Employee referrals, counter-offers and downgraded expectations will be top of the UK recruitment trends for 2016, while our international counterparts will be focussing on the quality and speed of hire and their employer branding. That’s according to UK recruiter Expectations! Recruitment Services who predict that UK employers will have to radically change the way they hire talent in 2016, and will also have to invest more in specialist recruitment to ensure they remain fully staffed and able to grow.

According to Expectations! Recruitment Services, UK employers are set to face a unique set of challenges next year, which are frequently at odds with expected international trends. While a survey by LinkedIn posed that internationally, quality and speed of hire and employer branding will be top priority for businesses; in the UK, Expectations! own client studies reveal that current market conditions mean some of these options will simply not be available to UK businesses. Born from a period of post-recession buoyancy and the ensuing skills shortage, UK businesses can expect less choice of candidates in 2016, and can expect to pay more to acquire the candidates they most desire. In fact, while LinkedIn predict that brands internationally will be hungry to employ quickly and will place talent quality above all other measures, UK businesses will regularly be needing to reassess job roles and their ideal candidates, and will often be forced to ‘settle’ for a candidate that meets most, but not all, of the criteria.

Victoria Maddock, Director, Expectations! Recruitment Services says “We work very closely with our clients to monitor and predict trends, helping them to be better equipped to face the future jobs market. Our impartial assessments of a number of UK employment sectors has found that the UK is once again diverging from the international trends, as our very specific and innovative business community creates a unique employment market. The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics demonstrate that employment is at the highest rate since records began in 1971 and this inevitably has a knock-on effect on the ability to employ. As a result, 2016 will most likely see a rise in the amount of and need for specialist recruitment teams and campaigns, of which employer branding will be a part.”

She continues “For many big employers, there will inevitably be some overlap with the international trends and they will of course remain relevant, however in general UK businesses will also need to consider areas where roles can be restructured within existing teams, or altered to fit the best available candidates. While this is perhaps a new way to hire, these predictions aren’t all bad for businesses; successful recruiting is likely to create a leaner, meaner workforce, with improved efficiencies and the opportunity for new roles that support expansion and diversification, and when it comes to the employees themselves, they will be rewarded with employers whose focus is on being a good employer and providing desirable employer benefits.”