Hitting the reset button: the changing dynamics of recruitment, retention examined in new report from CompTIA

CompTIA President and CEO, Todd Thibodeaux.

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Employers’ challenges in recruiting, hiring and retaining workers extend well beyond the fallout from the “Great Resignation”, leading many to engage in a thorough rethinking of the institution of work, according to new research from CompTIA, the non-profit association for the IT industry and workforce. 

CompTIA’s annual Workforce and Learning Trends report reveals that 73% of human resources (HR) professionals expect hiring to become even more challenging over the next 12 months, and two-thirds believe persistent hiring constraints may become the new normal.

“Hiring and talent development practices that worked a decade ago are no longer adequate in an era of digital transformation and rapid innovation,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA.

“What is needed is a comprehensive examination of how companies are preparing, recruiting and retaining employees,” Thibodeaux continued. “That includes re-imagining educational models to keep pace with new skills requirements; modernising outdated evaluation and hiring criteria; recruiting from the full pool of available workers; and putting people in positions that make the best use of their skills and talent.”

CompTIA identifies five key trends shaping today’s workforce and learning landscape.

1. Employers and workers negotiate a great resetting of expectations on both sides;
2. Talent pipeline deficiencies highlight the need for human infrastructure investment;
3. More employers drop four-year degree requirement in favour of skills-based hiring;
4. Cracking the durable skills code requires new approaches; and
5. HR strives to balance data-driven and people-driven approaches to talent management.

HR executives expect to devote more attention and resources to reskilling and upskilling current employees. More than six in 10 believe increasing the skills of existing staff will offset the need for outside hiring and enhance the organisation’s retention strategy.

Adoption of skills-based hiring practices continues to trend upwards. Support for eliminating or relaxing four-year degree requirements in hiring increased from 76% in 2021 to 85% this year. Relaxing degree requirements could contribute to a lessening of the practice of “over-speccing” – specifying more skills and credentials than are necessary to fill a particular job. The result is a job description that few, if any, candidates are qualified for. Awareness of over-speccing is growing, though the CompTIA survey finds a surprising 39% of HR professionals are unfamiliar with the concept.

For IT hiring, 76% of respondents say professional certifications are a factor and 47% expect certifications to become even more important as a candidate evaluation tool. Currently, 45% of organisations report using a skills framework to provide structure around recruiting and developing their tech workforces. Another 36% are exploring the idea.

Two-thirds of HR professionals expect to place greater emphasis on durable skills, also referred to as soft skills. They cite several reasons for doing so – developing well-rounded employees with more career growth potential; creating an environment of innovation and collaborative problem-solving; and building a strong, healthy corporate culture are examples.

“These skills hold their value and relevance throughout a career, whatever changes in technology, industry or business models might come along,” said Amy Kardel, senior vice-president, strategic workforce relations at CompTIA.

CompTIA’s Workforce and Learning Trends report is based on a survey of 587 US HR and L&D professionals across a range of industry sectors and company sizes, conducted in January 2022. Qualitative interviews with L&D experts and other sources provided additional content. The full report is available at https://www.comptia.org/content/research/workforce-and-learning-trends-2022.