GRID 2022: Staffing Industry Trends Overview
2021: A triumphant rebound led by digital transformation
Heading into 2021, staffing firms were cautiously optimistic on the heels of a challenging 2020. Winning clients was a top priority and agencies seriously stepped up their investment in digital transformation.
A lot has changed in a year. Agencies enjoyed a strong performance in 2021, but an increased talent shortage has re-emphasized the need for candidate acquisition. Clients are not a top-three priority for the first time in a decade. The one thing that hasn’t changed? Agencies have once again taken a strong step towards embracing digital transformation: for the second straight year, adoption has nearly doubled.
What does 2022 look like for recruitment professionals?
Candidates dominate the agenda for 2022. The talent shortage is the top challenge after a hiatus last year. Candidate acquisition is the top priority, and candidate sourcing is the top recruiting obstacle. How are firms solving their candidate acquisition challenges? Digital transformation. After a breakthrough year in 2021, it is again at the top of minds for 2022 as the second overall priority for 2022. The investment appears to be paying off: firms who have already embraced digital transformation reported a stronger 2021 and higher expectations for 2022.
How Will Your Operations Budget Change in 2022?
How Will Your Technology investments Change in 2022?
Top Priorities
The top priorities for agencies in 2022 reflect a departure from years-long trends. For the first time in a decade, clients (either winning new business or managing client relationships) are not a top-three priority for agencies. Talent acquisition is again the top priority for agencies, reflecting the talent-first environment of the industry. Additionally, the findings reveal a seismic shift in the number of respondents who selected digital transformation as a top priority.
What are your top priorities for 2022? (Global Respondents)
Top Challenges
After a decade of agencies citing the talent shortage as their number-one challenge, Covid-19 overtook it as the number one obstacle in 2021 for all regions. They remain the top two challenges but have swapped positions.
What are your top challenges for 2022? (Global Respondents)
Talent Engagement
Candidate engagement has always been a top priority for firms, but it has become a singular focus in 2022. How are firms handling the shortage and what approaches are they taking?
Top Recruitment Lifecycle Challenges
Once again sourcing tops the list of recruitment lifecycle challenges. With the exception of requirement gathering, many of the top challenges can be streamlined through automation, and indeed many firms have reported newly automating these processes in 2021.
Client Relationships
The landscape for winning and maintaining clients has changed radically in the last two years. Amidst the peak of the pandemic in 2020, respondents cited winning business as their top overall priority. Less than two years later and client relationships don’t rate as a top priority, and the client-related challenges that agencies face have shifted dramatically. Still, building relationships with clients remains an important skill, and most respondents believe they do this well.
Is your agency above-average when it comes to handling client relationships?
The vast majority of respondents believe that they are better than their competition at managing client relationships. Past reports have found that the majority of recruitment businesses don’t use NPS or otherwise quantify client satisfaction, so there may a discrepancy between perception and reality in some cases.
What is your biggest obstacle to winning new clients?
The top client challenge of 2020, hiring freezes, is significantly less of a problem for businesses heading into 2022, but competition remains as fierce as ever.
What Are Firms Automating? (Global Respondents)
Given the importance of talent acquisition, agencies that automate sourcing may find themselves at a strategic advantage in 2022.