Hiring challenges and recruitment issues for employers in 2022 will proceed from the past pandemic years and new challenges may arise as we begin to overcome the pandemic era. A range of staffing challenges to hiring issues can leave some employers coming up short-staffed, so they will need to get creative in attracting potential candidates. In this blog post, we’re going to go over 13 hiring challenges in 2022.

With the ongoing pandemic, unemployment rates are still high and some experts are calling this the Great Resignation which is causing recruitment challenges. A  report from The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that 6.2 million people have quit, faced layoffs, or retired. 10.4 million job openings were reported which means there’s a large amount of jobs needing to be filled, but not enough workers filling them.

People aren’t filling those positions because of a pent-up desire to quit. The pandemic forced these issues to the forefront and people are now following through with their decision to change their version of the rat race. This had led people to decide to make a change in their employment.

Inflation has gone up to 6.2%, which is the highest since November 1990. Everything is costing more money in this day and age including employees. Day to day living costs have gone up and their need to be able to afford daily living has increased causing a demand for employers to pay their employees more. Employers will have to raise their salary budgets in order to keep up with the competition.

The Great Resignation has led to more demands from employees, and low competition in potential candidates puts them in a position to do so.

According to Anthony Klotz, a management professor at Texas A&M University, “We were all able to take a step back in the last year and spend more time doing other things and really question the value of what we’re doing at work.” People want to do work they value and they want to be compensated for using up their own time accordingly.

Along with better pay, potential candidates are demanding a better benefits package. They have stayed home and they have seen the benefits of being able to stay home more and are looking for a more intriguing benefits package. With a limited hiring pool, candidates are in a better position to negotiate these demands in their favor.

Employers are becoming aware of these hiring issues, and are raising their base pay prices and sign on bonuses causing competition between employers. Businesses will have to set themselves apart from competing companies in order to snag a quality candidate. Not only competition from big name businesses, but small time businesses are becoming a competitor as well. These small businesses might have more flexibility in scheduling and be able to provide positive workplace experiences like unlimited vacation time and the ability to create their own schedules.

Social awareness and acknowledging popular issues is another thing businesses need to keep in mind. Some employees are demanding their employer to show a concern for issues they care about and they want to see them make a change. According to a study conducted by The Harris Poll, 82 percent of people reported they want their employers to work towards making positive changes of racial equality.

Employers will have to ensure their company is known for respectability to earn the potential candidate’s interest and to keep that employee in the future.

Social distancing, government regulations, and the desire or need to work-from-home is causing businesses to move online. With the growing presence of online businesses, there’s challenges in itself to moving online. Not only is it beneficial for the business to make more profit by moving online, online branding and presence is becoming necessary to scoring a quality candidate. Some potential candidates like to check out a business online before applying for a job. They check reviews and see what past employees are saying on websites like Glassdoor.com. According to a survey conducted by Shortlister.com, 80 percent of people will tell people about a negative hiring or recruitment experience they had which can deter future candidates from applying.

A demand potential candidates are desiring includes the flexibility to make their own schedules. The need for employers having to work around the demand for an employee’s flexibility is a hiring challenge they will have to accommodate. Along with employees valuing their own time and wanting to break out of the typical 9-to-5, there’s a real need for flexibility for some parents which I will touch on in the next point.

Employers will have to come up with ways for employees to be able to do their work online so they can take it home. Homeschool and online school rates are still up from pre-pandemic levels, and more parents are needing to stay home with children that are homeschooled/online schooled. Especially with women, the need for other options is brought to the forefront because of the lack of childcare and high costs associated with childcare.

With the previous key point, women may face more discrimination in the workforce and hiring process if an employer knows they have children. Employers will need to work with a potential candidate and their needs to ensure a fair workplace environment. Even with current anti-discrimination laws, employers find themselves struggling to ensuring diversity in other ways as well. Employers may need to use anti-bias software when interviewing and recruiting potential candidates to ensure there is no subconscious bias during the hiring and recruitment process.

High turnover is leading to staffing issues. High turnover includes the people that were job hopping to anything that was open during the pandemic. Skills in different sectors overlap so some people that lost their job due to the pandemic led to them finding jobs in an essential business that was still open. Businesses that were closed during the pandemic and are opening back up now have to compete with getting their previous employees back and keeping them there by ensuring job security. People may be fearful of losing their job again, so if a better or more secure job opportunity comes their way, they’re going to take it.

In the human resources sector, training new hires quickly after dealing with a high turnover rate is another challenge faced in 2022. The hiring process has been drawn out and employees are expecting a quick start to a new career, this can cause hiring issues if not done in an efficient timely manner. People that want a job want a job now, and if a company can’t get them through the hiring process quickly then they’re going to lose out on a potential candidate to a company that can get them started working ASAP.

According to a study conducted by Indeed at the end of May 2021 the number one reason people have not re-entered the workforce is because of the fear of the coronavirus. Fear of contracting COVID-19 at work has made future jobseekers hesitant. Employers will need to make their employees feel safe working for them. Some companies have started instilling social distancing measures, masks if wanted, and paying for testing for their employees to put their minds at ease about the virus at the workplace.

Not only do businesses need to deal with marketing for their services and products, but they need to get their name out there to attract potential hiring candidates. Not marketing themselves can lead to recruitment issues, and they will need to make smart marketing moves to attract the staff they need. Businesses have a plethora of marketing strategies they can try out that includes billboards, hiring agencies, and utilizing social media.

Job advertisements have been evolving from the traditional job post. Those boring, text-only job posts are no longer attracting the best talent because the way we consume information has changed. Job seekers will often look over a job post and make a split-second decision of whether or not they should apply for a job.

• Want to stand out as an employer?

• Want to persuade and attract hot young top talent?

• Want to tell a compelling story about your job?

• Want to add video, photos and voice to your job posts?

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