Talent trends in 2022: Where we are so far

At the beginning of 2022, we highlighted four major talent trends we were expecting this year. As we cruise into the middle of summer, we wanted to revisit those predictions and see what’s materialized and what hasn’t.

Talent acquisition. Finding qualified talent continues to be a top priority for most, if not all, organizations. While recruiting efforts are not as pressing as they were in 2021, we’re still seeing an above-average demand for new hires. Our clients tell us they can’t hire fast enough and that they’re on pace to make significantly more hires this year than last. This is also proven by the number of talent acquisition leadership hires made. Charles Aris has placed more people in this job title throughout 2022 than any year prior in our firm’s 53-year history, and this demand doesn’t show signs of slowing.

Employee retention. We heard a lot about the Great Resignation over the past year or two. While employee retention is still a priority for many organizations, this does seem to have normalized to an extent. In contrast to last year, retention isn’t a leading concern in most of the client conversations we’re having. This is partially due to organizations being better equipped to manage attrition, but we’ve also seen this fluctuate quite a bit depending on the industry. For example, front line / hourly service-type businesses are still experiencing high attrition, but that was the case prior to the Great Resignation as well. So far in 2022, retention concerns have been on the downtrend overall.

Workplace flexibility. Workplace flexibility continues to be at the forefront of conversations we’re having with clients and candidates across the board. In industries where employees can sufficiently perform their job responsibilities remotely, there is an ongoing move to increase flexible working standards. While many organizations have figured out their “future of work” setup, some organizations are still trying to navigate this crucial trend. We’ve also worked with multiple client organizations this year that are predominantly in-office but have had to make exceptions to hire the right person. We suspect this trend will continue well into the future.

Diversity, equity and inclusion. As we anticipated, DEI continues to be a top priority for successful organizations. This does seem to have normalized to some extent, in such that many organizations have made great strides to develop and implement DEI strategies and programs, often led by new DEI leaders hired the past two years. That said, the work here is far from over, and we continue to discuss this with clients as they think about bringing new leaders into their organizations.

Bonus trend! There is another significant trend we’ve noticed this year that we wanted to highlight – increased compensation. We’ve seen compensation expectations increase throughout the year and are having tough conversations with hiring authorities on a weekly, if not daily, basis explaining that to attract the level of candidate they desire, they will have to increase their budget. Candidates continue to drive much of the movement here, likely due to the plethora of career opportunities they currently have available to them.