The year ahead is set for continued economic recovery and growth, which means organisations have to navigate a rapidly changing, increasingly competitive business environment while retaining their focus on achieving commercial goals. There are a significant number of challenges to address, from fast-moving, international economic headwinds to regional political and business change. 

If you are looking to hire this year, it's important to have a clear view of the current recruitment trends to attract the best candidates.

The 2017 hiring trends that you need to know

The skills shortage remains

Productivity and growth are today’s premium business mantras and the growing skills shortage is one of the key challenges for any organisation to overcome. Our research shows that 92% of HR directors say it is challenging to find skilled professionals today. Competition for the best candidates is increasing and putting more pressure on salary expectations, which means that it's even more difficult to secure new hires and even more important to act decisively.

Salaries are rising

Starting salaries for professional roles in finance and accounting, financial services, technology and administration are predicted to grow by an average of 2.1% in 2017. Putting this into context, average starting salaries for professional roles have grown by a composite rate of 3.68% in the past three years. 

Time to hire can have an impact

In this candidate short market, there is a need to hire with pace when you consider that more than half (54%) of HR directors have lost a qualified candidate to another opportunity due to an elongated in-house hiring process. While it is important to maintain thorough hiring practices to avoid making a bad hire, drawing out the hiring process isn't the best solution. 

Related: How a long recruitment process can harm your business

Retention needs to be a priority

Employee retention is the top concern of many executives with the current skills shortage impacting roles within recruitment. Our latest research shows that more than eight in 10 (86%) UK CFOs and FDs stated that they are very or somewhat concerned about losing their top performers to other job opportunities this year.

While offering a competitive remuneration package is one way to attract employees to stay, it is not the only way to keep your employees happy. Increasingly, employees are looking for alternative benefits, including better work life balance and a clearer career path.