2021 trends in business and hiring
At the end of 2021, our Founder Viktoriia Prydatko is sharing her thoughts about trends in hiring and business. A bit about kindness, sincerity, and ethics, our work in VP Team, and candidates' preferences. A bit about our successes last year and plans for the future. A bit about what business is now and how it should be in 2022.
Trends and changes in business.
1. Kindness. This may seem strange because kindness is the least valued quality in the business environment. But I see how the situation changes, and candidates choose companies that help others. Companies that are kind to their employees. Not the "family atmosphere," but a really kind attitude towards people. It can be seen and felt immediately.
2. Sincerity. It cannot be imitated. For me, this is the most significant value, unfortunately rare. However, working with sincere people is a pleasure that makes you feel more effectively, joyfully, and energetically.
3. Trust. I'm not a fan of control; it's important for me to work with people whom I can trust, who are responsible and ethical themselves. Hire such people - and you do not need micromanagement and overcontrolling. The culture of trust, absence of fear to make a mistake, to try, to grow - this is the corporate culture of a healthy person.
4. Ethics. A very rare quality. When people act ethically simply because they cannot do otherwise, and not because it is profitable for them. It is very scary how many unethical people become socially successful and preach this behavior en masse.
5. Freedom of schedule, tasks, and responsibility. People are now choosing not just a company. They choose people with whom it will be interesting and developmental to communicate. There are many vacancies worldwide; in the US and Europe, there is a huge battle for talented people. Therefore, the attitude towards people in the style of "hey, quickly apply for our vacancy" has never worked. Only respectful and long-term communication with the candidate will be successful.
6. Even big companies are becoming more human. Of course, there are companies where people don't care, and only money is valuable. But people make money, so more humanе companies will be more profitable. Kindness does not mean a lack of responsibility for the tasks performed.
7. Automated recruiting platforms are useless if your recruiters / HRs do not build relationships with candidates. You can find a person, he may even come to your interview, but if your attitude towards him is formal, it is useless. It's as ridiculous as bragging about the number of candidates in your database. It is not the number of people in the database that is important, but the quantity and quality of people you have built relationships with.
8. HR's ability to sell a vacancy to a candidate. Conducting interviews in affiliate communication and not "prove to me why we should hire you" is ridiculous in today's market, but for some reason, a lot of HRs still work like that. We sign a contract when we talk not only with the С Level but also with the HR. It was a bitter experience when the C Level company was great, and the HR was not. We refused to work with them because we did not want candidates to work with such a person.
9. Importance and lengthy application process. I am highly amused by companies that come to Ukraine for hiring with an attitude towards a third-world country and the expectation that everyone will dream of working with them. We somehow had negotiations with such a company, and it was hard for me not to laugh out loud when I listened to HR saying nonsense about corporate culture and 7 stages of interviews. And that candidates MUST be happy to be interviewed by such a company. Of course, we refused to work with them. In general, the arrogance of companies is a topic for a separate discussion. I say to such guys that people make money in their business, and if they treat them arrogantly, they have no profit.
10. The number of narrow-minded (frankly stupid) recruiters is also a pain. I don't know who hires these people who can't tell about the project or the company; they don't understand the market, they don't know anything about IT at all. A recruiter is the face of the company. This person should be intelligent, engaging, competent, and delicate in communication.
11. Marking the market as overheated. Something can overheat only in comparison to something else. The market is always regulated by supply and demand. Demand is higher than supply, and therefore, salaries are growing, everything is logical.
12. The most in-demand are Frontends with React / Vue, Java developers, Python Developers, DevOps, AI / ML engineers.
13. Those who have optimized the number of stages of interviews to the effective minimum hires faster and better. In most companies, few people think about the effectiveness of the stages; it often happened so historically. But in modern realities, you need to adapt to the market as much as possible to be competitive.
14. There is a lot of demand for recruiting. The working load is 5+ vacancies per recruiter. In October, for example, we had 17 accepted offers. We work with senior and C level in cool product companies. We work with service companies if the attitude towards people is good, the company is sincere, and we like cooperation.
15. So far, the prognosis for the demand for candidates has not changed. Salaries are growing not monthly but weekly. As long as there is such demand, the situation will persist. You need to understand that not 100% of the market considers offers from employers. Approximately 20% are ready to look at your proposal, but that doesn't mean they will accept it. The winners are those who describe vacancies in a lively and understandable language, the interview quickly and effectively, promptly make a decision, and honestly voice their expectations, opportunities, and company restrictions.