Our visit to the In-House Recruitment Conference in Manchester shed light on the emerging trends set to shape our industry’s future, from managing Gen Z in the workforce and creating actionable hiring data to the pervasive impact of AI, for better or for worse.
Gen Z is ambitious and value career development, alongside the financial benefits that come with it. Throughout the conference, there were insightful discussions recognizing trends around reducing tenures. With Gen Z's tendency to hold roles for an average of one to two years, companies can no longer anticipate employees staying put without clear financial/development incentive structures. The consensus is out on this one - If you don’t give it to them, they’ll find it elsewhere!
The emerging workforce is actively seeking deeper meaning and purpose within their roles, with meaningful work becoming a greater deciding factor in their job hunt. Despite some perception amongst some that Gen Z prioritize meaningful work on par with a decent salary, which almost certainly isn’t the case - it certainly can be the tie breaker between job A and job B.
Work-life balance remains a key priority for the emerging workforce, especially as they've observed their parents and relatives enduring lengthy commutes and long working hours. Consequently, flexibility and the ability to work remotely have become essential considerations when approaching the job market.
Many recruitment leaders mentioned a significant increase in applications, which they attributed to the ease of hyper-personalizing CVs to match job adverts. It seemed like a promising development at first. However, one speaker brought up a crucial concern. They highlighted how some individuals might not grasp the intricacies of AI and could manipulate their CVs to align with job ads, even if they lacked the necessary experience. This raised important ethical questions about the use of technology in recruitment, prompting me to reflect on its implications.
Within Talent Acquisition, the adoption of AI tools has surged, aiming to augment daily workflows within the TA function. I saw some great use cases ranging from crafting adverts to social media creation. But between thoughts of how AI may help or hinder the TA function - there seems a lack of discord around the ways AI can empower the candidate experience and build transparency between candidates and potential employers, removing the information asymmetry that currently exists in recruitment.
AI's influence on recruitment processes is at the forefront of industry discussions, reflecting both excitement and concern. The development in this space is ongoing, and my takeaway is that the recruitment industry will be significantly empowered by the new AI tools on the horizon. The hattl team and I left the conference feeling emboldened, optimistic about addressing the challenges we aim to solve for the industry.
We’re hard at work behind the scenes preparing for our product launch, in the meantime, we invite you to explore our recent B2C launch to get a sneak peek of what we're cooking up. Stay updated on our latest developments and be among the first to experience true transparency in recruitment.
