The greatest challenge in 2020 will continue to be finding top talent in this very tight candidate market. Followed closely by the ability to engage and retain talent hired. The “me too” movement put the spotlight on workplace harassment and has fueled the legislation being passed in many states to make it illegal to ask a candidate for their current salary.
New York took it one step further in July and passed pay equity legislation guaranteeing equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender. You will continue to see increased focus on pay equity which grabbed headlines. At the forefront of the fight for pay equity is Women’s World Cup Soccer Team.
When I entered our profession, we often interacted with personnel, who then became Human Resources, then Talent Acquisition Professionals. Lars Schmidt, the host of the podcast 21st Century HR tweeted this question. “Is it time to retire the term Human Resources?”
His counterparts weighed in passionately. Some said, leave it alone and get back to work. Others came up with prospective names People & Culture, People Operations or People Strategy. The title doesn’t matter, these individuals often hold the keys to you becoming a preferred provider of talent. Often when you have direct contact with hiring managers you will still interact with HR which is why it’s important to align yourself as a strategic partner who can make their job easier.
You now have five generations in the workforce and Millennials now represent over 50% of the global workforce. The first large wave of graduates from Gen Z (those born after 1996) are also hitting the job market. Gen Z are the most tech-savvy generation ever, so ask yourself what changes you need to make to recruit these two generations. Let me give you an example: ATT’s campus recruiters are bringing virtual reality goggles to campuses to let students “experience” a day on the job. They also use text, video interviews and snapchat to connect. So how do you compete with this, when you are attempting to recruit the same talent.
If you are in the Contract Staffing segment of our Profession, consider targeting the generation of older workers, the Baby Boomers who have tremendous experience, skills, perspective and commitment.
It may be time to review your application and interview process. If there are too many hoops to jump through, you won’t attract younger generations. McDonalds launched the world’s first voice-initiated job application called “McDonald’s Apply Thru” which interacts with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Apply for a job has become as simple as saying “Alexa, help get me a job at McDonalds.”
Make this the year you represent 100% of the talent pool not just 15% who are in an active job search. 85% of the talent pool are not reading job board ads, Craig’s List or website postings. They’re too busy doing a great job. But, most of them will talk to you if you can help them make their next logical career move. Make 2020, the year you fine tune your ability to recruit passive candidates.
Other trends you will see in 2020 are candidates requesting a 4-day work week with longer hours and then three days off. Diversity is a great challenge and you can help your clients achieve diverse voices around the table, if they want to achieve diverse hiring. You can help them implement performance-based hiring which alleviates emotion and bias.
Flexibility, requests to work virtual, improved work life balance and more candidates opting to work the non-traditional 40-hour work week will continue to escalate. As a business owner, you may need to consider some of these options for your internal team and you will need to have these discussions with your clients, if they want to attract the best talent in 2020.
Bottom line, you’re in the greatest profession at the best time in history, make changes so you can take advantage of this tremendous candidate shortage, which is when you should be the most profitable.