According to Deloitte, “nascent” technical concepts have “captured the imagination of researchers and the investment dollars of venture capitalists”.
However to the layman, the impact emerging technical innovations have on real life, real people, real communities and real careers is relatively unknown.
Here at Rectec, we feel it’s our duty to pull out some of the topline tech concepts and make them digestible for our much beloved recruitment market. So what does the future hold? Referring again to the Deloitte report above, the future of our tech-dominated lives lies in fields such as quantum, exponential intelligence, and ambient experience.
- But will any of these incredibly important and fascinating tech fields have an impact on the way we find jobs, engage with candidates and build careers?
Recruitment is, afterall, a distinctly personal industry, and for all the startup prowess driving changes to our physical and digital worlds, job seekers still demand a tangible relationship between themselves and their recruiter, be it agency or in-house.
- Another question, then, follows: will any of these nascent tech innovations replace, or subsume, the human elements of good recruitment practice?
The core premise of Rectec Compare is to give recruiters of every stripe more ownership, more choice and more information about some of the most important tools in a recruiters toolbelt – their choice of ATS and recruitment CRM, and how the tech market is making recruitment more efficient and more effective.
But as the concepts behind Web3 expand, and as enterprises look to speed up their digital transformation, will the established digital parts of recruitment change? What should clients and candidates expect from our rapidly innovating digital world, and what will 2022 hold in store for recruiters?
We thought we’d start with trend crossovers – what does 2022 hold for recruiters and tech pros, and where do the industries intersect, if they do at all?
What are some of the leading trends in recruitment in 2022?
Diversity and Inclusivity
- D&I has turned into less of a socially positive hiring metric, into an absolutely essential workplace, culture and HR issue. The statistics don’t lie: more diverse teams create better business outcomes, more revenue, more creative thinking in decision making, and more employee advocacy as community representation improves.
Digital skills shortages
- From healthcare to education, marketing to yes, recruitment, digital skills (or the lack of) in the workforce are becoming a paramount issue.
- Tech is now ingrained in huge swathes of previously analogue industries, and the maintenance and successful rollout of new tools, concepts and software requires an employee pool of savvy operators. The UK government has done much to encourage STEM learning in school-age children to help direct next-gen talent, but the generational gulf between digitally native Millenials and Gen Z workers, and Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers, is stark.
On-demand work forces
- While the “gig” economy may suffuse some hiring managers and business owners (and job seekers) with horror, the fact of the matter is the industry is huge, and pipped to grow – its doubled in size since 2016, and 15% of UK working adults now work in the gig economy.
- Although traditional models of “temporary” skills hiring have existed in recruitment for decades, the tech-led revolution in specialist gig working is only going to expand this arm of the recruitment industry in more nuanced, but more popular ways – however, keep an eye out for changes to gig work through unionising and new working regulations.
Brand-led recruitment to continue on its upward trajectory
- Whether it’s the formation of employer “networks”, the engagement on talent on social media, or simply establishing a more clear and distinct style of language on job adverts, the employer brand (and by extension the employer value proposition) will continue to be the differentiator between staid old hat recruitment and a more targeted, meaningful type of employment process.
What are the leading trends in tech in 2022?
Automating at Scale
- Again referring to the Deloitte report, the increase in automotive capability will continue its trajectory into day-to-day processes, rendering a departmentalised IT team as almost irrelevant as tech becomes ingrained in more and more workflows at the business end of an enterprise, the edge, and in IoT.
“They are identifying repetitive, manual processes and applying a combination of engineering, automation, and self-service. The net result is streamlined timelines, accelerated value delivery, and more effective and stable IT across the board”
Cybersecurity and AI
“AI can be expanded beyond established applications, such as using it to accelerate data analysis, identify anomalies, and detect threats”
- As cyber threats and malware intrusions proliferate, enterprise owners need more defence mechanisms to protect their digital (and physical) assets. Enter: Cyber AI.
Smart Everything
- Smart turns physical as the rise of the IoT, sensor tech advancement, and the fluid integration of tech tools in physical “stacks” becomes normalised and expected in workplaces.
The rise of the Blockchain
- From NFTs to Cryptocurrency, asset ownership and more, the Blockchain represents a leap into the digital near-future. While both negative and positive attention is firmly planted on the non-convertible nature of decentralised currency and distributed ledger technology as it currently exists, the Blockchain represents something entirely novel, and the potential for this method of ownership and asset recognition is enormous:
“(they are) helping companies reimagine how they make and manage identity, data, brand, provenance, professional certifications, copyrights, and other tangible and digital assets”
How, and where, does WorkTech position itself in the middle of these two huge industries, and what should clients, candidates, agencies, HR professionals and recruitment marketers expect from these changes in 2022?
- In our view, 2022 represents a year of consistent momentum – the changes wrought by COVID-19 in regards to remote work will not falter, exactly, but the onus will be on tech teams to keep disrupted and disparate teams secure and digitally-aware, while factoring in a more democratised, user-focused style of business engagement, productivity and ownership of labour.
- But 2022 could be the year we see outlier tech movements – such the blockchain ledger – become more mainstream, which will require rapid skills upgrading and investment in L&D.
- For job seekers, our advice is to be mindful of changing routines and norms within the workplace, and be open to learning. No matter the industry you work in, the digitisation of work is continuing at a pace: we think it better to be part of that wave of change, than be bowled over by it when it finally makes landfall. Onus then has to be on reskilling, and creating inclusive recruitment cultures that value a multigenerational workforce.
A quick, responsive process is what you need to attract and engage the best talent.
At Rectec we help organisations to find the best Applicant Tracking System or best Recruitment CRM to suit your needs, accompanied by our unique complimentary tech marketplace, to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business.
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