Transport and travel – the recruitment industry faces 2020

November 8th, 2019 | Industry News

Transport and driving – the challenges ahead

A recent American study of recruitment in transport shows that the impact of the Internet of Things is substantial, and the problem for recruiters is equally weighty. 82% of those who responded expect their transport workforce to increase in 2020 – and 79% expect that to be a problem. Recruiting software faces the challenge of finding suitable candidates for a relatively low paid but highly demanding job sector and online shopping: from Amazon to grocery ordering, is a major influence on where transportation workers choose to spend their time. 40% of drivers, from PSV to ‘last mile delivery’ have more than one driving job. This means that online recruitment software is often trying to balance portfolio employees with the complex legal demands of different forms of driving. Applicant tracking system, UK based systems have to balance employer need, legal constraints and the individual’s desire to pursue a range of driving jobs that allow them to balance their hours and their routes. In the US, companies are advertising more aggressively and offering better referral incentives to try to obtain the driving staff they need, while in the UK retraining and benefit packages appear to be the major strategy that employers are using to try and find the right employees.

A demanding prospect for HR consultants

A recent report into international recruitment suggests that Human Resource (HR) consulting is about to enter a tempestuous period. New demands such as social media management and investment in digital processes have pushed up the operating expenses (OpEx) for HR professionals and unless their recruitment management software delivers an increased income, this is reducing the margin on which many individuals and businesses operate. According to the report, international recruitment has ‘taken a nosedive’ which increases the demands on the HR professional without offering a commensurate pool of candidates from which to pick. Controlling recruitment is seen as a major cost benefit by many employers who are focusing more on retraining and retention as recruitment seems riskier. As a result, HR consultancies are often finding they get offered only hard to fill roles. Recruitment database software has to respond to changes in the marketplace by making potential candidates more visible through sensitive searching without adding to the time taken to parse candidates to find those who could fill the role adequately. HR consultants can then spend time presenting those candidates attractively, focusing on translatable abilities and good matches in soft-skills areas.