5 UK recruitment trends for 2022

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The unprecedented events of the last two years have had an enormous impact on the workplace. Furlough, remote working and 4-day working weeks have all become commonplace at many firms. In turn, recruitment has had to adapt to keep up.

With that in mind, we’ve compiled this list of five UK recruitment trends we can expect to see in 2022.

We’re currently witnessing a phenomenon that’s been dubbed “The Great Resignation”. Employees, spurred by the ongoing pandemic, began re-assessing what they wanted in their lives. As a result, we’ve seen people readily switching roles and employers. For organisations, this means potential skills gaps until new talent is recruited.

Indeed, according to recent data from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation*, nine in 10 recruiters (88%) say that labour shortages are their biggest concern for the remainder of 2021. Meanwhile, skill shortages are a major concern for two in three (65%). Both of these trends are set to continue as 2021 comes to a close and 2022 unfolds.

The current skills and labour shortage has meant workers find themselves in the driving seat when it comes to recruitment. It’s one silver lining of the pandemic for hopeful employees (there aren’t many, we know).

In 2022, employees will find themselves more able to negotiate a wider range of job perks, benefits and working arrangements as organisations strive to attract and retain talent. Keep this in mind when you’re searching for your next role.

One of the most prominent workplace trends we’ve seen over the last two years is hybrid working. Splitting time between the office and home, or another remote location, has become a common fixture for many UK employees.

Now that employees have had a taste of such a setup and organisations have seen that it doesn’t need to impact productivity, job listings offering hybrid working will become the norm in 2022.

What impact this will have on traditional office environments is hard to tell, but we could see organisations shift in favour of co-working facilities over their own premises going forward.

Something else we’ve seen throughout the pandemic has been how organisations have had to be agile and take advantage of employees’ skills to fill any gaps. Staff were moved to other areas where their skills and experience would be beneficial to the wider organisation.

Such a skills-based approach is here to stay. Hiring managers will be particularly interested to hear about a candidate’s skills - especially those that are relevant across the wider business.

Finally, highlighting approaches to diversity and inclusion has always been a factor for organisations. But the enormous social justice strides we’ve seen made in the last couple of years will see this area placed firmly under the spotlight.

As a result, we can expect companies to place their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the forefront in job advertisements.

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* https://www.rec.uk.com/our-view/research/industry-analysis/labour-and-skills-shortages-1