2014, despite a difficult November, was a record breaking year for the recruitment sector and, even with some months to go, 2015 is on track to break all records to date.

KPMG said recruitment consultants signalled a further increase in permanent staff appointments during December 2014, the rate of expansion spiked having picked up from November 2014’s 18-month low. The start of 2015 followed suit with a further spike in short-term staff appointments, representing the strongest rise in temporary billings for three months. Both permanent and temporary appointments have continued to rise throughout 2015, despite the government’s announcement that unemployment rose last month. And the expectation and mood amongst experts is, for further buoyancy, ensuring 2015 will follow 2014 as a record breaking year for recruitment – being some 6.3% higher than the previous record – and figures surge beyond pre-recession rates.

But the big question is: with new minimum wage legislation, emerging technologies and an increasing skills gap, what will 2016 bring?

The UK recruitment sector is currently worth in excess of £28.7 billion annually, with 91% of that in the temporary and contract workers sector, according to Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). The REC found that 98% of employers intend to maintain or increase their use of temps in the next quarter, as overall demand for staff continues to rise, while eight in ten employers (79%) cited the need to gain short-term access to key strategic skills. However the CBI found that 23% of employers are not confident of filling their more highly skilled roles and are having to look at new innovative ways of bridging this skills gap.

This sustained surge from 2014 through 2015 is having a huge knock-on effect with direct employers, who now clearly recognise the need to be more strategic with their workforce planning- especially when it comes to finding skilled workers that will increase competitive edge. They seek a specific balance of contingent, permanent, part and full-time employees, harnessing necessary skills and as much productivity as possible. Unfortunately however, some of that productivity can be lost in the logistics of finding and deploying staff – and reduced productivity costs money. So in 2016 they will be actively seeking ways to achieve these aims and maintain critical business continuation.

Our research over the last 2-3 years shows, that there currently is a UK wide army of permanent in-house human resources workers spending tens of millions of man hours on logistical management for further battalions of shift, temporary and contract workers. This is across all industry sectors; from retail to health care, logistics to catering, call centres to manufacturing and beyond. Its important work and has to be done. I question however, if it needs to be done by this army of humans when there are technological solutions out there that will deal with all of these logistical issues.

I believe we have identified four key areas on the horizon that herald major changes in recruitment, which have emerged from three years of intense insight gathering, and that will impact on recruitment for 2016: 

1) Rising Wages Bills

As the wages bill rises savvy employers will look to cut that bill without cutting the staff at the coal face and therefore output. These rising costs will drive the need for time and cost saving technology that will reduce man hours, especially in the time-consuming recruitment processes that will help keep the wages bill manageable.

2) Proactive Direct Recruitment

Employers will start to proactively recruit via content and community-enabled career-portals that will build relationships with candidates. By creating ‘brand devotees’ employers can interact and even select the highest quality potential workers for their business, stealing a march (and the best skills) for themselves before jobs even become vacant.

3) Mobile recruitment

Employers must reach out to mobile jobseekers, who are increasingly using smart phones and continual connectivity to search for work- whenever, wherever. A Mobile Web Watch report by Accenture found, that 85% of people surveyed, access the Web at least once a day via mobile; while Ofcom announced a ‘landmark moment’ just last month,  saying the UK public now prefers to use  mobiles to surf the web rather than their laptops. It follows HR departments that use mobile engagement increase their chances of filling staff gaps- especially last minute ones- and will gain ‘followers’ and ‘brand devotees’ by providing their temporary staff greater freedom to respond “on the go” and to pick and choose hours and placements

4) Social, Social, Social!

People are spending an average of 2 hours per day on their mobiles, much of that on social media platforms. This is the new, proactive, cheap, real-time recruitment arena. Get social and you get all of the above! 

By-line biog – Greg Wixted, Head of Innovation at tabs®, a new, game-changing, end to end digital business solution for workforce management