Recruiters are always on the hunt for the perfect candidates to fill positions–job seekers who have all the right skills, education, experience, and even salary expectations. Surveys from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) highlighted two main issues that HR professionals faced in 2016: candidates’ skills shortages and employers’ non-competitive pay.
Here are just a few of the study’s observations about HR professionals’ 2016 hiring challenges:
- According to SHRM’s Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) report, recruiting was easier in the manufacturing and service sectors during several months compared with the previous year. While this might initially suggest that employers raised compensation offers, during nine months of the year, fewer organizations raised new-hire wages than in 2015.
- In SHRM’s October survey on entry-level applicants, employers ranked dependability and reliability (97 percent), respect (84 percent), and integrity (87 percent), as qualities that were important in entry-level job candidates.
- SHRM’s HR Jobs Pulse Survey for the summer of 2016 revealed that although fewer than three out of 10 organizations hired for an HR position, a majority of HR professionals had some level of confidence that they could find a new position.
- The same study also showed that 88 percent of U.S. employees indicated overall satisfaction with their current job, which is the highest level of satisfaction in the last decade. Job satisfaction contributors included respectful treatment of all employees at all levels, compensation/pay, benefits, and job security.
Want to know what challenges to look for in 2017? Stay tuned! Keep up with our blog by subscribing to our monthly newsletter.