IT Hiring Trends For 2022

As workplaces have transitioned from one lockdown period to another, IT has proven to be the spine of industries on which businesses have continued to function. Therefore, hiring in the IT sector itself needs to be carefully done to ensure that businesses run without the obvious hiccups even during uncertain times. The IT sector remains the biggest recruiter, attracting the most competent talents from across the country, adding 138,000 people in 2021, and vigorous IT hiring programs being undertaken in 2022 as well, with the top 5 Indian IT corporations planning to add around another 100,000 workers. Since the market is humongous for the IT contenders, human resource departments must prepare this year for a non-stop war for skill.

The conventional workplace has changed dramatically in the pandemic and we have witnessed newer modules/hybrid work styles in different places. New abilities and aptitudes are in demand, and skill diversity and inclusion have become the new norm. MNCs have found that diversity examined through remote work translates into efficiency and profits. Thus, most organizations want to expand their diversity, as it has been proven to be 70% more advantageous. Most companies have realized that it is necessary and even cheaper to train and upskill the existing employees than to hire fresh people. 

Important IT hiring trends to look out for this year are:

Use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) 

NLP already is gaining momentum, and more tech-savvy recruiters carry out their hiring process by employing this. Rather than having employees review large quantities of candidate data, NLP can be employed as it facilitates easy, automated resume selection and processing leading to lowering the hiring time and doing away with hours of manual work. It helps a recruiter to relinquish ease of document examination. 

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is gradually carving its place in the hiring procedure. It does so by Machine Learning (ML), to shortlist candidates and automate jobs during recruitment. AI ensures that the best talents get recruited for the positions. It aids in automating manual tasks, promotes cost-effectiveness and diverse recruiting, and most importantly, reduces the time to hire candidates.

Rise of gig workers and freelancers

Remote working became a necessity due to the pandemic. Many companies then, were unprepared because they lacked the infrastructure to regulate dispersed workforce. This year, freelancing and provisional or temporary type of staffing will grow, as the future lies in remote workplaces. IT companies will be hiring more freelancers and gig workers and will be assigning more remote positions. These days, it is the most in-demand condition for flexibility in any job. Enterprises are also modifying their structures to persuade and retain the top performers through this work mode. Getting used to collaborative work, regardless of location is a prime requirement for any job in 2022.

Candidate selection based on soft skills

Technical skills, grades, and work experience are crucial for the IT sector, but many firms look for candidates with soft skills. 

Soft skills are indispensable for forging mutually profitable collaborations, building teams, and energizing the workforce, especially, in the context of the pandemic, personal losses, health hazards, and a remote working model. Communication, problem-solving ability, and critical thinking are a few of the most desirable qualities.

Video interviews 

The job market today is brutally competitive. Companies should, therefore, boost their 'employer branding' and render an exceptional experience to the candidate. 

A video interview is key to this. A recruiter can make the hiring process less rigid and more adaptable to decrease the time taken to fill a position and lower recruiting costs by using video interviews. The advantages of video interviews are reduction in costs, lesser scheduling issues, standardized candidate screening, and lowering the time taken to hire, thereby increasing efficiency.

Use of virtual reality and augmented reality (VR & AR)

Virtual reality implies computerized simulation in which an individual can interact with a fictitious 3D environment with the help of special tools and detectors.

VR could make recruitment exciting, by not basing it solely on conventional personal interviews. The need for VR and AR is increasing as businesses are searching for candidates with varied AR skills. Some reasons how AR/VR could help recruiters are - allowing candidates to see themselves in the position before they take it up, attracting the best skills, and helping in candidate engagement in the training process.

Use of programmatic job advertisements

Using data analytics and data mining, a branch of ML and AI itself, to purchase, spot, and optimize job advertisements is going to grow. This already is in use but it will develop further. Some of the advantages of the programmatic job posting are that it broadens reach, helps in getting valuable information, helps select the best candidates, improves the value of the brand, and increases the satisfaction of the candidate.

The necessity to make use of technology to hire professionals in India has gone up remarkably, and we are heading towards the ‘old’ new normal once more. Lessons learned from previous pandemic years, call for continuation and revamping of a remote and hybrid type of work culture, but also seek the recruiters to be more mindful of employees’ situations keeping mental well-being in consideration.

The article has been written by Abhishek Agarwal, President, Judge India - Global Delivery, The Judge Group