Looking ahead – predictions for 2019
With the 2019 upon us, we thought it’d be a good time to look at what the next 12 months might have in store! Predicting future recruitment trends is always tricky. No matter how much data, observations and hearsay we have at our disposal we operate in an extremely agile market that always has some surprises up its sleeve.
This has never been truer than right now with Brexit looming. Because however much people like to predict, none of us know what’s going to happen.
Nonetheless, here are our predictions for 2019:
Employer branding & Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
Whilst these phrases have been part of the recruitment world for many years, their meaning and application have evolved significantly. This is likely to continue in 2019 as the competition for top talent looks to become even fiercer. Those wanting to attract and recruit the best will need to be more strategic and effective than ever before.
Whilst intrinsically linked, the distinction between employer brand and employee value proposition is often overlooked. This can lead to neither being as effective as they could be.
In 2019, it will be those that take the time to develop and define their EVP and carefully craft the employer brand in order to effectively broadcast it that will likely come out on top.
People power
In 2019, we expect to see a growing trend in employers using their own people to strengthen their recruitment efforts.
This will include employers using their team in videos or podcasts to add authenticity to their employer brand. Building trust and familiarity with a prospective candidate has never been more crucial and giving your organisation a human face and voice is an incredibly effective way of doing this.
Your employees should also play a key role in developing your employee value proposition. We expect to see more and more employers seeking to unveil what their employees like and, perhaps more importantly, what they don’t like about life at their organisation.
This will guide messages and actions moving forward as they seek to place themselves as an employer of choice for their target audience.
True diversity
Diversity is another term that’s so often thrown around, without the resource to think about what a genuinely diverse workforce can mean for an organisation. However, 2019 could well be the year that employers embraced true diversity on a wide scale.
True diversity goes beyond simply looking to appoint more female or candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds. A genuinely diverse workplace is one that reflects its community in terms of not only ethnic and gender mix but also age, background, education, disability and sexual orientation.
You can read about the business benefits of diversity in our blog on Diversity and Inclusion.
In 2019 we expect to see a wide-scale focus on diversity. Employers are likely to invest significant resources in addressing the factors that prevent them from attracting a diverse candidate pool. This includes employer brand, candidate filtering methods and benefits to ensure that all are as inclusive as possible.
Job purpose > Job description
There’s a growing feeling that the traditional job description is becoming outdated, especially in certain sectors and circumstances. This isn’t to say that job descriptions don’t still hold value.
This is particularly so when recruiting to more junior roles where candidates might be less aware of what the position entails or requires. However, there’s a school of thought that in certain positions that simply outlining the purpose, goals and objectives and giving the individual the freedom to achieve them in their own way is a better approach.
Giving employees this level of trust and ownership in their roles has been proven to boost productivity. It can often also lead to new, more effective approaches to work. It is, however, only effective in situations where people welcome and thrive on this level of autonomy – something that can be tricky to judge.
2019 could well be the year that this concept grows in popularity. Speaking to a number of our clients, many employers are looking to embrace new, innovative ways of working.
So, 2019 is likely to be a big one! Whilst uncertainty awaits, we believe that some exciting developments are also coming. We look forward to looking back in December and seeing which of our predictions were right.