates who are able to do the work, even if they’re not yet trained.

As such, they find them and train them internally rather than finding candidates who already have the skills. This simply means that it’s likely 2020 will be a year when employers put more focus on training programs to address this issue.