The newly released 2023 Global Benchmark Report* is based on the survey responses of more than 2,000 human resource, risk, and talent acquisition professionals worldwide.
In this the 16th annual global survey, the report analyses responses from these professionals to identify global background screening, talent acquisition, and workforce management trends. It provides a regional side-by-side comparison of the global survey responses, benchmarks findings against the past years’ survey data and includes global and regional overviews from HireRight’s business leaders in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), North America, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and India, and Latin America.
However, for the sake of this overview, we are looking at some highlights from the survey findings that relate specifically to the UK. Somewhat surprisingly, and reassuringly, 68% of UK businesses reported organisational growth in 2022, more than half (51%) are expecting to grow in 2023, and just 9% anticipate a decline in workforce numbers this year.
It’s great to see widespread business optimism in the UK, with around half of organisations believing the size of their workforces will grow this year – contrary to what many recent news stories have reported.
To support talent management, and drive the retention needed to help underpin this projected workforce growth, introducing new wellbeing initiatives (45%) and offering additional training and professional development opportunities (39%) were the most widely used retention tactics by UK employers in 2022, and are expected to remain so throughout 2023.
DE&I the most common major talent acquisition challenge facing UK employers
It might, however, come as no surprise that, according to 54% of UK respondents, increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in the workforce will be among their most significant talent acquisition challenges in 2023. This issue is expected to grow, with two-thirds (66%) anticipating it will be one of their major talent challenges between 2024 and 2026 – with finding qualified job candidates (63%) and meeting candidates’ benefits/perks expectations (49%) rounding out the top three.
It seems that there is still a way to go for many organisations – within the UK, EMEA, and globally – to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. I think we will soon see more employers taking active steps to address representation in their employer brands and mitigating bias in their recruitment processes, as businesses need to do more to attract the best talent from all backgrounds.
To help meet this demand, 49% of UK survey respondents cited the creation of an employer brand that attracts talent as a key talent acquisition challenge for 2023.
Background screening in action
For UK businesses that utilise pre-employment background screening as part of their hiring due diligence, the most common checks conducted by our UK survey respondents are employment verifications (94%), criminal record checks (87%), and education credential checks (68%).
Many UK employers continue to attribute several benefits to their pre-employment screening programmes. More than three-quarters (77%) cited ‘improved regulatory compliance’ as a key benefit, and three-fifths (62%) said they experience ‘more consistent safety and security’ as a result of background screening.
Additionally, almost three-quarters (73%) of UK respondents said that employment verifications – confirming a candidate’s work history – is among the areas they most often found discrepancies in their candidates’ information during background checks, followed by education credentials (36%) and credit checks (23%).
*Report from HireRight
download the 2023 Global Benchmark Report www.hireright.com/benchmark2023.
