Dive Brief:
- Most recruiting firms (77%) responding to a recent survey said employers must raise wages to compete for qualified talent in 2020. Forty-four percent said this need was one of their top three hiring challenges for the next three to five years, up from 30% last year, according to findings released by cloud-computing company Bullhorn Jan. 28.
- In other key results, the recruiting firms reported that roughly half of employers require diverse candidate shortlists. They also said skills shortages are their top recruiting challenge.
- The results make clear that change is needed, from pay to digital transformation, according to Gordon Burnes, Bullhorn's chief marketing officer. But "[t]he focus on the need for employers to increase rates of pay to remain competitive in the labor market stands out as a new emphasis on finding ways to draw talent into a tight labor market," he said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Recruiting firms' call for higher wages speaks to workers' top incentive for changing jobs: more money. At a time when wages remain relatively stagnant in many industries, cash remains king, according to several recent surveys.
It's a phenomenon that has vexed some, because unemployment remains low. "Typically, as the pool of available workers starts to thin, research suggests that employers will boost pay to recruit more," Bankrate said, announcing the results of a December 2019 poll.
While some employers have upped wages in recent months, others have instead relied on one-time bonuses, flexibility and other such benefits to attract workers.
Employers also have noted the skills gap that the respondent recruiting firms cited. In fact, nearly half of executives surveyed for a December 2019 Ceridian report said that while they plan to increase staffing — due largely to technological demands — they expect to face acute skills shortages in their recruiting efforts.
