Indeed conducted a study that hasn’t been published yet and surveyed the groups below:
6,837 x Job seekers: people in full or part-time employment or looking for work.
2,481 x Employers: those with senior management responsibility in their organization.
Respondents are broadly demographically representative of their local market.
Here is what we found:
1 - Skill set needs
Employers feel most confident about a candidate when they have a balance of experience, skills and potential. Experience in a similar industry/role and transferable skills are also key. Focusing on a balance of skill, experience and adaptability gives employers confidence in the hiring process. Job seekers would feel most confident in applying for a role if they had experience in a similar industry/role and this is the case in most countries. Having an equal balance of experience, skills and potential and meeting skills requirements are also key. Job seekers gain confidence from having a balance of skill and potential, experience and meetings skills requirements.
At a global level, employers believe soft skills to be the most important when evaluating an applicant but other elements such as workforce and leadership skills are also important. Employers believe soft skills are important because they can have a positive impact on culture, while workforce/leadership skills and industry skills drive business success. Job seekers are aligned with employers in thinking that soft skills are the most important. This is closely followed by industry-specific skills. Job seekers believe that both soft and workforce skills are crucial for communication.
Workforce and leadership skills are seen as the most critical skills gap in organisations by employers. Technical and soft skills are also a big gap.
In almost all countries surveyed, on-the-job training is the way in which employers are most commonly currently addressing the skills gap. In line with employers, job seekers are most likely to be acquiring new skills through on-the-job training.
According to employers, the biggest challenge preventing employees from acquiring new skills is a lack of time and this is the case in almost all countries. Cost and a lack of interest are also factors. Job seekers are aligned with employers in considering time constraints to be the biggest challenge preventing them from acquiring new skills and this is a consistent global story.
Employers think that the responsibility for reskilling/upskilling employees is fairly evenly shared between top management, line managers and employees themselves. Job seekers believe that they and their line managers are responsible for them reskilling/upskilling.
The vast majority of employers surveyed anticipate employees’ skills needing to change in the next 3-5 years. Anticipation is highest in France and lowest in the Netherlands. Job seekers anticipate their skills needing to change in the next 3-5 years (though not to quite the same extent as employers). Anticipation is highest in India and lowest in the Netherlands.
Employers in all countries are most likely to see AI and automation as the primary driver for employee skill sets changing in the next 3-5 years. Job seekers see AI and automation as a key driver for changing skills but also consider an interest in lifelong learning to be an important factor.
2 - Hiring is slow
Employers see a lack of applicants with required skills and the high expectations of candidates as being their organization’s biggest challenge in finding and attracting quality candidates. Job seekers consider the increased competition for roles to be the biggest challenge in their job searches. Other factors such as complicated, unclear application processes and job descriptions not providing enough details are also cited.
At a global level, the average time taken from job posting to offer acceptance is under 8 weeks. Job seekers are aligned with employers and are generally finding that the time taken to find a job from applying to receiving an offer is under 8 weeks. A plurality of employers believe that 2-4 weeks is the maximum amount of time that is accepted for a candidate to wait for a hiring decision before they look elsewhere. Job seekers are aligned with employers in thinking that 2-4 weeks is the maximum amount of time that is accepted for a candidate to wait for a hiring decision before they look elsewhere.
At a global level, the majority of employers surveyed rate their company’s hiring process as being about the same speed as a year ago. A plurality of job seekers believe the speed of the hiring process to be the same as a year ago, but a sizable proportion do not hold a view (likely due to not applying for a job in this time).
In all countries, employers believe that finding qualified candidates matching the job requirements to be the step of the hiring process that takes the longest at their organization.
Employers believe that job seekers should be prepared, have the right skills and be honest about their ability. Reducing stages, providing more job information and being transparent are what job seekers believe employers can do to speed up the hiring process.
A streamlined interview process and pre-assessments are the elements that employers are most likely to have implemented to help improve speed. The process changes implemented by employers that have ‘absolutely’ helped to reduce the timeframe vary by country, with visa processing initiatives the most helpful at a global level.
Employers see the increased workload for existing employees as being the biggest downside at their company when a slow hiring process delays bringing new employees on board.
A slow hiring process has led to job seekers developing a negative view of a company, decreased personal morale, taking a job at a different company and delaying personal decisions.
3 - The role of technology and AI
Organizations are using AI in the hiring process to summarize experience or candidate fit, match candidates to jobs and screen candidates. A fifth are not using any tools. Job seekers are most likely to be using AI to get a job faster by writing a resume, preparing for an interview or writing/editing a cover letter. Two-fifths are not using any tools.
According to employers, AI has been most effective in summarizing experience or candidate fit and automating scheduling and communication. For job seekers, AI has been most effective for writing or editing a cover letter or resume and researching a company.
Employers are most likely to consider AI to be acceptable when preparing for interviews. Job seekers are most likely to consider AI to be acceptably used by employers when writing job descriptions. Just under a fifth do not think that employers should use AI in the hiring process.
Employers’ top hopes for AI systems in helping with hiring candidates include screening, enhancing the candidate experience and reducing bias. Job seekers hope that AI systems can help with role matching, quick feedback and eliminating bias.
Employers are most concerned that AI could lead to good candidates being missed, biases appearing and soft skills not being accounted for. When thinking about AI in the hiring process, job seekers are most concerned about losing the human touch, bias appearing and only hard skills being factored in.
4 – Are people thriving?
Employers are fairly evenly split on which element of their job offer is most attractive to candidates. Work-life balance/flexibility or career growth rank first in all countries. Work-life balance/flexibility and base salary are most important to job seekers when choosing between job offers.
Employers generally think that their company supports helping employees to reach their maximum potential. Endorsement is highest in Australia and India. Job seekers generally place significance on a company’s reputation of helping employees reach their maximum potential. Endorsement is highest in India and Germany.
According to employers, burnout is the most common sign that suggests the wellbeing of their workforce is declining. An increase in remuneration is the initiative that employers believe is the most important in attracting and retaining talent, closely followed by professional growth opportunities and flexible work arrangements.
Increase in pay, professional growth opportunities and flexible work are the wellbeing initiatives that employers would most like to see implemented/improved in their organization. Employee feedback surveys are the main mechanism that employers use to measure the success of their wellbeing initiatives.
Employee feedback surveys are the main mechanism that employers use to measure the success of their wellbeing initiatives. The biggest challenge facing companies in implementing wellbeing practices effectively is budget constraints, closely followed by a lack of interest/engagement from employees.
Most employers believe that a majority of their employees are taking advantage of their wellbeing initiatives. Constructive feedback is the way in which employers are most likely to be addressing employees who are not thriving at work.
What are you seeing??