The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented circumstances for organizations around the world. Some organizations even had to freeze hiring altogether while slashing the headcount budget just so they could sustain revenues and margins.

Additionally, restrictions on physical collaboration have led more organizations to find alternate ways of working. This has also created a pressing need to re-imagine their talent acquisition strategy and a shift to new practices such as remote recruiting. 

However, in 2022 we can finally say that things are going back to normal. Some employees have returned to their offices full-time, while others have embraced a hybrid model. This fact, plus technology evolving at the speed of light, means that the whole process of hiring new people is going through changes once again. 

So, let’s dive in and look at the recruiting trends that will mark 2022!

Scheduling or location flexibility

Unfortunately, in some regions, the Covid-19 outbreak is still going strong. As a result, not all employees are ready to return to their offices full time. In addition, people got used to working remotely or working from home so this is now an expectation when hiring in 2022.

According to a recent Microsoft work trend report, hybrid and flexible work schedules will stay here for the foreseeable future. Offering this flexibility in your job ad isn’t so much of a benefit anymore but rather a requirement for successful recruiting. 

On top of boosting your recruitment efforts, offering flexible schedules can reduce absenteeism in the workplace and increase employee productivity. 

Needless to mention, the flexibility you can offer will depend largely on the job role. For instance, some job profiles such as healthcare medical staff can’t work remotely. For job profiles like these, you can offer scheduling flexibility in terms of shift work. 

An ideal candidate profile (ICP) for each job role

Thanks to the advancement of virtual, remote work, as well as new technologies, job role descriptions have changed. If you don’t define your roles and their targets, you won’t be able to fill them adequately with the right candidate. 

As such, it’s a smart idea to develop an Ideal Candidate Profile (ICP). This will speed up your recruitment, make your HR team more productive, and most importantly – allow you to recruit the right candidate for the right role. 

How to create an ICP? Here are some tips:

• Define each job clearly, along with its duties; 
• Identify your company culture and vision;
• Take a look at your top and bottom performers – what can you learn from them?
• Define key hard and soft skills;
• Define the job role’s “must-have” and “nice-to-have” skills; and
• Take personality into account.

Here’s a good example of an Ideal Sales Candidate Profile from Hubspot. Note that your ICP can be as long and detailed or as short as you need it to be. There are no strict rules. The more in-depth your candidate profile is, the better you’ll understand your ideal employee. 

Technology to simplify recruitment and onboarding

Pre-Covid, we worked from the office. During Covid, we worked from home. And in 2022, (almost) post-Covid, we have a little from both worlds – a hybrid schedule. With a team dispersed half in-office, half remote, we desperately need technology to streamline and simplify daily tasks. 

The right tools can help you with shift scheduling, time tracking, performance tracking, communication, and more. For instance, you can use comprehensive employee scheduling software to build schedules in minutes and avoid overlaps, even if all your employees work from different locations. 

As a recruiter, you can use virtual interview technology to get to know your candidates better, but it’s also really important that you use the same technology to onboard new employees. AI and chatbots can play a big role in successful remote onboarding. 

Moreover, we expect digital interviewing to continue to expand and grow beyond the COVID-19 crisis, and this is one of the recruiting trends that will continue into 2022 and beyond. According to LinkedIn Insights, virtual recruiting is here to stay – 81% of talent professionals agreed that virtual recruiting will continue post-Covid19. 

Update your HR policies 

If your team works on mixed schedules or you’re managing an international workforce, you need a fitting HR policy that will serve as a guideline for current and future employees. 

What’s expected of staff members and how will they stay connected and engaged? What platforms will they use to communicate and will you be the one who provides these platforms? How will they balance work time with private time, and how will you monitor this (including their performance)? 

You also need to outline how salaries, benefits, and PTO will be handled. All this is important to bear in mind because your HR policies will set expectations for future recruits. Your guidelines need to be clear to benefit both you as the employer and all your employees. 

Focus on tweaking your policy to incorporate the special circumstances revolving around remote, flexible schedules, or shift workers. 

Boosting employee perks and benefits

Recruiting trends come and go, but offering good perks and benefits packages will always be a winner.

After the Covid fiasco, employees started valuing different benefits than before. So, if in the past, you needed an in-office game room to attract talent, today they appreciate a mental and physical health program much more. 

Here are some great benefits to offer in 2022:

• Employee performance bonuses;
• Physical health programs (gym or fitness memberships);
• Mental health programs;
• Childcare or pet care assistance;
• Private health insurance;
• Flexible PTO;
• Remote or flexible schedules; and
• Training and professional development programs.

When deciding on the best benefits to offer, keep in mind that each benefit has to improve one aspect of your employee’s life – their emotional, physical, or financial wellbeing. 

To Wrap Up

As organizations continue to evolve in response to the “new normal,” it’s important that your business continues to prioritize recruiting and hiring, and that your approach to both evolves.

Nobody can predict precisely what the next decade will bring for recruiting. Luckily, we can make near-future projections based on current observations. But, if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s the fact that HR teams and recruiters have to remain flexible, agile, tech-savvy, and quick to adapt to changes. 

For now, to gain an upper hand, keep these recruiting trends in mind when hiring new people in 2022. Success is inevitable. 

Derek Jones  spearheads key initiatives at Deputy, a global workforce management platform for employee scheduling, timesheets, and communication. With a focus on the workforce, Derek helps business owners and workforce leaders simplify employment law compliance, keep labor costs in line and build award-winning workplaces. Derek has over 16 years of experience in delivering data-driven sales and marketing strategies to SaaS companies like MarketSource and Griswold Home Care.