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New data has revealed that more than two in five (45%) employers consider talent recruitment the most significant HR challenge they will face in 2022 and beyond.
Natural HR conducted the study, which polled 100 HR leaders from across the UK to understand what the HR landscape looks like to them. Surprisingly, the issue that tops HR's priority list also ranks first on their list of biggest problems in 2022. The most onerous assignment for the coming year, according to 45% of respondents, is talent recruitment. Moreover, 66% of our respondents said they had been impacted by recent staff shortages in the UK, with 56% saying turnover has increased and 42% saying they have had to use an agency or temporary workers to fill gaps. A further 33% said they had offered more training to upskill existing staff to support short-staffed departments.
In the latter stages of 2021, the quarterly CIPD Labour Market Outlook study found that almost half (47%) of employers reported that they had difficulty filling vacancies. What's more, 1 in 4 predicted that the number of vacancies that would be difficult to fill would increase in Q1 of 2022. So while industries such as hospitality, tourism, arts, construction, healthcare, and manufacturing continue to battle coronavirus cases and restrictions, the lasting impact of Brexit is still being sorely felt by many.
As such, it isn’t surprising that the recruitment and retention of employees is also high on the priority list for over two-thirds (67%) of HR managers. HR in 2022 and beyond under the UK’s new immigration rules, EU nationals no longer have preferential treatment; instead, a new points-based system is designed to attract skilled workers. HR and talent teams continue to compete fiercely for the best talent and, as a result, they must develop new strategies to attract and keep that talent for the long-term.
