As issues about persistent inflation and the specter of recession proceed to dominate the headlines, the labor market stays robust. There are round two open jobs for each worker who’s actively pursuing work, a ratio that has been regular since November. This implies the flexibility to draw high-quality candidates and supply an attractive, streamlined, and honest hiring course of is a necessary aggressive benefit.
Standards’s 2023 Candidate Expertise Report incorporates insights from a survey of over 2,000 job-seekers around the globe. From the continued emphasis on work-life steadiness to the demand for flexibility and distant work, it’s clear that many key office tendencies of the previous a number of years aren’t going anyplace. In the meantime, lots of the survey responses may shock HR professionals – similar to candidates’ optimism regardless of a troublesome financial surroundings and fixed discuss of AI and automation inflicting mass job displacement.
HR professionals have navigated a collection of crises and shifts of their trade over the previous few years, and their function has by no means been extra vital. Whereas the “Nice Resignation” could also be coming to an finish, worker mobility stays increased than pre-pandemic (as seen in nonetheless elevated “stop charges”) and workers are nonetheless demanding a more healthy work-life steadiness, extra alternatives for skilled growth, and an ongoing dedication to office flexibility. Candidates and workers wish to be handled as people with their very own distinctive priorities, issues, and profession trajectories. The HR groups that meet these wants will distinguish their firms and entice prime expertise within the years to return.
Flexibility Is a Key Precedence for Candidates
There are lots of forms of office flexibility: skilled growth alternatives, expertise mobility, advantages applications that meet workers’ particular person wants, distant work, and different insurance policies that permit workers to steadiness their careers and private lives. The jarring modifications of the previous few years – from the COVID-19 pandemic to the financial instability we’re witnessing now – have satisfied candidates and workers that roles and workplaces ought to be extra adaptable. The period of static nine-to-five workplace work is shortly coming to an finish.
For instance, 49 % of the candidates Standards surveyed say they like totally distant work, whereas one other 36 % need a mixture of in-person and distant work. Simply 15 % wish to be within the workplace full-time. That is in line with different knowledge, similar to a latest McKinsey survey which discovered that 87 % of workers will take the provide to work remotely. The demand for distant work is a mirrored image of extra elementary worker expectations – simply as they imagine work ought to now not be confined to the workplace, additionally they need extra versatile hours, advantages, {and professional} growth alternatives. Over a 3rd of candidates say a scarcity of profession development alternatives would trigger them to step away from a recruiting course of.
In line with the Standards survey, 37 % of candidates say they’ve walked away from roles that couldn’t provide versatile work choices. The truth is, candidates are so targeted on flexibility that they rank alternatives for profession development and higher work-life steadiness above compensation. These are all reminders that HR groups will entice extra certified candidates and enhance retention once they construct flexibility into their operations at each stage.
Candidates Desire a Probability To Show Themselves
Regardless of all of the dire discuss recession and job displacement within the media, candidates are demonstrating their resilience and even expressing optimism in regards to the future. The Standards survey discovered that 88 % of candidates are assured they are going to discover a new job that’s satisfying – together with over two-thirds who’re “very assured.” In the meantime, 81 % imagine they are going to be paid sufficient of their subsequent function.
This confidence stems from the truth that candidates place confidence in their very own skills, in addition to their capability to showcase these skills to recruiters. Over two-thirds really feel that the hiring course of is honest, whereas 84 % say they’re capable of display their “full potential” to employers. Whereas there’s a frequent false impression that candidates are intimidated by pre-employment assessments, 70 % say these assessments assist them display their potential past their expertise. Candidates are additionally wanting to overview their very own efficiency: 90 % say they wish to obtain suggestions on their evaluation outcomes.
As workers turn out to be more and more targeted on skilled growth, their attitudes towards assessments ought to inform how firms method expertise mobility. In line with a LinkedIn report, firms that excel at expertise mobility are capable of retain workers practically twice so long as those who wrestle with it. One important ingredient of expertise mobility is the usage of honest and predictive evaluative instruments to find out how HR groups ought to allocate human capital – instruments that may concurrently give workers extra versatile profession choices and be certain that the fitting persons are in the fitting roles.
Candidate Expertise Issues Extra Than Ever
No matter which advantages your organization affords – from office flexibility to expertise mobility – it gained’t matter in the event you can’t entice and safe expertise. Though 17 % of candidates report that they’ve been laid off over the previous 12 months and 41 % say it has turn out to be more durable to discover a job, the demand for expertise continues to be far outstripping the variety of obtainable candidates. This requires a renewed emphasis on the standard of the candidate expertise.
The Standards survey discovered that the highest purpose candidates abandon the hiring course of is poor communication from the employer – a criticism that’s much more frequent than “wage didn’t meet expectations.” Candidates are additionally annoyed by firms that misrepresent the job necessities. These are all points with communication: firms must be totally clear in regards to the function, wage, advantages, and all different related data. They need to even be upfront about how lengthy the hiring course of will take – over one-third of candidates say they’ve stopped pursuing a job as a result of this course of was dragging on for too lengthy.
A cumbersome and opaque hiring course of is unhealthy sufficient, however communication issues in recruiting can get a lot worse: 39 % of candidates say they’ve been ghosted by potential employers over the previous 12 months alone. The prevalence of ghosting is much more alarming contemplating the results it will possibly have on an organization’s status – many candidates abandon the recruiting course of after studying unfavourable opinions about an organization.
HR professionals can distinguish their firms by providing flexibility, utilizing honest and predictive strategies of analysis, and sustaining constant (however not extreme) communication with job-seekers. At a time when the competitors for expertise is fierce, an distinctive candidate expertise is indispensable for constructing a robust workforce.
Authors
Josh Millet
Josh is the Founder and CEO of Standards. He began the corporate in 2006 with a imaginative and prescient to create a SaaS-based pre-employment testing service that might make the best high quality worker evaluation instruments accessible to firms of all sizes. Previous to launching Standards, Josh cofounded a web-based check preparation firm, Number2.com, which was acquired by Xap Corp of Culver Metropolis, CA, in 2002. After the acquisition, Josh served because the President of Xap’s check prep division. He has coauthored testing-related articles revealed within the Journal of Academic Computing and the American Psychological Society Observer. Josh holds a Ph.D. in historical past from Harvard College, the place he was a Fulbright Scholar and a Mellon Fellow.
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