Recruitment 2024 – what to expect

January 4th, 2024 | Industry News

Quotas

When James Cleverly announced new migration measures, the impact on recruitment was immediately evident: 300,000 migrants will not be able to travel to the UK in 2024, substantially impacting the Health and Care sectors.  In addition the earning threshold for overseas workers will leap next spring from £26,200 to £38,700, around a 50% increase. The consequences are more difficult to predict. Online recruitment software will need to adjust its parameters to reflect the changes in threshold earnings, while applicant tracking system UK based, will have to master the as-yet-unclear changes to the Graduate visa programme which are being overseen by the Migration Advisory Committee and may well have a powerful impact on STEM and Finance recruitment.

One thing we can be sure of – strategic planning around key staff will become more important than ever. Candidate-facing areas of recruitment from job advertisement wording and design, through to overall recruitment website design will influence which human resources departments and agencies capture the best candidates from a significantly smaller pool.

Scams

A recent warning, issued by the World Employment Confederation, highlights the rise in employment scams; usually as a request for a payment designed to cover the cost of a permit, visa or obtaining evidence of qualifications. When the victim pays up, the recruiter – who has usually pretended to be working for a reputable recruitment agency – disappears. The scam, called Webwyrm, consists of more than 6,000 fake websites impersonating popular agencies and brands, and hundreds of WhatsApp and Telegram handles have been used to lure victims into the trap.

Recruitment management software can help by demonstrating transparency, and by making clear an agency’s policies. Any website for recruitment can be copied, so maintaining good content and having simple ways for people to contact your agency rapidly and check they are dealing with a legitimate organisation can insulate a recruiter from reputational risk.

Optimisation

Implementing and integrating technology will be a critical step in creating high returns. This requires the ability to link technology to a clear strategy and then to train a team that can act on new technology to gain its benefits and leverage technology to achieve success.

One area where this is most evident is savings – using automated processes and web based recruitment software can reduce overheads without impacting performance. As market conditions fluctuate, optimising any agency or team to work in new circumstances requires technological flexibility alongside clear operating strategies.