The year 2020 was a highly challenging year for businesses, but 2021 promises to be a year of recovery. Organisations have now geared up to embrace the ‘new normal’. Going into the new year, many businesses are preparing to increase their intake of temps while taking into account new pandemic-induced realities.

Here are four emerging staffing trends for temporary hiring in 2021.

1. Increasing Use of AI and Automation

To make hiring easier, faster, and better, recruiters will increasingly rely on AI and automation. AI is proving to be highly effective in screening resumes from large applicant pools, which has always been a big challenge in talent acquisition. In 2021, recruiters will rely more on their ability to intelligently automate their hiring workflow. AI will be deployed to engage, screen, and assess candidates effectively.

Recruitment-oriented AI is designed to streamline or automate a component of the hiring workflow—particularly repetitive, high-volume tasks. Along with screening of candidates, AI could also be deployed for conducting sentiment analysis on job descriptions. Technology will be integrated seamlessly with the recruitment stack to ensure no disruption in the workflow.

Sophisticated AI will enhance the quality of temporary hiring through standardised job matching. The key to AI bettering quality-of-hire statistics lies in its ability to match the requirements of the job with the candidates’ knowledge and experience.

2. Focus on Candidate Experience

Companies seem to have realised that the way they treat candidates during recruitment is a key factor that affects their employer brand. The impression they make upon a candidate during the hiring process is a lasting one. That is why HR personnel are now putting their best foot forward while dealing with candidates, and going into 2021, this trend is likely to get sharper.

These days there are various online platforms where candidates can share their recruitment experience. Job seekers can just log on to these platforms to find out what candidates have to say about the organisation. You are unlikely to attract the best talent if you end up cultivating a bad hiring reputation. A company’s ability to compete in a volatile and intense economic environment depends upon its success in attracting the best candidates.

More companies are now making it a part of the process to notify the candidates if their application is not being considered. They are also ensuring that the experience remains pleasant regardless of whether the interview has culminated in a recruitment or not. Such gestures are crucial to creating a congenial hiring environment and play an important role in ensuring better employer branding.

3. Spotlight on DEI

The concept of DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) has become important in a world where wokeness is taking centre-stage.

Diversity is not a single parameter but includes a number of factors such as gender identity, ethnicity and religion. Besides enhancing employer reputation, there is also a strong business case for diversity as studies have found a positive correlation between diversity and profitability.

There is a tendency to confuse equity with equality, but the two words have different meanings. Equality means treating everyone the same, but treating everyone equitably translates into taking care of individualistic needs. For instance, employees from underprivileged sections of society have to overcome more obstacles while accessing resources than those from dominant or privileged groups. A company with equity-inspired design recognises the problems such employees face and provides them with adequate support to bring them on a par with their colleagues.

Inclusion is about creating an environment where people feel valued regardless of what they are doing. It improves the quality of the human experience. In 2021, the importance of DEI in temporary hiring will increase and companies that focus on it can expect to reap its benefits.

4. Remote Hiring

The pandemic has made employers confident about hiring remotely and the trend is expected to continue into the next year as well. Moreover, to remain flexible, companies will continue the move from permanent to contractual hiring. The need to connect with candidates remotely will prompt employers to work on branding through digital channels.

With remote hiring, the pace of recruitment is likely to be faster. Companies will also be able to meet a larger candidate pool, while candidates can appear for the selection process without taking leave from their work. Thus, the arrangement will work to the advantage of both sides.

As lockdowns across the world cause a huge number of layoffs and retrenchments, any open position will see a spike in terms of the number of applications. In this situation it will be important for employers conducting remote hiring to take extra steps to ensure good candidate fit through improved selection processes and better background screening.

Keeping Abreast of Change

The above trends are likely to define recruitment in the coming year. The new year is also likely to witness more contractual hiring than permanent appointments. It will be important for companies to keep abreast of emerging developments to attract top talent amid an unpredictable economic climate.

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