2022 Recruitment Trends: On Reflection

In the year that brought us covid recovery/supply chain challenges, ‘the great resignation’ and perhaps most impactful, the cost of living crisis. It’s time to ask what we've learnt in 2022 and what we can do better in the year ahead. In 2022 Recruitment Trends: On Reflection, we give our thoughts on the events and trends that shaped a topsy-turvy year for businesses and recruiters.

The Cost of Living Crisis?

Emerging out of the business nightmare that was covid recovery, businesses now have a cost-of-living crisis to contend with. Higher energy bills, record fuel prices, high interest rates and a rising inflation rate have combined to create a sizable problem both for individuals and businesses. In combination with global supply chain bottlenecks, market instability and a decrease in new business launches, 2022 will be a year to forget for some.

Startups.co.uk, the publisher and business support service, reports 810,316 businesses were launched from 2022-2023 and a 390,000 decrease in the business population in the same period.

However, 2023 forecasts paint a more positive picture, forecasters agree that 2023 is likely to see a reduction in inflation but the degree of easing is up for debate.?

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) forecasted four possible financial scenarios and in each, they concluded, “There will be a rapid fall in inflation from 2023”.

Despite the forecasted fall in the inflation rate, the NEIRC findings suggest further caution is needed. Their findings suggest that inflation will decline but it will be above the target percentage of 2% until 2025.

“Inflation will remain well above 3% for the whole of 2023 and our current forecast is that it will not return to target [2%] until mid-2025”.

Covid Recovery & Supply Chain Challenges

The pandemic has tested the resilience, flexibility and ingenuity of the global supply chain. While supply experienced disruption and bottlenecking, it has also been more vital than ever. Medical supplies, food and water alongside many vital supply chains have been essential for surviving the pandemic and the threat of climate change.?

Professional and IT consultancy firm 埃森哲 have reported 6 supply chain challenges for businesses to consider:

• Supply chains lack global resilience and are breaking down in the face of multi-country disruptions.
• Supply chain and operations are becoming more costly (eg less global and e-commerce fulfilment costs) – and can often represent a company’s highest costs.
• The significant impacts that supply chains and operations have on the planet and society are not meeting stakeholders’ expectations for sustainability.
• Talent gaps across the supply chain and operations continue to create high dependency on the human workforce.
• A lack of flexibility inhibits the ability to address customer demands for personalisation and customization.
• IT systems continue to be expensive to run, inflexible and often over-reliant on legacy technologies.

Having explored the challenges, what strategies can businesses employ to lessen risks and respond to the needs of their customers and suppliers? UK business leaders have to consider the risks caused by the pandemic recovery, Brexit, inflation, service disruption etc. and turn complexity into meaningful change. Below are four things to consider looking ahead to 2023.

1. Mobilise

• Create an agile response plan.
• Set concrete operating rules.
• Formulate contingency plans.

2. Look Ahead

• Speculate and prioritise potential risks.

3. Measure?

• Measurer and trial what-if scenarios to test your supply chain’s durability.

4. Configure

• Adapt the network based on data insights and create an objective score of supply chain efficiencies.?

Operational efficiency requires long-term resilience and sufficient flexibility to create protections against future disruption. This process will likely include technological transformation, end-to-end transparency of the supply chain and short/med/long-term risk response embedded in BAU processes.

If you’re seeking to streamline your payroll processes, Lagan Payroll is here to take the pain out of payroll. Our end-to-end payroll service gives you an automated payroll function and allows you to focus on making your business the best it can be. For further information visit laganpayroll.co.uk or call 028 9033 0555.?

Staffing Struggles

Workplace disruption, mental health challenges, employee motivation, cost of living and further covid-related obstacles have made staffing an uphill struggle. Businesses have experienced retention difficulties due to the shift in perspectives brought about by quarantine and remote working.?

In addition, employers have contended with an increase in candidate expectations. Employees sought out remote opportunities, flexible work and extended benefits packages and the recruitment landscape has changed as a result. According to the marketing and consumer data platform Statista ,?

In 2022, around 4.3 million employees in the United Kingdom had employment contracts that allowed for flexible working hours, making it the most common flexible working practice in that year.

The second most prevalent type of flexible arrangement was an annualised hours contract, whereby an employee works a specified number of hours over a year, instead of working the same hours every week or month.

There were approximately 101,000 employees on contracts that involved job-sharing, making it the least common type of flexible working contract.

Aside from the rise of flexible working other developments such as employee burnout,’ the great resignation’ and ‘quiet quitting’, to name a few, have evidenced poor employee experience.

(see our article Quiet Qutting: An Exploration, for further insight)Some employers have extended their benefits packages to assist with mental health struggles, expand their HR departments and taken a proactive approach to employee wellbeing.?

If your business is seeking to get ahead of oncoming staffing struggles, Kennedy Recruitment is committed to your success. Call 02890330555 or email our team via [email protected], and we’ll be delighted to assist you.?

Despite this, retention remains a continued pain point for employers across many industries and of varying sizes.

If you’re seeking a new challenge or starting to climb the employment ladder call 028 9033 0555 or send us your cv via [email protected] and we’d be delighted to assist you in your search.

Kennedy Recruitment

Committed to your success