HR Services – Trends to Watch
May 05, 2016 | Professional Services
Skill shortages are slowly but steadily moving toward alarming proportions across the globe!
One in four hiring managers are planning for openings related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) this year. This gap in skill sets is anticipated to drive revenue from recruitment agency work up by 5 percent in 2016.
How are recruiters facing this issue? With difficulty. Talent shortage surveys conducted by the Manpower Group indicates that recruiters are having a tough time sourcing specific talent groups such as skilled trade workers and engineers. About 75 percent of HR managers admit that a talent scarcity is having a negative impact on their business. Globally, almost 38 percent of employers are facing difficulty filling open positions, with the numbers being as high as 32 percent in the United States and an astonishing 83 percent in Japan.
A lack of qualified applicants and mismatches in technical competencies rank as the top reasons for the talent gap and is compelling HR teams to improve people practices, improvise work models and identify alternate sources of talent.
HR professionals are turning to new sources for talent. Online labor exchanges, such as Upwork (formerly Elance) and Freelancer, are positioned to give organizations the ability to tap into highly skilled lower-cost resources, virtually on-demand. Upwork boasts 8 million freelancers and 2.5 million customers in its portfolio. Almost 33 percent of organizations have plans to source talent via online exchanges in comparison to 37 percent who are planning to engage with freelancers and contractors.
An emerging concept, “enterprise-workforce-as-a-service (eWaaS), allows the “dialing up” of talent when needed. Innovative sources of quality hire such as Elevate Direct and People Per Hour enable recruiters to communicate directly with prospective hires. By using social media platforms, recruiters reported a decrease in time to hire (33 percent), increase in quality of candidates (49 percent) and rise in number of candidates (43 percent).
It is estimated that close to half of the global workforce will consist of millennials by 2020, with employee engagement expected to remain pivotal. Millennials also will trigger the expected continued growth in the contingent workforce over the next five years.
Numerous other factors, including the economic downturn, requirements for specialized skill sets and demand for a flexible workforce also are anticipated to boost the temp labor market this year. Demographic shifts will emerge as a concern for many companies, with more than 50 percent of countries encountering stagnant or shrinking labor forces.
