Top Talent Management Trends for 2022

Talent management should be top of mind for your organization. Ideally, your company’s approach to talent management attracts and retains its talent.

Your mission should be building and maintaining your employees to achieve company goals. It’s also in your best interest to protect your employees from:

• Inflation
• Climate change
• COVID
• Health uncertainties

Keeping up with the latest trends will pay off for years to come. Here are 6 trends that will continue to be popular in 2022 and beyond.

AI is here to stay

AI’s ability to automate tasks is causing many businesses to reevaluate their talent management strategies. Automation can help your organization reduce costs and improve efficiency, but it also threatens jobs.

AI can assist in your talent management by automating simple tasks and freeing up employees’ time.

The good news is that AI can help your business find and retain the best talent. By automating simple tasks and freeing up employees’ time, AI can assist in your talent management by allowing your employees to focus on more complex and valuable work.

To some extent, you can automate most talent management tasks like:

• Scheduling
• Tracking time
• HR
• Payroll
• Benefits

This bodes well for both your employees and you. AI lets your workers use their talents more meaningfully and helps you get the most out of your workforce.

Utilize hybrid work environments

In the early 20th century, Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing cars with the assembly line. More than a hundred years later, a new technique has emerged in businesses worldwide: the hybrid organization.

By combining traditional and agile methods to manage your talent, your business can maximize efficiency while maintaining the creativity and innovation that comes with agility. Meanwhile, as technology continues to evolve, it’s apparent that companies will have to adapt quickly.

Since 2020, hybrid work has become integral to the modern working world. Now, companies can create a permanent model for hybrid employees and make it part of the corporate culture.

Use data to make better decisions

Data analytics can help you stay ahead of the competition. It can help you identify talent management trends and accurately predict what skills will be in demand this year and the next. Additionally, data analytics can:

• Identify opportunities and threats
• Optimize operations
• Improve customer service
• Give you information so you can make data-driven decisions that’ll improve your bottom line

As an SMB owner, you aren’t simply competing with large businesses in their market segment but inheriting their former problems too. For example, while large companies have solved most of their talent management problems with data analytics, you might still be looking for cost-efficient ways to collect the necessary data.

Can data analytics software really help you?

Yes, you’ll need to adopt software here. But before you do that, first, you’ll want to know if data analytics in talent management can make a significant difference. The simple answer is yes. One study found a 40% disparity between the productivity of organizations that’d invested in talent-focused analytics and those that didn’t.

Using data, you can find out where you’re lacking talent-wise and who you need to hire. Once you discover your talent needs, you can effectively identify and recruit potential employees.

The rise of social media recruiting

As social media recruiting becomes more popular, the talent management industry will grow with it. If you want to stay competitive, consider implementing social media recruiting strategies.

LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are all popular platforms for finding candidates.

One significant advantage is that social media recruiting allows you to reach many potential candidates quickly and easily.

You can also get updates about:

• How candidates interact with their social media profiles
• What jobs they are looking for
• How far they wish to rise professionally

Know that this research process goes both ways, though. Job seekers also use social media to research companies and learn about job opportunities.

Mobile optimization in recruiting talent

It’s more important than ever for companies that their recruitment materials and processes are easy to use on mobile devices. Create a responsive job site that adjusts its layout based on the device used. Another option is developing an app specifically for job seekers. This can include a:

• Resume builder
• Job board
• Career advice section

Nobody wants to scroll through walls of text on their phone. Keep your job postings short and sweet. Regarding necessary skills, experience, and background, use bullet points. You should also inspire applicants. You want them to want to work with your organization. We’ve all seen applications that don’t inspire confidence.

Encourage candidates to apply and tell them you’re excited about their application. If they don’t fit, don’t leave them hanging. Get back to an applicant quickly and kindly if they don’t match your mission and values. Your job postings should always be welcoming and motivating.

Make it easy to apply

The final step is the application itself. Again, if it’s frustrating to use, long, or tedious, don’t expect applicants to finish the process. How often must an application need work experience when applicants have already uploaded their resume? Don’t ask them to upload a resume and then require them to fill out the same information manually.

Better yet, ask candidates to share their resumes through Google Docs or Dropbox for a less stressful application process. Then, with the click of a mouse, they can take the document on their phone and send it to you for review. Again, the faster they apply, the quicker you can remove them from consideration or schedule an interview.

Freelancers and contractors: using outside help to fill gaps

Freelancer and contractor numbers are rising as companies look to fill the gaps in their talent management strategies. This shift comes as companies face mounting pressure to compete for top talent. By using freelancers and contractors, businesses can access a larger pool of skilled professionals without committing to full-time employees.

Encourage collaboration and communication to ensure contractors and freelancers work toward your business goals.

While there are benefits to using outside help, there are also challenges. Managing a dispersed workforce can be difficult, and ensuring everyone is working towards the same goals can be challenging.

Your business should encourage collaboration and communication to ensure contractors and freelancers work towards the same goals. Alignment can be achieved through regular (not too frequent):

• Meetings
• Status reports
• Feedback loops

Try to instill and maintain a culture of accountability for all contingent workers.

Employee training and development

There are several ways to develop employees for those who are already in-house, and your business probably has its own approach. The most common method is training, which can help employees learn new skills or improve their current ones.

Another way to develop employees is through mentoring, which can help them understand the company culture and develop their professional skills. You can also use performance reviews to identify areas an employee could use development assistance.

Finally, regularly assess your training and development needs to equip your employees with the necessary skills to succeed.

Your future is in your hands

Changes like these will continue as the world becomes increasingly globalized, technology-driven, and competitive. As a result, talent acquisition and retention will steadily become top priority areas.

Today we’ve chosen 6 possible trends in talent management for 2022, and more are sure to come. Consider incorporating some of these trends into your hiring practices sooner than later if they seem like a good fit.