What will be the biggest recruitment challenges for 2020? Undoubtedly, there are many - it seems that every year it’s getting harder and harder to attract good candidates.

I would concentrate on two key challenges though:

1. Lack of qualified candidates combined with low unemployment - at the end of 2019, an unemployment rate dropped to historically low levels (according to Eurostat - 3,2% in Poland and 3,5% in Hungary). As a consequence employers may have even fewer qualified candidates for a given role than in the past years and may need a longer time to fill their vacancies. Employers will have to become more transparent, proactive and expand their recruitment efforts through focusing on passive candidates and being open to meet candidates’ needs eg. by offering remote work options.

2. Inclusion and belonging - Nowadays, people want a purposeful job at a great company. They need to have a feeling of inclusion and belonging. What counts for job seekers today are the company’s culture, values and, in general, a good office vibe. Companies that will encourage empowerment and promote a sense of belonging will be the most-wanted employers in 2020. What would be your focus when designing a long-term recruitment strategy for a company?

I would concentrate on two aspects:

1. Agile workforce planning - to be sure you have the right people at the right time to meet your business goals, your workforce planning should be agile and adjusted to a

dynamically changing business environment. Hiring plans need to be refreshed in short cycles so they can be more accurate.

2. Transparency and clear communication - crafting a strong employer brand, showing the company’s culture and “why” and presenting how joining the company can impact job seeker’s career in the future should be the focus of every organization that wants to attract the best candidates. Transparent communication is a key term here. Candidates simply want and deserve to know what they will be doing in the future role, how much they can earn, what is the project about, etc. All this information should be presented in the job ad to guarantee transparency at this very first level to save candidates’ and recruiters’ time. Hiring excellence - To what extent has the impact of recruitment processes on organizations changed? It’s getting harder and harder to find the right people so companies are forced to rethink their employer brand, their way of work, etc. Also, they need to focus not only on customer experience but on the candidate’s and employee’s experience as well. People are the most valuable resource the company has so finding and retaining employees should be one of the top priorities. What is the biggest challenge now in the IT recruitment market? There is a constant shortage of qualified employees in the IT sector. It’s the employee market and I don’t think it will change in the nearest future. The Data we collect at No Fluff Jobs confirms the trend. Compared to 2018, the number of offers on our portal is 39% greater, which indicates a growing demand for IT employees. We also observe a more than twofold increase in the number of applicants in 2019 compared to 2018 (131%). What’s more, candidates in the IT sector are characterized by high financial requirements and specific preferences regarding the place and working conditions, which is obviously another challenge for most companies. What would you advise to the Hungarian market for next year? HR people need to promote transparency against all odds. Communicating the wages, for example, is highly advised because transparency is what applicants need and deserve. We need to remember that publishing detailed job ads including all information that might be of interest to the potential employee is not only a good practice but something that the IT market demands. Another advice would be to embrace the niche! Niche provider is always the best solution to a niche need. This applies to all sorts of companies: payroll companies, training companies, all the way to recruitment. A piece of general knowledge can only be a mediocre solution on a market where specialization is more and more present.